nerys
Posts: 256
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:47 pm

Sequential printing processes are a real pain sometimes

sequential printing is a real pain in the butt in S3D but it is one of the primary reasons to USE S3D. it is its most powerful feature.

but its implimentation needs some serious work.

for example when I want to print 10 of something. I need to copy the object 10 times and copy the process 10 times. why?

then worse. I have to manually goto each process and assign it to each individual object because all 10 process assume all or none of all 10 objects.

if you have multiple process "PER" object. yeah. prepare for some PAIN. and no you can't group them. object selection does NOT WORK when grouping. you have to goto EACH PROCESS in the group process and manually assign it to the object you want to print. I have 30 processes I have to edit right now..... talk about pain in the freaking butt.

and it gets worse. you can't REPLACE an object. you have to manually move them and manually reassign them to each and every single process.

This is so bad I have resorted to sorting objects IN THE CAD PROGRAM so I don't have to in S3D and can also use align model origins to fix that problem as well

here is what would make this so much more powerful and my feature request

I should be able to take one object or one set of object and one process or one set of process and duplicate them.

when I duplicate a GROUP it works but it does NOT duplicate the processes or their object assignments when you do and it does not GROUP the duplicate. you have to do all of that manually.

When I have a set of processes and objects and I duplicate them it should duplicate the object the processes the process groupings and the object assignments in those processes.

if I say I want 10 sequential items it should auto generate 10 processes and 10 objects AND assign them.

I should be able to select and object and say "replace" and it should let me select a new STL and place that STL in the same position as the old one in all process in all iterations of processes.

right now I have to basically "start over" if I make an update to a model file.
S3D-Jason
Posts: 1383
Joined: Sun May 31, 2015 6:01 am

Re: Sequential printing processes are a real pain sometimes

Instead of going back to the CAD program, you could just select the models you want to group and then go to Mesh > Combine Selected Models. That way you get a single model for all those parts so you can more easily select them in the process settings.

Another good trick for automatically creating a process for each model is to go to Tools > Variable Settings Wizard, and choose the "different settings for different models" option. That will automatically create a new process for each model and assign that process to 1 model only.
nerys
Posts: 256
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:47 pm

Re: Sequential printing processes are a real pain sometimes

First solution won't work. I need the model separate so I can print separate STL files. (each is a different color) see picture. can't do that if I merge them.

The second however is fantastic! I did not know that was their and will try that!!

Another suggestion for a feature. copying models and processes from one factory file to another.

For example I was printing a micro max rocket that was 4 pieces. I had the 3 airframe segments in one factory and the nose in another factory with some complicated processes (partial vase stepping down layer height and fill from single wall to double wall to 0.04 layer height to close the tiny sphere)

there does not seem to be a way to merge them. so I had to recreated those processes. not the end of the world but kind of annoying. would be nice to be able to copy processes in one instance and "paste them" in another instance.
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