There's a common problem of local overheating when printing small parts with several "islands" (unconnected sub-parts): with the usual print strategy of printing all perimeter(s) & infill for one particular island first, then proceeding to the next, etc., the nozzle (and heatblock too) remains quite long above this particular island, causing local heat concentration which leads to overhangs curling and other problems.
When examining the reasons behind our rusty old Makerbot Replicator 2 producing spectacular results for exactly those kind of objects (small parts with many islands, see for example https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2719434) which could not be matched with any of our other, more "modern" printers, regardless of make or slicer, I found that the Makerbot slicer uses a different strategy here which I could not find in any other slicer: printing the perimeter(s) of all islands first, followed by the infill of all islands. Probably, there might exist an additional optimization of the sequence of islands for maximum spatial distribution, too (also to avoid local heat concentration).
So my request would be to add an option like "distribute heat" or "print features types (perimeters/infill) sequentially".
Re: Option to distribute heat more evenly
In order to decide if I should upgrade to v5 (or leave Simplify3D for good): has my suggestion for improvement been understood (or better: implemented) in the meantime already?
Re: Option to distribute heat more evenly
Yes, this option is now included in our latest V5 release. For example, if you had 10 different small parts on the bed, you could create a single process that will print all 10 of those parts, then go to Edit Process Settings > Layer tab, and change the "Island Printing Order" to "All at Once". That would them print the perimeters of all 10 parts first, then it will go back and print the infill for each part. This does a better job of distributing the heat for small parts as you described.
On a related note, there are also several other options to help with overheating on Edit Process Settings > Speeds tab. You can now configure a separate speed slowdown for very small layers (not a problem if you're printing 10 parts at once, but could be an issue if printing only 1 part). You can also configure a speed slowdown for short perimeters, which is very valuable to improve the print quality for small holes or text letters. These may also be useful feature in addition to the one mentioned above.
Thank you for the great feature suggestion!
On a related note, there are also several other options to help with overheating on Edit Process Settings > Speeds tab. You can now configure a separate speed slowdown for very small layers (not a problem if you're printing 10 parts at once, but could be an issue if printing only 1 part). You can also configure a speed slowdown for short perimeters, which is very valuable to improve the print quality for small holes or text letters. These may also be useful feature in addition to the one mentioned above.
Thank you for the great feature suggestion!
