gearsawe
Posts: 233
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2017 11:06 pm

"Clone Part" not just "Duplicate"

This feature request would take a ton of work. But reduce the number of issues arrived with Duplicating a part.
First start off with a single part and process it and you are happy with it.
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Now take said such part and duplicated it and proccess it again. still not bad but there are some minor differences here and there.
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Now you need to rotate the part for some nesting reasons lets say. Now things begin to break down. Infill which was at 45 is now 0 relative to the part.
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Now if there was a Clone Part option it would basically be saying slice and orientate and translate the original g-code off the parent part to the new child position and rotation. Basically this what a software does now called insight. The actually tool paths are just moved to the new location and you do get a real clone of the part with the same infill pattern and direction... basically a real clone of the part.
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Now I guess you could say just duplicate all your process and adjust all the angles of the infill and external fill pattern. Yes you could do this and it gets complicated fast. The copy is not really a duplicated right now. I do run into problems sometimes. Looking for a better way to get real clones of the parts. For things like gears I put the start point near the center so the start is always inside the trough of a gear tooth and never on the tip. If I copy the gear now I have to create a new process and adjust the new copy process to be in the center of the new gear. Oh and don't forget you now have to assign each gear to its own process. Now you need to make 16 gears! well have fun! Think you get the point.

So this clone item would be an item you can't assign a process to it is more a place holder for where the g-code will be translated to. It would show maybe as different color in the Model list. would need support for grouped models items aswell. Think this could be a useful and great improvement over the current copy method now. Any change made to the original Parent Model would automatically be applied to all the cloned children.
S3D-Jake
Posts: 1052
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:45 pm

Re: "Clone Part" not just "Duplicate"

Fantastic idea! Sequential printing would become increasingly powerful with this type of cloning. I'll keep an eye on this thread for other users with interest.
"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song."
Wallabear
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2019 4:33 pm

Re: "Clone Part" not just "Duplicate"

+1 I would defiantly be able to use a feature like this especially when I make 7-12 of the same parts at the same time
Miklb
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2018 4:30 pm

Re: "Clone Part" not just "Duplicate"

+1 !

S3D needs a global optimization for the multi-part printing. For me the "clone" function has to be improved with a dialogue box which asks if we want :

- to duplicate or clone the process like @gearsawe has asked

- to link or not the new processes at each part, to make sequential printing easier (viewtopic.php?f=23&t=12692)

- to group processes or not . Also a color cwarning of values to clearly show if some parameters are not linked could be useful

- to choose the placement model strategy, X, Y or in some standard pattern (as discussed in this post viewtopic.php?f=23&t=11970&p=46886#p46886).
armsofilum
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2019 9:57 am

Re: "Clone Part" not just "Duplicate"

Yeah this is a fantastic idea. It would partly address my desire for relative start points, too as I could set up one model exactly as I want it and then clone the piece (though I think relative start positioning is best here).
BusterCherry
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2020 6:10 pm

Re: "Clone Part" not just "Duplicate"

Wanted to bump this feature request as it would be a game changer for many users. I don't know why more folks haven't requested it.

When a model is duplicated multiple times models are often sliced in a way such that the path of the extruder is not identical for each duplicated part. Manual adjustment of certain settings can be used to influence the starting position of the extruder for each model in the array but does not guarantee identical tool-path travel for each layer. An option to clone the tool-path relative to the model would provide greatly enhanced surface finish consistency between duplicate models.

Currently, in order to ensure that 10 objects are virtually identical, the same object must be printed in 10 separate jobs which requires start-up and cool-down time for each job as well as time for part removal. Even if the additional tool path travel adds 5-7 minutes per print job for an array of 10 parts, it would save time in not having to run the start-up and cool-down sequence for 10 different parts. The integrated cost savings over time of reducing start-up, cool-down, and part removal labor could be significant. Most importantly, tool path cloning ensures identical surface finish and structural strength between parts without having to run multiple print jobs. This is particularly valuable to small businesses who may not have the luxury of running multiple machines.

The fact that this is not available for any FDM printing slicers makes low cost MSLA printing that much more appealing.

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