Simplify3D User Forum

Two things I have questions about, both not easy to describe in a subject line

1) I notice that if an object has segments separated by space, for example at some point in the print there are islands with gaps between then, creator seems to print 2 layers in place before moving to the next island. Say there are 2 islands a left and a right, each island is offset 1 layer, so it prints 2 layers on one island then moves to the next, prints 2 layers, rinse and repeat. This seems pretty smart as it reduces the travel moves and stringing however when the islands are very small and you are using PLA it seems to have poorer results as the islands don't have enough time to cool like a min layer time would enforce. Maybe have an option to disable the double layers?

2) I notice that while printing through creator, if I do anything like draw a window, open a dialog box etc.. the printing will stall / pause / slow down significantly. Ideally I would want to be able to do some more work inside creator while printing. I know if I have a job running pronterface I keep slicing etc.. and it doesn't seem to bother it. Printing from SD would solve this, just curious....

I too have the exact same situation on a few prints. The rest of the print rocked except for when a layer would start and finish on that little section.

Just a classic case of conflicting objectives. Obviously long moves create unnecessary stringing, so we try to stay on the same island if possible to avoid potentially creating a string. But I see where you're coming from where doing this might overheat that particular section, especially if it's a small island. One suggestion would be to turn on "Random outline start points" and then switch the outline direction to "Outside-In". That means that it will print the outer-most outline first and it will choose a random location to go to. That might give you the feature you're looking for with the current version. I'll start thinking about some better options for the future.

And that second suggestion is definitely a good one. It's something we've been trying to do, but it can be somewhat challenging especially since we constantly have to battle with different nuances between different operating systems. You're right that printing from the SD solves that problem, but we'll keep investigating to see if there's a better solution.

Thanks for the ideas!

When I tried to print from outside in it seemded to make my prints not as consistent on any overhangs, I would get a lot of sagging. If I printed inside out it seemed to have a extra edge to support that overhanging line. I also do have the random start spot checked but it still always starts right where the last layer ended on a layer with multiple lines.

So it sounds like it might be a good idea to make the first move on any given layer completely random. After that it makes sense to optimize the layer itself to print faster. I'll see if we can add that for the next update.