Custom / Automatic extrusion width

[exxosuk]

For first layers, sometimes where there might be text. A extruder width of 0.2 works great. However layers after that might not be so important (more internal stuff anyway). So the default 0.48 or whatever is fine. Though it can lose some detail if using 0.48 all the time, and 0.2 all the time takes twice as long as results in not as strong part.

So could a feature be added to allow custom extrusion widths, either by layer, or automatically based on the level of detail on the layer ?

I know there is automatic layer height.. but that's not the same thing (but similar concept I guess).

The overlap settings don't really help either in this case. IT may help with the text. But later in the print there are very small areas which end up "blobby" because of to much overlap.

These 2 images show, 0.48 width and 0.2 width to illustrate the problem. Where gaps appear with 0.48 width.

In this case, 0.2mm on the first layer and the rest being 0.48mm would work perfectly.

[S3D-Taylor]

While dynamic line width that adjusts intelligently according to feature sizes would be an interesting idea, I believe First Layer Width can already be used in this case to have a different line width than the rest of the layers.

[S3D-Jason]

Also, just to mention it, S3D already has dynamic extrusion width where it can vary the width of the extrusion to fill small gaps. It looks like it could actually help with a lot of the small holes between the letters in your photo!

We have an article on the website explaining more about it:
https://www.simplify3d.com/resources/ar ... -features/

[exxosuk]

While dynamic line width that adjusts intelligently according to feature sizes would be an interesting idea, I believe First Layer Width can already be used in this case to have a different line width than the rest of the layers.

I never thought about that. It does seem to help a lot.

The counter problem is that thinner lines don't seem to be as good for the first layers.. But that's the same problem with using 0.2mm extrusion width anyway.

[exxosuk]

Also, just to mention it, S3D already has dynamic extrusion width where it can vary the width of the extrusion to fill small gaps. It looks like it could actually help with a lot of the small holes between the letters in your photo!

Thanks, I have played around with that a lot, but it doesn't help. It has increased some line thicknesses which has saved 2mins print time. But no matter what settings I play with, I can't get the gaps to fill. The only thing which works which I have found so far, is 0.20 extruder width.

[S3D-Jason]

The allowed perimeter overlap of 10% isn't very much if you have lots of oddly shaped spaces. You might want to try increasing that to see if it starts filling the gaps better. Knowing that this functionality already exists in the software, you might also get more feedback by posting this in the troubleshooting section instead of a feature request.

[exxosuk]

I tried higher and lower values for perimeter overlap before. Though it seems I have to use more than 90% before it starts filling in the gaps. 99% looks a lot better in preview. So will give that a try next.

I still wonder if having the option to set extruder width per layer or automatic on finer details might be useful still.