Colorful 3D Prints on a Single Extruder Printer (Just using Simplify3D)

[jmone]

I was inspired by the Simplify3D Facebook post of these method to print Multi Colour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV2Ajyo ... e=youtu.be . Looks great, but I don't have the skill, time, or the SW to do what the Author was showing.

@gearsawe in my thread on How to create a Negative for Molds using Simply3D got me thinking on using the same method for Multi Colour prints. It's nowhere as powerful as the method described in the Youtube tutorial but it works, is quick & easy, and gets the job done just using Simply3D.

Here is an example of creating a Phone Case with 3 other coloured items in it (note I'm using a 0.20 layer height):

Part1: Arrange the Items (see pics Part1a and Part1b)
- Add you Phone Case STL and the other items you want to "embed" into the surface to you project
- Arrange and Scale the Embedded Parts in the pattern you want over the the Phone Case
- Make all the Embedded Parts only Z=0.20 (uncheck "Uniform Scaling")

Part1a

Part1b

Part2: Create the "Negative" of the Phone Case (see pic Part2)
- Select/Highlight all the Parts under the Models Window, including the Main Part then File--> Export Models--> Export Binary STL, and Import this new STL (I've called it Phone-Negative). If you have a good like at this Negative it now has voids in the exact shape of the items to embed.
- Deselect the original Phone Case
- Without moving the Embedded Parts, arrange the Negative Phone case over the Embedded Parts so they line up exactly (if needed). Note if you turn on View---> Wire Frame and zoom in it is easier to see.

Part2

...continued next post

[jmone]

... continued from above

Part3: Printing (see pic Part3a and Part3b)
- Create a process for each of the Embedded Parts and 2 for the Phone Case and assign a part to each of the processes such as Bottom (Phone Case with a Stop Printing @0.20) , Part1 (Red Part), Part2 (Yellow Part), Part3 (Blue Part), and Top (Phone Case again but this time with a Start Printing @0.20)
- On the Bottom Process--> Scripts--> Addition terminal commands for post processing I added the following so my Prusa Mk3 will ask me to change filament:

Code: Select all

{REPLACE "; process Part1" "M600\n; process  Part1"}
{REPLACE "; process Part2" "M600\n; process  Part2"}
{REPLACE "; process Part3" "M600\n; process  Part3"}
{REPLACE "; process Top" "M600\n; process  Top"}

- Tweak you settings for each layer as you want (I've been trying many different combinations to try to get as much solid detail as possible in that first layer while keeping "Top" quick as it all but Layer 1)
- Prepare to Print--> Select All + Sequential printing: object by object (Max height clearance does not matter).
- Preview your print by Colouring = Current Process (note: Simplify3D assigns it's own colours) but check the Preview (by Line) to see how it is going to print

Part3a

Part3b

Part4: Post Processing
- As you can see in this example there is a segment of an embedded part that needs to be trimmed from the camera window in the finished phone case.
- You could also have parts (if you want) go outside the phone case that could also be trimmed.
- Smooth as needed (I'm not very good at this yet!).

That's about it.
Nathan

[jmone]

And here is some pics of where I have got so far.

Acknowledgement: Design used in this demo by Keith Haring (apologies to the artist for butchering his design!)

The bit I'm yet to work out is how to tweak the settings for the first layer so there are no little gaps in extruding around fine corners etc (or I may be my first layer setup is poor). Edit - It was my "extra restart distance" that was -0.15 so was under extruding of the starts of runs. Put it back to 0 and it is much better (only a couple of spots that are now a bit thin).