A few quick questions before purchase

[Tetraodon]

After being pretty upset with the capabilities of Makerbot's software, I just found Simplify3D yesterday and am pretty excited (and ready to click the "buy now" button) - but as there is no trial period, I was wondering whether those using it could help give me a few pointers to make sure it's what I'm after.

- I noticed that Makerbots (I have a 2X) are supported - how much tweaking is needed to set it up for my printer or is it as easy as clicking "2X" and having all the settings defaulted for me?

- I frequently use dual extrusion for dissolvable filament (which I'm hoping I won't need to use with this software), however just in case, how smooth is dual extrusion with Simplify? Is it a new buggy feature or is it fully integrated?

- How easy are rafts/brims/skirts to remove? I found rafts with the Makerbot Desktop near impossible to remove on large flat surfaces - hence the use of dissolvable. But dissolvable here is sitting over $100 per kg so I'd like to avoid it when possible

- How much material do supports use? Are they pretty lightweight and low on material usage? Do you find the supports adequate for ABS (which I have found so far sucks at making long bridges, although I'm still pretty new to this)?

- I've noticed that there are preset filament settings - will PET-G go through just fine? I imagine it will but thought I'd check anyway.

- One major pro for me is the ability to edit infill settings on different parts of the print. I imagined the Makerbot was capable of it, but cannot for the life of me figure out why this isn't doable in the software. This is really important for us as we are trying to make prints with 90 degree angles and need some solid support in areas - I want easily customizable designs and do not want to have to be editing them to trick the software into thinking places are hollow just so that I can have high and low infill areas! So, although it's okay if it can't, can Simplify3D allow you to edit "zones" of the design (eg a top right hand corner of a box) or can you only change these settings for layers?

I think that's it. I'm hoping this software can be my saviour - just ruined a print today as the Makerbot software stuck the "extrusion guards" for dual extrusion outside of the bounds on a large print - I cannot find any settings to change this (the extrusion guards are HUGE), leaving my only option to reduce the print size. I'm not a fan of having to change my print because the software has so little ability in the way of customization (including me having to put supports in outside of the software as I cannot edit the supports outside of a couple of parameters).

[Tetraodon]

Oh, and one last question - I'm thinking of upgrading to the Sailfish firmware, will this have any effect on calibrating my print settings?

[JoeJ]

- The rep2x is already fully supported. They already did all the work to include settings that are calibrated for that printer. As simple as selecting from a drop down list.
- They have dual extrusion profiles and you can email their support staff if you need assistance with setting up custom dual extrusion actions like prime pillars, etc
- They give you a lot of different settings to adjust the raft if you need it to separate easier. I got mine dialed in really well so that it holds just enough but still separates extremely easily. Brims are also adjustable so that they come off really easily. But most importantly, their support material breaks away easier than anything else I have ever used.
- They have a neat feature that only places dense support structures right next to your object, and you can use very sparse support everywhere else. It saves a ton of filament and speeds up large builds. Quite efficient.
- PET and different infill settings for different layers should also work fine. I use the different settings all the time to use lower layer heights in specific regions of my print. It's a really nice feature.

[Tetraodon]

Fantastic, thank you so much I bought it last night and am really appreciating how useful (and quick!) it's been! Only comments are:

- A lack of an undo function is a bit strange and difficult. I put up a bunch of manual supports, thought that when I clicked "apply based on overhang angle" it'd apply them on top - got rid of my manuals, and stuck a bunch of new ones on - without an undo function, I had to spend 10 mins applying the manual ones again it's hard to play around with functions when you can't go back after making mistakes.

- I'd prefer to scale by changing the actual dimensions rather than the scale sometimes - I guess it'll just mean I'll have to put a bit more thought into scaling them

The cross section view is just fantastic, and being able to preview easily it is so brilliant.

My makerbot's making some funny noises printing this time, but I'm picking that's because it's going a different way than usual, or it needs lubricating hope this first print goes well!

[Tetraodon]

Woohoo! This is honestly the first print we've had work (although I haven't tried this design through makerware, because the automatic supports would be too difficult with the grid), which was fantastic. Unfortunately it was in ABS as the PET-G keeps on blocking part way through the print (happens with either software, so is an issue with how we're printing it). (hopefully these images resize themselves)

Print:


Everything taken out:


Unfortunately despite the supports, it still had a few bridging issues at the top - any suggestions on how to fix this would be cool. The supports came off so easily, which was awesome. They're quite heavy, though, so I'll have to look into the settings for them to reduce the density in some places:


Some issues bridging where we didn't put supports (design is being altered also):


The (default) raft was really difficult to remove and left quite a bit of mess. Because we're having loads of luck with using the gluestick and so seem to have less warping, I'm hoping I can print without rafts anyway:


My other suggestions would be:
- Being able to select supports, so that you can move them - instead of having to delete and then create a support.
- Being able to remove supports with a shortcut eg right click, instead of having to select "add" or "remove" and then clicking. Just a time saver is all.
- It'd be nice to be able to make changes in the preview screen, but I understand that that's difficult, and the slicing time is pretty good so it's not a huge issue. But being able to update things like rafts and see the updates instantly on screen could be very useful.

I compared several objects with the Simplify3D and Makerware estimates - the material usage didn't seem much different, but the Simplify3D estimates prints to be significantly faster than the Makerware which is very cool. However, Makerware does seem to overestimate the time to build prints, so I've not had a chance to actually test it out (already wasted a lot of plastic as it is with the wrong setups ).

[magicwiser]

I have had very similar results with Simplify3D as well. The issue you pictured on the inside of the dome is pretty typical in my experience with support. Using a smaller vertical separation distance may help to fix the problem (but it will also make the support harder to remove). I would also recommend increasing the raft separation distance from 0.14 mm. Making this value larger will make it much easier to remove the raft. However, if it is too big then the print will separate from the raft mid print. Try increasing it a bit for each print until you are happy with the raft. I have found 0.2 mm to work well. Best of luck.

[Tetraodon]

I found a 0.25 raft worked well - am trying a 0.30 now

Decreasing the distance between the supports and design seemed to help, however I'm still getting some issues with it (will upload pics once this print is done). I also reduced the density of supports to 15% (they took a lot of plastic) and increased the density of the supports close to the print to 70%.

I've slowed the bridging down - this has helped a bit with the grid bridging, but not so much with the dome "door" bridging (despite using supports on that too).

The bottom of the print however is printed in quite a messy way (you can see on the pic with the raft) - is there any way to make the finish of this nicer (without using acetone)? The bottom of the raft prints very smooth (though obviously this is due to being on the bed) but unfortunately this print popped right off when printed without rafts due to the small surface area.

[Tetraodon]

I also noticed that the "Build Statistics" estimated 2 hours and 38 minutes for a build, which the Makerbot finished in 4 hours and 6 minutes. I can't remember whether the Makerbot counts the heat time as build time, but even so it's still an hour off. Anyone else had issues with the estimated time not being accurate?

[scobo]

I'm finding my actual print times are about 70% of the estimates with my Da Vinci.

[Tetraodon]

Hmm - after several goes, I'm still finding print times tend to be longer than estimated - I'll try to grab some actual numbers soon.

My current difficulties ("you" refers to anyone reading this):

- It seems to be that regardless of whether I decrease vertical separation layers or increase infill, I'm still getting messy bridging (and support which sticks harder). What are your personal/recommended support settings?

- What are your bridging settings? Do you find it's best if it bridges slowly, or quickly? I'm having issues with bridges less than a few mm long, in spots where support isn't really practical.

- Rafts can be removed easier, but the stringy layer still sticks and takes a fair bit of time to remove. Again, what are your preferred raft settings for easy cleanup?

- The first layer can still be a bit messy. What are your design/print setting recommendations for a clean first layer? We may, for example, be printing an object on its side and it'll end up with a very rough side. I know that acetone could help, however we're printing these as products so minimal work after the print is preferable.

- I've had a couple of glitches: One where it seems to get frozen on the "preparing to print" (at the moment it's stuck on "looking for overhangs" but it will get stuck at various different points), the other where I'm editing sizes/positions/etc and it doesn't update, so it then gets stuck on a different size, and edits apply on top of that. So eg.

Scale: 1, I edit it to 10, and then back to 1. The object is stuck on the scale of 10, while the setting is on 1, and any changes such as switching it to 10 would then scale it up another 10 (making it 100 total). It doesn't seem to fix when I re-open the settings tab, so I kinda have to re-import the item again.

Is there a log somewhere that I should copy for bug reports?

- It would be fantastic if we could move things on individual X Y & Z axis without having to do so in the settings tab - so being able to do it freehand. We can do it on the X and Y, but it brings you to the top view, so if you need to be finicky and zoomed in eg all the way to the left, you can't see what you're actually doing!

And oh what I would do for a Control+Z option