Hi
I've been using Slic3r for years. Recently tried Cura but was disappointed with the way it (doesn't) handle thin walls. More recently, I took the plunge and purchased Simplify3D. Of course, that was working well until the day after the trial period expired! LOL
I often print Thingiverse thing #26237. The upper half contains a, "thin wall".
Using Slic3r, that wall has simply never been a problem, whether I use a 0.4mm or 0.6mm nozzle. Simplyfy3D on the other hand doesn't handle it well at all. Instead, Simplify3D double prints each layer of the wall.
For example, with a 0.6mm nozzle -- my heavily preferred for just about everything -- at 0.1mm layer height, the extruder is told to lay down a nice 0.1mm layer along the length of the wall -- OK so far -- and then track back along the line doing it all over again, apparently on the [i/exact same track[/i] or at least very close to it. This blocks the nozzle (because there's already cooled plastic at that height) or spills out over the wall, creating an ugly mess.
I'm guessing that Simplify3D is seeing a wall of something over 0.6mm x 120% wide but less than that x 2 and instead of adjusting the extrusion width, "automatically" it just pumps out the usual 120% (so called, "Auto") width. This creates a giant, ugly overlap and destroys the print.
As a super ugly hack, I have manually reduced the flow rate (Marlin) to 50% during these wall prints and all appears to go well -- though I doubt a microscope or physical stress test would produce agreeable evidence.
This doesn't seem to be a difficult thing to get right, to me. Slic3r has done it for aeons. I've never known any different, in fact. To be fair, Cura (if memory serves) does a similar stupid thing, while MatterControl simply makes the wall thicker to get around the, err, problem?
I have considered going to manual extrusion width. But then the onus is on me to know the exact wall thickness in the design -- as if there is only ever one thickness. I've never looked, but I think it's 1mm and set a 0.6mm nozzle to 0.5mm output width? Well, I think not. That would ruin the bottom half of the print. Slic3r appears to simply extrude 1mm width plastic strip, from my 0.6mm nozzle -- which of course has the flat area around the exit hole, to cope with such things. Anything up to about 2mm width should work fine with what I consider to be any half decent 0.6mm nozzle design ... though only 0.9mm should ever be required. That's only 50% over width. Not a problem, in my view.
I have to say that I'm surprised -- if not annoyed, since I paid money and thus have a right to be -- that a slicer that does most other stuff so[/] well, cannot get something this simple and indeed critical, right.
So what to do? I am not prepared to reduce nozzle size. Do I have to use free software to print some things and Simplify3D for others? That would be less than ideal, to be polite..
Is this a feature request? Not unless, "get the simple stuff right, please" is. Is this a bug report? Not unless, "Hey! Seems you never even tried in the first place!" is a bug report. Somewhere in the middle, then? Hence my post here.
My primary reason for liking Simplify3D is its decent, snappy (quick) user interface, plus a couple features that don't come to mind right now. Obviously, the best UI in the world is a waste if simple thin wall handling isn't even present.
MOOD DISCLAIMER: Yes, it's true. The tone of the message is one of dismay and frustration. But I've decided not to edit it away. *shrug* Thanks for understanding.
Kind regards,
Bryan
New Zealand