Simplify3D User Forum

Hi,

I'm relatively new to the forum but have been using Simplify3D for about a year. I really find this a great piece of software and most of my printing needs are addressed but there are a couple of fine tuning issues that might help to improve the quality and speed of prints.

1. Unique settings for first layer - When printing very thin layers, its really helpful to be able to print a thicker first layer to really adhere the model to the print bed. I find myself having to resort to rafts which I don't really like using.

2. Multiple layer infill - So instead of printing the infill with each layer, prints would go much faster if we could print 2-3X layer thicknesses every 2 / 3 layers. This might even add a degree of strength to thin layered model due to better adhesion.

3. Support tuning - While your support structures are great I've noted two semi-annoying things. One is that the fidelity of overhang detection is about 70% so often I'll have to closely examine the print preview to find overhangs that are missed. This is hard to do in complex models so often I'll have to to a prerun to check. Also the density of the support structure seems to change with the thickness of the nozzle. So really fine print nozzles lead to really dense support structures. I wish there was a way to alter this so that we could have consistent support densities or have the ability to alter the support density.

Thanks for creating such a robust program. I hope you find my suggestions useful. I know that if these were implemented it would go a long way to making your program even better (in my opinion).

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving to all,
Mike

hey mike, you can already do #1 and #2. #1 just goto your first layer thinckness setting and crank it up a bit. 150-200% is common. this will increase the plastic flow as well so you will still get the same extrusion width. #2 in the support section its called sparse infill. default is 1 so your infill is printed every 1 layer. if you set that to 2 then double thick infill is printed every 2 layers....and so on. you can only go so high though. that is determined by your nozzle diameter. as for #3 i know your saying overhangs can be missed. the s3d support system is based on a grid. like a pice of graph paper. now if the overhang isnt large enough to activate that next block or grid then it wont turn on. there are 2 options here. #1 reduce the grid size. default is 4mm. for detailed items you can bring that down to say 1mm. it does take longer to slice. i try to not go below 1.5mm. if that is still not enough then you can turn on inflation distance. this takes the current activated structures and makes them almost overflow into the next grid box. this makes sure that the entire part of your overhang has support under it and nothing is missing. in most cases 1mm is enough.