Using Simplify3D with CTC Riverside SLA

[timbologist]

Hello

I have been a user of S3D for a number of years, and just love it.
But I have just purchased a CTC Riverside 1.1 printer, and wanted to use S3D.
Currently there is no support for SLA printers, so after contacting S3D support they pointed me in the correct direction, and a bit of fiddling. I am currently using S3d as my slicer for this printer, Works perfectly.

As far as supports go I use the free version of Creation Workshop, export the new STL with the supports and process the new model as normal.
I have attached a copy of my factory file, and a photo of a print with this set up.

Cheers
Tony

[brian442]

Nice! The parts looks pretty good!

Are there any particular settings you had to adjust to get it printing well?

[timbologist]

The main thing to make sure of is the bottom of the tray and the sucker touch, this helps to make sure the first layer sticks to the sucker.
One problem this causes is the bottom of the print becomes squashed, so what I do in Creation Workshop is place there build pad then lift my model up about 2mm on supports.
Now the squashed area is below the base of the model, I have had no problems since doing this.
As far as S3D goes what I have set up in the attached factory file is pretty good, maybe the feeds need to be slowed a bit, as I don't think the resin is fully hardened.
I have ordered a uv lite to cure the prints fully, then I can see what I need to do.
I will put some more prints up sometime.

Cheers
Tony

[oppfinnarn]

Interesting! I would love to be able to use S3D for my resin printer as well.. I use it already for my two FFF machines. I'd be over the moon if they actually implemented some more support types, like the tree structures in meshmixer kind..

You say you use CW, which I have only tested sofar and will explore further, but I was wondering if you tried using the meshmixer supports and what you think of that?

[brian442]

I've used it with another SLA machine in the past, so it's not too hard to do. You just disable the normal extrusion commands in the G-Code settings, then tell it to turn the laser on and off instead. The normal supports work pretty well, but you might want to add a second support fill angle (0 and 90 degrees has worked for me)

[timbologist]

I looked at Meshmixer and could not work out what you supposed to do to use it so gave up.
I use CW for most supports then bring it back into my cad program and move and edit the supports, or if I want tree's I use the plugin in my cad software.
As far as the gcode for the Riverside, works perfectly, hardest bit is sorting out what the resin needs to cure it.