Simplify3D User Forum

I cannot find a reliable way to make S3D print vertical walls that are 3x the extrusion width, with 3 straight lines.

If the wall is 2x that width, I get 2 straight lines building the wall. It's great but too skinny. If the wall is 4x that width I get 4 straight lines. It's great but too thick. 3 straight lines would be perfect, but S3D always wants to make the center line disappear or wants to use infill for it, which is a squiggly line on every layer... making lots of noise and taking more time than is needed to print.

Does anyone have a good solution for this behavior?

TIA,
Chris

Depending on the part, you can use the "merge all outlines into a single solid model" on the Advanced tab, and then set the number of perimeter outlines to 3.

I use this quite frequently to print things like a hollow cylinder with exactly 3 vertical shells.

Out of curiosity, I created a thin-walled cylinder with a wall thickness of 1.2 mm (i.e 3x the extrusion width of 0.4 mm), and then used the settings you recommended, Brian. However, that will just make everything a solid cylinder, not a tube like my model. I can turn infill down to 0 percent, and disable top layers, which will give me a thin-walled tube with walls made out of only perimeters (not that annoying wiggle fill), but it is't really a viable method for anything but this extremely specialized case.

It is still a good trick to know about, though, so thanks for pointing it out.

Thanks for the reply and to the OP for starting this thread. It is a work around solution to an issue I brought up in another thread or two.
About seams for cylinders. Printing all beads in the same direction like this solution will should reduce my seam.
I will give this a try ASAP.

brian442 wrote:Depending on the part, you can use the "merge all outlines into a single solid model" on the Advanced tab, and then set the number of perimeter outlines to 3.

I use this quite frequently to print things like a hollow cylinder with exactly 3 vertical shells.

Thanks for the tip! I'll add that to my arsenal for future scenarios, however my current part was changed too much by the merge. The verical wall lines look fantastic, but here's a before and after slicing image:

mroek wrote:Out of curiosity, I created a thin-walled cylinder with a wall thickness of 1.2 mm (i.e 3x the extrusion width of 0.4 mm), and then used the settings you recommended, Brian. However, that will just make everything a solid cylinder, not a tube like my model. I can turn infill down to 0 percent, and disable top layers, which will give me a thin-walled tube with walls made out of only perimeters (not that annoying wiggle fill), but it is't really a viable method for anything but this extremely specialized case.

It is still a good trick to know about, though, so thanks for pointing it out.

If you are looking for a container, then you can print the first layers for the bottom using one process. Then you switch to the next process that doesn't do the inner solid layers and you wind up with a cylinder including the bottom. Water tight too.

Leeway wrote:

mroek wrote:Out of curiosity, I created a thin-walled cylinder with a wall thickness of 1.2 mm (i.e 3x the extrusion width of 0.4 mm), and then used the settings you recommended, Brian. However, that will just make everything a solid cylinder, not a tube like my model. I can turn infill down to 0 percent, and disable top layers, which will give me a thin-walled tube with walls made out of only perimeters (not that annoying wiggle fill), but it is't really a viable method for anything but this extremely specialized case.

It is still a good trick to know about, though, so thanks for pointing it out.

If you are looking for a container, then you can print the first layers for the bottom using one process. Then you switch to the next process that doesn't do the inner solid layers and you wind up with a cylinder including the bottom. Water tight too.

Yes, I am aware of that, and I frequently use multiple processes, but it really should be possible to print thin walls at any multiple (not just even numbers) of the extrusion width without having to resort to multiple processes or other tricks.

Right.
That is essentially what I asked them to add as a feature. If you were allowed to select the shell travel directions, you could essentially wind up with the same thing as this work around, but with as few or as many solid infill beads as you wanted. The inner shells and the solid infill do travel in the same direction. The outer shells change the direction and make a more pronounced seam.
That would happen through the entire model without loosing features too.