Question:
I've put together a flashlight mount for a camera coldshoe in OpenSCAD.  I originally modeled it in FreeCAD and it was easy to round the edges of the clamp with a fillet and that makes it a little easier to get the light in and out of the mount.

I'm not sure how to do it in OpenSCAD.  Naively, I'm sure I could calculate where on my semicircle I would need to add some cylinders in order to round the sharp corners, but it seems like there'd be something a little easier than that.

Am I missing something?

Here's the coldshoe light mount SCAD file and this is what it looks like:

Answer:
I'm far from a wizard with OpenSCAD, but enjoy using the program, learning something new every time. In your case, it's likely that you can use the
roundanything library
to accomplish your objective.
The library will present various implementations in the samples, making it an exercise for the reader to determine which module calls will present the solution.
The image below shows a part which has had the radii applied in a manner similar to your image:


Question:
I recently tried cleaning my CR-10S Pro heat bed with acetone and it made this white stain on it.

Anyone have any solutions to this?

Answer:
If you use a build surface such as PEI, acetone frosts your surface, leaving a white film appearance.  If you have no additional surface on a glass or metal bed, it is incomplete cleaning.  If incomplete cleaning, you could try isopropyl alcohol (IPA) immediately after acetone, followed immediately by a water based cleaner or DI/distilled water. (IPA dissolves acetone and water dissolves IPA. Once the film dries the next step may not work.)
You can't clean off a frosted surface.  The black surface of the hot bed in images of the CR-10S Pro appears to indicate that the steel bed has a build surface with a plastic material such as PEI.  Reviews of the build surface being difficult to remove prints also implies a plastic build surface on the steel.  Thus, it appears that the white film after cleaning with acetone is actually a frosted surface.
If you use an Elmer's washable glue stick or one with PWP, it will form a barrier between your print and the build surface, that not only will protect your build surface, but will make it easier to clean your build surface with IPA or water based cleaners.


Question:
I'm printing a lot of draft parts so I don't care if they fall apart in my fingers, I just need the shape. I can scroll to the Tune menu on my Ender 3 Pro console and set the speed to 200% and it doubles the speed. But when I set the Print Speed setting to 100 instead of 50 mm/s in Cura, it doesn't save much time, even if I adjust the individual first layer speed, wall speed, top layer speed, etc. What is the difference?

Ideally, I would like the first layer to print normally, and then print at 2x speed.

Answer:
If you use a build surface such as PEI, acetone frosts your surface, leaving a white film appearance.  If you have no additional surface on a glass or metal bed, it is incomplete cleaning.  If incomplete cleaning, you could try isopropyl alcohol (IPA) immediately after acetone, followed immediately by a water based cleaner or DI/distilled water. (IPA dissolves acetone and water dissolves IPA. Once the film dries the next step may not work.)
You can't clean off a frosted surface.  The black surface of the hot bed in images of the CR-10S Pro appears to indicate that the steel bed has a build surface with a plastic material such as PEI.  Reviews of the build surface being difficult to remove prints also implies a plastic build surface on the steel.  Thus, it appears that the white film after cleaning with acetone is actually a frosted surface.
If you use an Elmer's washable glue stick or one with PWP, it will form a barrier between your print and the build surface, that not only will protect your build surface, but will make it easier to clean your build surface with IPA or water based cleaners.


Question:
If someone creates a 3D model of a character for 3D printing can I import that model into Unreal engine or Unity 3D for use in a video game? Also is the inverse true? Can I get 3D model of Mario and send that to a 3D printer?

Specifically, it’s more important to know if I can pull a 3D printer model into an unreal game project

Answer:
I haven't seen lifts that aren't on the edge of the print, such as warping, or the entire printed surface lifts.  When I get something like in your photograph, it's because the print surface isn't flat and the first layer matches the surface topology.  If the second image shows the print surface, it looks like blobs on the surface that may be keeping it from being flat.
The first layer thickness greatly depends on how high the nozzle is above the print surface.  If this distance varies, the first layer thickness will vary.  Also make sure your print surface is free of any substances that the hot extruded material might cause to boil.
Any chance you are removing the print from the bed before it cools down.  This can distort the print if the material is still soft.


Question:
I have found a video about Invisalign. I saw a 3D printer in the video but I did not understand its type. Can you help me? Do you share a brief piece of information about its type?

Below is the video on YouTube.

Answer:
If you look at the video at 37 seconds, it appears to be SLA or DLP.
Further reading:
https://www.solidprint3d.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/SLA_vs_DLP.pdf


Question: I have been using an Anycubic i3 Mega for about a month now and it worked fine. But when I designed a simple model in Fusion 360 and sliced it with Cura it started to have issues sticking to the bed. I thought the problem was the model so I tried to print a Benchy, but the same problem occurred. I readjusted the bed but it's still not working. I'm not sure how I can trouble shoot this.

Answer:
The proper answer could be not related to Fusion, as you already noticed.
I suppose the issue is that the Ultrabase surface (or any other glass surface you have installed) was
not cleaned during the first month
? So it should be cleaned from grease and possibly dust. The general cleaning method is to use isopropyl alcohol (IPA) from time to time (btw. I am curious if it is advised in a printer's manual). If it does not fully help, I suppose using a dish soap with hot water prior to IPA is good step. Though I do not own this bed, so could not be 100 % sure of impact. (Definitely do not use any extra adhesion helpers for Ultrabed, because it has some specific microstructure which will get stuffed.)
You could want review other threads like this
How to get Sunlu PLA to adhere to the printing bed?
to get other hints and supplement your checklist. One thing to check first (and regularly) is proper bed levelling at current moment - and compare to initial layer settings in Cura (thickness, width, flow percentage).


Question: Comparing trends show that 3D printing stepped over to another level around 2012~2013. Why?

Answer:
A great story on the history of 3D printing is published by
3DSOURCED
. It shows that the patents for FDM and SLA expired a few years earlier and the
RepRap
3D printer self replicating project became very popular. Also, 3D printer manufacturers emerged and electronics, software and parts became available at a larger scale, so that it was more affordable for a hobbyist to dive in.


Question:
I am building a 3D printer from scratch, the bed will only move on Z and the head will stay at the top of the printer and move X and Y.

How do I modify the Marlin firmware to have the bed lower as it prints instead of lift like most printers.

Answer:
To understand normal commands from a basic printer slicer, all movement commands in g-code are written to be away from the base layer as positive. Note that
technically
a "lower the bed" printer does violate Orthonormal coordinates unless you either swap X and Y while retaining 0 in the front-left corner or put 0 in the front-right corner, going left for +X (e.g. inverting that motor axis too) and back for -Y.
Hardware
To
invert
the movement direction of an axis without rewriting the firmware there are two main ways, from mos invasive to easiest:
Mount the actuator "upside-down" as that flips the rotational normal vector.
use a left-hand-threaded rod and nut. This does not flip rotation but how rotation affects the bed.
alter the stepper cables by "crossing" one of the phases leads. The motor rotates reversed to its commands now.
Firmware
In Marlin, you can also just flip the direction of the motor via
```
configuration.h
```
by altering the line from
```
false
```
to
```
true
```
:
```
```
#define INVERT_Z_DIR true
```
```


Question:
Just received my new Ender 3 v2. When using the Auto Home feature, the Y-axis motor drives the bed as far back as possible then the motor grinds for about 10-15 seconds. The Y-axis limit switch is not being depressed and the limit stop is about .5 inches away from the switch. The control unit locks at this point and must be power cycled to regain control. If I manually depress the limit switch then it appears to act normally.

Clearly either the limit switch is way out of adjustment or the bed is not positioned properly. Can this be fixed or should I send it back as defective?

Answer:
You could still get heat creep with a Bowden tube.  It has different characteristics.  Instead of jamming up in the direct drive, the filament can melt too far upwards into the heat break where it can refreeze and jam.  The characteristic, if you can pull out the filament, is widened filament extending into the heat break.
See
Air printing/jamming midway through raft creation
and
What are ways to avoid heat creep?
Adding fans to an enclosure improves the temperature control in the enclosure.


Question:
So basically I've been having a problem with my Micro+.
It will not level / calibrate itself and I can't fix it. The reason I'm here is that I've been using Cura, and somehow it destroyed my bed. (See image)

I would like to know how to get it off, as I tried freezing, scraping and sandpaper

To clarify some things:

The material is PLA,

bed is made of plastic.

My build plate surface got destroyed after trying to use Cura, which sliced wrong and engraved the print into my bed.

Answer:
In general I would use
https://github.com/rcarlyle/StepperSim
which takes into account more parameters.
You can play with voltage and current to see which combination gives you the best results for your motor.
Or you can change to a TMC driver with higher voltage (35-50 V) to keep torque at much higher speeds and push the current motor more.
Since the torque you require is likely not so high, you can increase the speed of your stepper motor with 3D printed herringbone gears, for example 4:1. They don't need to be super accurate, backlash is totally fine considering the ridiculous 40:1 reduction.


Question: I want to build a mini CNC machine and need some lead screws. I was wondering I can simply 3D print some. There are a few 3D models out there but I want to know if printing it in PLA+ has enough strength for a small CNC. Is it possible?

Answer:
Is it possible? Yes. Is it advisable?
No
Lead screws need to be smooth and have little to no stretch and there can be a lot of tension on them. However, 3D prints are quite rough by the way they are made and super weak on tension forces - and not have a good compression withstanding either.
a 3D printed leadscrew is therefore
not adviseable
, especially since ready-made leadscrews and fitting nuts are cheap in the shape of nuts and threaded rods for the crudest setup.


Question:
Being new to 3D printing, I started using Cura (which came with my Ender 3v2) to slice models I found on Thingiverse. I know that there are other slicers and have heard positive things about PrusaSlicer.

I know that settings will have different names, but I am asking more about the setup. What things, settings, etc. should I be aware of when using PrusaSlicer? Will I need to re-calibrate anything in PrusaSlicer?

Answer:
Basically all slicers work very similarly, it is a matter of preference, being accustomed, or wanting to use a certain (set of) features. Their job is to prepare the object to be sliced in layers to be executed by the printer you use. For every slicer to work properly, you need to configure the printer settings correctly.
Basically, all slicers have the following basic settings:
Printer settings,
these contain information on the printer like build volume, origin, heated bed, nr. of extruders (and what filament diameter is used), scripts, etc.
filament settings,
these contain e.g. information on the print and bed temperature
print settings
these contain all parameters you use in your normally used slicer, these can be hundreds of options like speeds, accelerations, layer height, nr. of walls, etc.
some of the movement profile settings (like acceleration, jerk, max-speed) might be handled as a
printer
setting by some slicers and as a
print
one by different slicers. In the end, some of these are dependant on the printer's construction.
Printer dimensions and layout, filament diameter, and start and end G-code scripts are the things to look for. The rest is straightforward, you need to specify material and object slice settings as you would normally do.


Question: I have read that if I disconnect OctoPrint when printing, the print will stop.  Since I thought the advantage of OctoPrint over, say, printing from Cura, was that it didn't tie up the computer while the print was taking place, what are the advantages of OctoPrint?

Answer:
The benefit of using OctoPrint as a printserver lies in the fact that it can be used on a stable computer platform. E.g. when you install OctoPrint on a Raspberry Pi, you are ensured that the "computer" stays online. Other platforms, such as Windows are much prone to interrupt the printing process (user actions during printing, sleep mode, Windows updates, etc.). Furthermore, the power consumption of the Raspberry Pi is also much lower than a full computer or laptop running OctoPrint.
An advantage of running OctoPrint on a dedicated Raspberry Pi is that you can access it from anywhere within your network through a browser interface (or even from the outside) as it is always online. Other advantages of OctoPrint over e.g. Cura is that there are numerous plugins available to tailor the printing process to your needs.


Question:
I'm new to the 3D printing world and got my first Ender 3 (with the 32-bit controller board).

I have a problem with every single print. I've upgraded to the newest Marlin firmware, did the mesh leveling then started printing and fix the Z bed option in "Tune - Z bed" during the print (so the first layer is perfect). Please note that I save all the data of the mesh before end of the print. Then, when I start the same print again, the nozzle height is wrong. This happens every single print. The strange thing is that I need to adjust the height differently after every print. Like, the first print was -0.055 mm, second print was 0.30 mm, then it was +0.25 mm somehow.

I really like to print without these constant adjustments.

Answer:
It sounds like your bed is unstable. This is what I had to do with my Tronxy X1, and I fixed it by installing a decent bed stabiliser. Now that I have a stable bed, I only have to re-level it occasionally. However, the Tronxy X1 is a cantilever printer with a single rail for the bed, not an Ender 3.
I would suggest that you tighten the bed-levelling springs as far as they will go whilst still leaving sufficient movement for bed levelling, and re-position the end-stop switch. Then re-level the bed. If that doesn't work, try fitting stiffer springs. Upgrades are available for the Ender 3. If that still doesn't work, look for bed stabilisation solutions for your printer.
Note also that the bed-levelling knobs have a reputation for coming loose on the Ender 3. Tightening the springs (or fitting stiffer springs) may cure this, but some users fit locking nuts to stop the knobs moving.


Question:
I was thinking about this question and thought of maybe printing a pattern-drawing roller painter.

The question is: is it possible to print with an ink absorbing material that could make a paint roller possible?

P.S: I don't own a 3D printer, nor have I any deep knowledge in this matter. I simply want to know if this is feasible, so I can start looking for someone to 3D print this for me. If it's not, knowing beforehand could spare me a lot of time.

Answer:
Not really.
It's possible to 3D print in materials like TPE that are rubbery. In theory, one could print a sheet of the pattern and then wrap that sheet around a roller. That would be expensive, though, and I doubt TPE would absorb enough paint/ink to lay down an good and even coat.
As pointed out in the comments,there is one of foaming TPU filament (
Varioshore TPU
that might be able to achieve the kind of soft, spongy feel that a paint roller would need but it's expensive and, I suspect, soft but not particularly absorbent in the way you would need.
I have no direct experience with it, though, so I can't say for sure. For the price and amount of time that would be required to get a print roller produced the way you need, I think you'd be better off buying a
custom pattern roller/brayer
or making one yourself.
I imagine you could achieve this by getting a sheet of stamp pad foam and plotting it with a CNC cutter (or cutting it by hand) and then taping/gluing it around a tube.


Question: I recently got an Ender 3 Pro for my birthday, and I am having some problems with elephant's foot (as the title suggests). I have tried several fixes; lowering the print speed, changing the print micron size (quality) in my slicer, and I have also tried the masking tape trick (it definitely does not work). I want to know if there are any other ways to prevent elephant's foot on my prints. I first noticed it on a game-cartridge holder. It was four and a half millimeters thick on the bottom. I think that it could be an issue with the design, but I'm not entirely sure. I can send the specs for the design if you want to look at them.

Answer:
Elephant foot on an FDM machine is typically caused by more material (filament) being present in that layer than it has space for.
The most common cause of this is your z-zero is too low, so for the first layer the nozzle starts too close to the bed and the filament gets "squeezed" laterally. You can try adjusting your z-zero or z-stop to allow slightly more space, fractions of a millimeter, between the nozzle and bed for your first layer.
If you don't want to try that, or you'd like to try a different solution first, consider printing the part on a raft so that it starts raised up off the bed and away from that elephant-footing.
There are a handful of other potential causes and factors which can make this better or worse, things like having a large footprint on the bed, but I hope the above is a quick and easy place to start.


Question:
Suddenly my prints start having small strings and I'm not sure what to do to eliminate them.

I have already tried to clean the filament tube, cleaned up the nozzle, and played with various retraction settings. Nothing seems to work and I still see these small strings.

Any idea how I can eliminate it?

Answer:
What you're seeing does not look like
stringing
, which I would characterize as material that exited the nozzle after extrusion was supposed to have stopped, usually due to missing or insufficient retraction, but like the extrusions along the concave contours
failed to bond
to the previous layer and got drawn across to a point on the other side of the contour where some degree of adhesion resumed. This happens when the lateral acceleration force of going around the curve overcomes the bonding of the new material to the existing material it's being laid down against, and in my experience it's always the result of
moisture-contaminated filament
. This matches your description of the problem has something that "suddenly" started happening.
To fix it, dry your filament. If your bed is big enough, the easiest way to do this is to lay the whole spool on the heated bed covered by a cardboard filament box with one side cut out to make a heat chamber, and running the bed heater at around 60-70°C (for PLA) for several hours, flipping the spool a few times during it. You can also use an oven but I would not trust the temperature control not to shoot up high enough to ruin the filament. If you want a less hackish solution, all sorts of specialized filament drying systems are available but I don't have experience with any to recommend. I just use my bed for PLA and oven for materials that can withstand higher temperatures.


Question:
In slicer G-code is it possible to set the probe Z offset for the first layer only?

For my stock E3 plate I find -4.125 mm best however for glass I need to go to -4.175 mm for the first layer to get better adhesion. So it's a manual process every time. Any way to tell the slicer do the first layer at -4.175 mm and next ones at -4.125 mm?

Answer:
I don't understand the reasoning behind a first layer having a different offset from the following layers, but, You can manually add a re-definition of the current height after the first layer, suppose your first layer is 0.2 mm, you just need to tell the printer to move to a slightly higher next layer to redefine this as a different Z-offset.
From a G-code file find the start of the second layer:
```
G0 F600 X141.541 Y109.467 Z0.37
```
Modify this to:
```
G0 F600 X141.541 Y109.467 Z0.42
```
Now insert the following command:
```
G92 X0.37
```
Now it is like you have changed the Z-offset.
The reason for not using
```
M206
```
is that is applied onto current offsets, if you accidentally save setting to memory after printing, it stores this offset. You can use
```
M206
```
, but use it carefully. A re-definition of the Z level is never stored, the next
```
G28
```
erases the effect, so does repowering the motors.


Question:
Ive been experimenting will multiple color filament but the colors a more or less blended. Is there are filament that goes from one color directly to another without having transition color ex. red to green immediately.

I've been tinkering with Filament Hub Filament and it is very good (some of the best I've ever used)  however I've had to essentially melt strands of one filament to the next and this is unsustainable.

Anyone know any filaments or methods to have an immediate color change

Answer:
It takes at least a few cm of extrusion to purge the old color before switching to a new one due to mixing in the melt zone, and possibly much more depending on the particular pigments. If the old color is something bright like red and the new one is white or something close, it can even take many tens of cm before you get a clean new color.
Multi-color extrusion setups either use separate hotends per color or fancy retraction setups where each color can be retracted separately, along with purge towers. You cannot get a clean color switch in the print just by having one in the input filament, and this is probably why all the mixed color filament that's sold is blended - so customers don't get disappointed when it doesn't work like you expect.


Question:
I recently bought a Titan Aero hot end which came with a 24 V 30 W heater cartridge from E3D.  I'd like to use this but the cable length is only 1 meter long and I need it to be 2 meters.  The ends terminate with prong connections and there is no polarity to the prongs.  How can I safely extend the leads one meter and then connect to my Duet 3 Mainboard 6HC?

Should the cable terminate with a JST connector instead of the prongs to connect to the Duet board?

Answer:
Heater polarity doesn't matter
The heater cartridges are just large resistors and so polarity is irrelevant. Either can be positive or negative.
You can extend the leads by cutting and splicing in ~20 gauge wires* to a two pin JST connector line you suggest.
*
At 24 volts and 30 watts, you need
wire that is rated to carry at least 1.25 amps
. The US National Electric Code dictates that this should be 20 gauge wire, but their standard is very conservative. Since you don't need to adhere to NEC codes, you could get away with something thinner (ie higher gauge number).


Question:
Let's say I've made a 3D scan of my face and managed to get that into FreeCAD. How might I then create an object (it's a mask, okay?) that conforms to the shape of my face, with a given thickness, such that I can export and 3D-print that part only?

So if I printed it, it would fit over my face, but still look like my face from the outside, too. It would be, say, 3mm thickness througout.

To be clear, I'm not looking to make a 3D model of my head (the world does not need such a thing), or 3D model of a mold that I can use to replicate my head. I just want to make parts that conform to the shape of other, complex, parts.

Answer:
It depends on the software you're using, but here is an example with TinkerCad.
Step 1: Import your 3D model (imagine that the ball is a head):
Step 2: Change its type from "Solid" to "Hole"
Step 3: Create a "Solid" box around your imported model.
Here is the inverted Solid/Hole version:
Here is the Solid version with the Hole model inside your Solid box:
Step 4: Select both models and group them:
Step 5: Add a box covering half of your mold (ideally splitting it in half):
Step 6: Duplicate the mold and the box
Step 7: Group the left mold with its surrounding box:
Step 8: Invert the box of the left mold by taking its left corner and dragging it over to the right side of the mold:
Step 9: Group the right box and the mold.
Step 10: You now have two molds for each half of your model:
Based on your comment, I'm adding a couple more steps:
Step 11: Take your cast, duplicate it, enlarge the duplicate, make it a hole and fit it over your cast (like so):
Step 12: Group the left cast with the larger "Hole" copy:
And if you're going to 3D print it and fit it over the old model, then you might want to enlarge the cast by a few mm.
It's now up to you to figure out how to clamp the molds, inject them, and then separate them.
A few things to keep in mind:
You might want to play with the placement of the model inside the mold a little better so it's not at the bottom of the mold but more towards the middle.
You could also get a bit more creative with the joining of the two molds by adding channels or some kind of way that they can fit into each other with greater precision. Here is an example:
.
If the parts are more complex, then the cast will be more challenging and might require to be split into more parts.
Good luck! :)


Question:
I have a problem in regards to filament jam, however I don't think that my case is any related to the extruder nozzle.
After 30 to 40 minutes printing my filament bends and get stuck on the tube entrance.
To print a nut wheel which comes as a demo file, I had to repeat the operation 4 times, and I had to stop printing when it got stuck, and continue with the printing, which led to a small imperfection.
What's the problem? The filament? The printer? Myself?
I have a Voxelab Aquila (completely new) and the filament u just a generic PLA from Amazon.

Answer:
Something is stopping the filament from going down the tube 30 to 40 min. after you start printing.  You are correct that this doesn't sound like a clogged nozzle.  It could be deformed filament, but the closeness of the timing after the start sounds like heat creep.  Other possibilities are also listed at the linked stackexchange article.
Note: with heat creep the filament will not jam in the tube.  It will jam just above the nozzle on a Bowden tube extruder; thus the filament stops going down the tube.  The tube entrance is probably the largest location the tube can kink, although not very large.
What are ways to avoid heat creep?


Question:
I am currently trying to print a company logo on another part I have printed in a different colour. To try and maximise the strength of the part, I need to print the part on a different orientation to what I intend on printing the logo on. As a result I need to in a sense re-adhere the part to the bed so I can print the logo. I am using PLA filament on a spring steel sheet (the default sheet with a Prusa Mini).

Any ideas would be appreciated before I accept defeat and just glue the parts together.

Answer:
Adherence is the 3D printer's worst enemy.
I use painter's tape, but I heard that you can if you need to remove and re-stick it back, heat the part lightly with a lighter and re-stick it back to the bed. Never tried but I'm guessing you would need to cool the bed, heat the part, and stick it back then reheat the bed and continue to print.
Glue sticks can maybe help or even hot glue. But I would be afraid in that case that the part wouldn't be level hence the glue would be to tick.


Question:
I've recently switched to PETG , and I'm using Cura as slicer and Ender 3 as printer.

I'm printing a model which Cura declares to be 35 g, but if I weigh the printed model it weighs 23 g.

I'm printing with just 1 line of skirt, so its weight is negligible on total weight.
I've replaced the stock plastic extruder with a double gears metal extruder (3Dman 11 Dual Gear Extruder ).

I've also replaced the stock springs with metals ones.

I'm not having a quality problem, just I want to understand if this difference is caused by a bad configuration that could be improved.

Which are the corrections/checks that I need to do in my setup (both printer and Cura) for fixing this difference?

Answer:
The density of the filament can be specified in the material model of the filament in Cura (Preferences -> Configure Cura... -> Materials and click on the material/filament you are using to slice your model for PETG), look at the value behind
Density
, the PETG filament I use is using 1.28 g/cm³ (
PETG Economy Black -> Specification >
).
This field is user editable, so you can change it to your needs. Cura calculates the weight based on the deposited volume.


Question:
Does anybody if the Anycube Mega X comes with a nozzle for 1.75 mm filaments or is it 2.85 mm?
I saw online that it works with 1.75 mm filaments but the Cura settings given by the manufacturer had 2.85 mm.

I should mention that using a 1.75 mm filament works BUT my designs have clear under-extrusion, which is very likely caused by having 2.85 mm in the settings. So at this moment, I am trying to gauge whether to change the settings to 1.75 mm or buying 2.85 mm filaments (this only works if the Mega X comes with the appropriate nozzle).

Answer:
Reading all 49 pages of the manual was fruitless. I'm astonished that there is no reference to the filament diameter used in this printer.
From
3dJake's web site
comes a confirmation that the printer uses 1.75 mm filament.
It's not a matter of changing a nozzle to use 2.85 mm filament, as the entire filament path is based, in this printer, on the 1.75 mm specification.
To find 3Djake's site, I used "anycubic mega x filament diameter" as the search terms. Many other links appeared, confirming the 1.75 mm filament size.


Question:
Every now and then I'll have a problem with layer shift. Solving this is a separate issue, but it occurred to me: most of the time when this happens I notice right away because of the noise. What if there were an easy to to pause the print, re-home the X/Y axis (not Z), and then resume. I'd only have one layer that was a bit off. Sometimes that's enough to ruin the print but sometimes I could clean up with a razor knife later and just live with the small scarring and weakness.

Is there a way to do this during a print? I suspect it might require support within the printer (or print tool like OctoPrint), and might also depend on how the print is sliced in terms of knowing absolute vs relative coordinates at any given moment.

Answer:
Have you tried this? It should just work, at least if you're using software like Octoprint to control the printer over serial interface rather than print-from-SD-card on the printer itself. In such a setup you're free to submit whatever commands (in particular,
```
G28 X Y
```
) you like while the print is paused. You'll need it setup to save and restore position across pause/resume, or the next command executed might start from the wrong starting position; this would be no problem if it's a travel command, but if it's an extrusion move it would make a mess.
If you're using the printer's builtin pause/resume functionality, I'm not sure whether it will work. It mainly depends on whether it
lets you
access the homing function while paused. If not this is more of a logic limitation than any fundamental incapability, and could be fixed in the firmware.


Question:
Any hints or suggestions (filament type? suggested settings? model sources?) for 3D printing minis to use in Dungeons & Dragons?

I've done a couple where the support structures were difficult to break off without breaking off a hand or something.

I have a Lulzbot Mini (1), single-extruder if that makes any difference.

Answer:
Buckle up, this is going to be rough:
FDM printers are not the best choice for printing figurines in the 25 to 40 mm scale that is typical for wargaming and D&D games. Resolution-wise, that's the area of
resin
printers.
But there are ways to get some partially decent prints made:
you might want a small nozzle. 0.2 is about the smallest you can do without specialty extruders, so there is our lower limit.
You need to make sure to have a minimum layer time set, especially as the crosssections of figures are often rather slim.
Overhangs can be a pain
You might be better-served printing "meeples" than actual figurines.


Question: All of my completed prints come out with rough edges. What are some methods for removing rough edges from 3D prints? Also, are there any ways to reduce rough edges on prints? For reference, I use a FlashForge Adventurer 3 and PLA filament.

Answer:
To remove unwanted residual material:
You can scrape with a knife
Use sand paper
use files
Very fine sandpaper or files can smooth out the rough surfaces left from filing or sanding.
Dremel tools tend to be aggressive.  They tend to melt the surface if too fast.  Buffing wheels are probably the most useful on a Dremel.  Dremel tools are good for cutting.
A deburring tool can remove sharp edges such as parts of the brim that don't want to come loose.  However, it's not unusually to need to scrape off flat surfaces as well.
If you want to smooth out the surfaces left from layers, you can:
Carefully use a heat gun or heat from other soldering tools; not spending too long in one spot.  The difficulty with using heat is most prints have fill rather than being solid; so, with only two or three outside layers, it's easy to get the surface to deform into the fill. Also the print material will tend to stick to solid surfaces hot enough to melt the material.
Use acetone on ABS.  Don't breath the fumes or dissolve your print.
Paint the surface as the comment from user77232


Question:
When I first got my 3D printer (a FlashForge Adventurer 3), it came with a sample pack of filament. With this filament, I was able to use skirts for my first layer. When the sample filament ran out, I switched to Hatchbox PLA filament. For some reason, I cannot use skirts with the Hatchbox filament. Now, whenever I try to print something with a skirt, the print moves around, ruining it. The only first-layer that works now are rafts, which I do not like, as they use up more filament and are more of a pain to remove. Is anyone else having this problem? If so, what are some workarounds to this issue?

Here are the failed prints. I terminated them mid-way, as they started
to shift on the build plate.

Answer:
It is unlikely this is a filament material issue since many of us have used Hatchbox PLA without this issue.  This is a first layer adhesion issue.
Your bed may not be clean, or the bed may have had an adhesion layer you cleaned off.
Your nozzle may be too high on the first layer.
Your bed my not be level.
Glue sticks can help adhesion.  Glue sticks usually don't post the composition on the packaging, but Elmer's glue sticks work.  Elmer's washable makes it easy to remove the old layer before adding a new one.  There are also glue sticks specified for 3D-printing.
Here's a discussion on glue sticks:
Are all glue sticks PVA-based? How to find out?


Question:
I’ve got this proximity sensor which is a 5 V, it doesn’t say it can be used over 5 V. Can I use a buck converter or is it possible to wire it up direct to a 5 V source on the Ender 3 V2?

What I don’t understand is where to wire it direct to 5 V on the printer or if I use a buck converter then where does the 3rd wire go to on the printer?
If it goes to the signal wire on the Z endstop then which one is the signal wire?

Answer:
It is unlikely this is a filament material issue since many of us have used Hatchbox PLA without this issue.  This is a first layer adhesion issue.
Your bed may not be clean, or the bed may have had an adhesion layer you cleaned off.
Your nozzle may be too high on the first layer.
Your bed my not be level.
Glue sticks can help adhesion.  Glue sticks usually don't post the composition on the packaging, but Elmer's glue sticks work.  Elmer's washable makes it easy to remove the old layer before adding a new one.  There are also glue sticks specified for 3D-printing.
Here's a discussion on glue sticks:
Are all glue sticks PVA-based? How to find out?


Question:
I broke 2 keys (i.e. left ctrl, enter) on my Asus UX31A laptop and it seems that this model is too old to find replacement keys.

Is there any way I can find a 3D model of the needed keys to have them 3D printed?

I do not have a printer nor I have any experience in this field.
What I need is either someone that has models for these or that can point me where I can find such models.

Answer:
This is more off-topic as an answer, but serves as a possible solution.
Replacementlaptopkeys.com is a resource that appears to have keycaps for the model you've noted.
https://www.replacementlaptopkeys.com/asus-zenbook-ux31a-db71-laptop-keys-replacement-dark-brown-black/
At seven dollars a key, it's going to be less expensive than 3D printing to accomplish your objective.
If you owned a 3D printer, it would not be less expensive to purchase, but the work involved would increase your cost to have such keys commissioned. As a 3D printed object, the strength is going to be less than a keycap purchased from the linked site.


Question:
I have a 3D printer, which wasn't used for a longer time. There is a nozzle, but don't know what diameter is it. I used several widths - from 0.2 to 0.8, switched them depending on my needs, but don't remember which one was used lately.
The nozzle is a little bit worn down, so the diameter on the side is not visible.

How to get the nozzle diameter, without taking it off the printer?

This is more of a theoretical question, because I can simply swap the nozzle, but still - eager to know.

Answer:
The best method is to have a scale on your microscope that looks like a ruler drawn in the optical path.  However I usually visually compare an unknown nozzle with known nozzles under a microscope.  If you don't have a microscope, you can get USB otoscope cameras (15mm focal length for looking in ears) for under $20.
You can get a fairly good idea of the size by telling the printer to extrude in air then measure the extrusion diameter with calipers.  Of course, it's better if you can compare with a known nozzle.  If you push the filament through by hand, the extrusion will be too thick.  With the stepper motor extruding, I measure the extrusion diameters between 0.3 and 0.5 mm on a 0.4 mm nozzle.  Low cost calipers are less than $20.  The main different with the low cost calipers is the slides are not smooth, reducing the accuracy in the 0.01 mm place.


Question:
I've observed printing PETG that the primary if not the only reason for using a high bed temperature seems to be preventing the bed from acting as a huge heat sink and rapidly cooling the initial layers such that they don't bond well to each other. In particulat, the heat is not needed for adhesion-to-the-bed purposes. This got me thinking whether there's a way we could get rid of the requirement, as a way to save time and all the energy spent heating the bed and cooling the room it's eventually dumped into.

With that in mind, are there viable bed materials that are good thermal insulators? Just putting down a layer of any insulating material between the underlying bed and buildtak or whatever surface you want might work, but I would think these kinds of print surfaces are designed for moderate to high thermal conductivity themselves, and wouldn't be as bad a heat sink as the underlying metal, but might still sap a noticable amount of heat out of the part right away.

Answer:
I’m pretty sure it can be brought separately but usually comes with a lot of heat-beds; It is a type of foam that has adhesive on one side and aluminum foil on the other.
Here
is an example of what I mean:


Question:
What fan speed should I use with PLA? Do I need to manually set the fan speed in ‘Control’?

Also, on the filament cartridge Bed Temp is listed: "No heat/60-80 °C". Does this mean heating the bed is optional?

Answer:
Most commercial blow-molded fuel tanks for model airplane fuel (methanol or ethanol, nitromethane or nitroethane, and some combination of castor, mineral, or synthetic lubricating oil) are made from HDPE.  This material isn't commonly seen as filament, in my limited experience, but it ought to be possible to arrive at settings that will give a liquid tight tank without further sealing if you can find some.  As you note, limonene might be used to smooth/seal HDPE prints, but likely won't be necessary if your settings are right.
You might want to test PETG filament for its resistance to your fuel mix(es) -- this material
is
available as filament, prints with settings little different from generic PLA (in my experience, higher nozzle and bed temperature, and a little more bed clearance for the first layer), with good layer adhesion and, with a good print, is liquid-tight as printed.  It's not particularly flexible (as is the case with HDPE), but since you can customize the shape of your fuel tank, it may work for you -- or it may be more flexible in vase mode, as PLA is.
Sealing PETG may be as simple as baking it (similar to "heat treating" PLA to increase print strength, albeit again at a higher temperature) -- this partial remelting will ensure that layers are adhered throughout the print, which (presuming you have avoided under-extruded areas) should be all that's needed to make a printed tank liquid tight.


Question:
I printed a lot of models in last month. I spent 2 kg filament in total. I want to know how many hours have been passed while printing. As far as I read, 1 kg PLA (1.75 mm) is about 110 meters long. My default print speed is 70 mm/s. The nozzle diameter is 0.4 mm. The nozzle multiplier in the simplify3d is 0.9 .

In a very basic math,
220÷(0.7×0.04÷0.0175×0.9)=~ 153 hours.

Is this correct?

Answer:
Your math looks correct, and is also a good approximation for what I've seen in the first few weeks with my own Ender 3.
Another way to calculate (to check yourself) is to calculate the volume extruded (nozzle area times extrusion percentage times print speed -- be sure you convert everything to the same units!) in a given second, multiply by the density of your filament (common PLA runs about 1.2 g/cm^3), and get a rough figure for how long it takes to print a kilogram of filament.  Your actual print time will always be higher than this approximation, because there are moves during which the extruder isn't running, infill is often set to lower extrusion level, and of course there's setup and cleanup time to account for.


Question:
I want to get my Ender 5 plus to print at 300 °C. As such, I've edited the firmware and increased the HEATER_0_MAXTEMP to 315 °C.

In my slicer, I can slice and print at 300 °C, however, I cannot manually adjust the temperature on the LCD screen past the stock setting of 260 °C.

Any help in getting the manual adjustment fixed would be greatly appreciated.

Answer:
Your math looks correct, and is also a good approximation for what I've seen in the first few weeks with my own Ender 3.
Another way to calculate (to check yourself) is to calculate the volume extruded (nozzle area times extrusion percentage times print speed -- be sure you convert everything to the same units!) in a given second, multiply by the density of your filament (common PLA runs about 1.2 g/cm^3), and get a rough figure for how long it takes to print a kilogram of filament.  Your actual print time will always be higher than this approximation, because there are moves during which the extruder isn't running, infill is often set to lower extrusion level, and of course there's setup and cleanup time to account for.


Question:
The problem with my Anet E12 should be on USB connection itself.

If powered down, the board still gets power from USB

If board is resett, USB will still connect

Still works on SD; seem like most part not damage.
What cause the problem? Where to check first? How to fix it?

Note: This printer worked with no problem before.

Answer:
Your math looks correct, and is also a good approximation for what I've seen in the first few weeks with my own Ender 3.
Another way to calculate (to check yourself) is to calculate the volume extruded (nozzle area times extrusion percentage times print speed -- be sure you convert everything to the same units!) in a given second, multiply by the density of your filament (common PLA runs about 1.2 g/cm^3), and get a rough figure for how long it takes to print a kilogram of filament.  Your actual print time will always be higher than this approximation, because there are moves during which the extruder isn't running, infill is often set to lower extrusion level, and of course there's setup and cleanup time to account for.


Question: All the blower fans for part cooling I've seen rotate counter-clockwise when viewed from the intake side. I'm looking to replace mine on an Ender 3 with something stronger, and one of the worst parts of the stock design is that it's offset by about 20 mm versus the nozzle position, requiring awkward duct paths that reduce the flow to get uniform coverage around the newly extruded material. A fan that rotates in the opposite direction, with air exiting on the right-hand size when viewed from the intake side, would be exactly right. Are there such models available, and if so, what is the right terminology to search for them by? Or is there a simple way to modify a fan to reverse its direction?

Answer:
I see that you have a minimum support angle of 60 degrees -- that may mean Cura Slicer isn't generating supports for that chin.  Try changing this minimum to a lower figure -- 51 degrees or lower.  From what I've read, most filaments and settings will allow 60 degrees with PLA, but this is the easy first thing to try to get that chin supported.
On looking at the photo again, I also wonder if what looks like a bad overhang print is actually supports that didn't separate as they should -- perhaps you only need to adjust your Z skip for supports to get them to come off the actual part better.
Following up, I saw a likely cause for this on one of my own prints yesterday -- coincidentally on the chin of a sculpture part.  What I observed is that supports for this region, which trailed up the body (as would those for your dragon's chin), likely due to their slenderness, repeatedly got knocked over.  The support structure "healed" over several layers after each such incident, but in a very fragile condition that would again get knocked off by a nozzle brush.  The solution to this is either to enable Z-hop on retraction (so travel doesn't brush the nozzle across supports printed in the same layer), or to reorient the part so the problem support is shorter and doesn't run right alongside the actual body wall.  Z-hop has less effect on other areas of the print.


Question:
I have an Ender 3, currently in stock Bowden extruder configuration.

I want to be able to print nylon and TPU, both of which require temperature too high for the tolerance of the PTFE Bowden tube (as well as the issues with the flexible filament in the tube).

Therefore, I've considered converting my printer to direct drive.  However, the conversions I've seen, both DIY/print the parts type and commercial, seem to include a short length of the same PTFE tube between the extruder (now mounted on the hot end carriage) and the actual hot end.  This same material ought to have the same temperature limit (about 250 C) as it would have in a Bowden configuration -- and for nylon, at the least, this is a problem, since the PTFE would start to soften from contact with the heat break.

Am I missing something in these conversions, or is the PTFE's glass transition not the limiting factor in printing hotter with a direct drive conversion?

Answer: Direct Drive v.s. Bowden has no relation to the maximum print temperature. What determines the maximum print temperature is the design of the hotend itself. There are "all-metal" designs, where the PTFE tube (Bowden or not) stops in the cold zone and the heatbreak and all other components that get hot are fully made of metal. Other hotend designs have the PTFE tube run all the way down into the hot zone and this limits the maximum printing temperature. It has nothing to do with whether the hotend is Bowden or not.


Question:
I just assembled Ender 3 and noticed that the X-axis movement doesn't correspond to the commands. When I make it move 1 mm with the encoder it moves 16 mm. Everything is in the "out of the box" configuration.

The current steps/mm for the X-axis read (from the display) 80 steps/mm.

Am I supposed to manually fix this with steps per mm setting or could it be another problem. Other axes seem to work fine. I also double checked and everything should be built correctly.

Answer: Direct Drive v.s. Bowden has no relation to the maximum print temperature. What determines the maximum print temperature is the design of the hotend itself. There are "all-metal" designs, where the PTFE tube (Bowden or not) stops in the cold zone and the heatbreak and all other components that get hot are fully made of metal. Other hotend designs have the PTFE tube run all the way down into the hot zone and this limits the maximum printing temperature. It has nothing to do with whether the hotend is Bowden or not.


Question:
My Tevo Flash works well. Right now, I'm trying to print a thin, disc-like part on supports. The 3 perimeters at the edge of the disc are OK. The dense fill zigzag pattern makes many U-turns near the perimeter. It all looks OK in Simplify3D. But in the printed part, in several spots, the zigzag pattern doesn't reach the perimeters, leaving a ~1 mm gap.

My guess: in those spots, the filament has nothing to grab onto underneath, so the U-turn region is dragged back by the nozzle a bit (away from the perimeters) and/or it droops. I'm using the smallest support res in Simplify 3D: 1 mm. Any options I can try?

Answer:
The zig-zag pattern are known for this kind of fluke...
I will use Cura to demonstrate, but it's gonna happen on the majority of slicers.
See this example:
Because nothing is really a circle on a cartesian plane and there's resolution limitations on the real world, the slicer has to account for these and, assuming you are using zig-zag to save time, they are doing what is expected. The Zig-zag pattern is a continuous, fast way to fill the top/bottom layers.
Now, see this lines pattern top layer:
It has much smaller air gaps. Every time the nozzle finishes a line, it has the chance to reposition itself to make a much smaller gap, just because isn't continuous.
So yeah, the air-gaps are a "feature" for zig-zag patterns, but you can mitigate this effect reducing the line width on top/botton layers.
It seems that increasing "Skin Overlap Percentage" on cura mitigates this effect too, but i really haven't seen the effects of this setting on a real life object


Question:
Having started with an Ender 3, it just seemed natural to me that the heatbreak should not be load-bearing; Creality's stock hotend has 2 bolts holding the heat block to the heat sink, which of course waste some heating power and increase the cooling needed to avoid heat creep, but serve the important purpose of keeping the nozzle position rigid relative to the carriage and making it so you don't bend or snap the heatbreak when changing nozzles.

Looking at hotends (especially all-metal ones) for a possible future printer build, I'm surprised to see that many (most?) don't have this property, and have the heatbreak playing a load-bearing role. This seems really undesirable. Only the Mosquito makes a point of doing this right, and supposedly has a patent on this or related design decisions. Is that really the case? Are there basic all-metal hotends that are designed to avoid making the heatbreak load-bearing that don't cost $150?

Answer:
The drop-in replacement all metal hotends for the Ender 3 that I've looked at seem to have the two screws -- though I've read/heard opinions that these are intended to be removed after assembly, these are common Mk. 8 type hot ends, but with 2 mm bore through the entire heat break instead of 4 mm.  That seems to be the only modification (other than not anodizing the aluminum heat sink).
While the brand name units of this type run approximately 65 USD at retail, they're available from Chinese vendors for under 10 USD plus a few dollars shipping, if you don't mind waiting a few weeks instead of a couple days to receive your part -- and if they aren't from the same production but sold without extensive vendor support, they're very close physical copies, according to review videos I've seen.
It's also possible to replace just the heat break for similar cost, either in stainless or titanium, with a 2 mm bore unit; this would obviously preserve whatever additional mounting hardware exists on/between your original heat block and heat sink.
BTW, if they aren't already, replacing the screws with stainless will significantly reduce heat loss through the screws -- stainless is a much poorer conductor of heat than common steels used with plated screws.


Question: I am pretty sure that sanding makes a lot of microplastics, so it would be nice to collect the dust, and melt it to got a blob of plastic again instead of millions of tiny particles. What is the best way for collecting it, do you use any dust extractor, or are there different techniques like sanding wet surfaces and filtering it from water?

Answer:
As an environmental thing, micro plastics are an urgent problem for ocean life, it’s getting into the entire food chain. With that in mind dumping it down the drain would be the worst, city filtration systems can’t get the tiny bits of plastic before it drains into the ocean. Sanding outside is kind of bad. I sand stuff over a lined waste basket outside, which maybe catches 75% of the dust. Inside (or outside) with a vacuum running would be good, I think best would be a vacuum with disposable bags. Yes it is still micro plastics, but it ends up at the dump, where the soil is already poisoned, and hopefully nowhere near the ocean/waterways, and likely will stay there while it breaks down. PLA takes ~80 years, but ABS takes 1000 years.
The idea of collecting the dust and fusing it sounds like it would be too much hassle to be feasible long term, it’s good, sustainable habits over years that add up.
As a side note, card scraping is a nice way to smooth 3D prints, that doesn’t make fine dust.


Question:
I didn't have any printer-related problem for the past 6 months, but now all of a sudden my Prusa MK3S stopped extruding during printing.

This is very strange as I can easily load\unload filament and control the step motor via Settings\Move axis\Extruder. When I did so, the filament got extruded normally.

However, when I try to print something or do First Layer Calibration, nothing comes out of the nozzle. I tried changing the Live Z (maybe nozzle too low) and it didn't help. I once managed to extrude something by increasing the temperature and the flow (in the printer's menu) to a ridiculous value of 999. Obviously, this isn't the best way to solve the problem.

Is there an easy way to fix this? I only had this problem yesterday and with some midrange-priced PETG

Edit: I tried different filaments, default slicer profiles, reinstalling slicer (prusa slicer) and drivers. None of these methods really helped.

Answer:
It doesn't seem to be heat creep. See
What are ways to avoid heat creep?
Have you measured the actually temperature of the heater block?  You may have a failing sensor (thermistor) or sensor circuitry.  Optically is the best way to measure.  The least expensive way is with multimeters that come with a temperature sensor, such as a thermocouple (lowest cost about $20 U.S.).


Question:
A Bowden tube extruder (like the stock one on an Ender 3) is known to have issues with printing the most flexible TPU, and with filaments that (either due to composition or condition) don't take well to too much retraction -- though the latter can be ameliorated somewhat with slicer settings.  Direct drive extruders, on the other hand, by reducing the extruder to hot end distance to the practical minimum, greatly reduce the amount of retraction needed as well as the effect of filament compression and stretching.

One potential down side I'm aware of is that putting the extruder stepper and drive on the X carriage adds mass that the X drive motor has to both accelerate and decelerate; this could in theory have an effect on print quality, increasing ringing and overrun on the X axis (though this isn't generally a problem with the steppers used on the Ender 3 and similar printers).

What other reasons might there be to prefer a Bowden tube over direct drive?

Answer: Other than higher carriage mass as you already noted, the only other reason to not go with Direct Drive over Bowden is the higher level of maintenance required. In most cases Direct Drive will provide advantages such as increasing the maximum flow speed, enabling the use of Linear/Pressure Advance, shortening Retraction moves, and better resistance to obstructions in the filament path, and more reliable printing of flexibles as you have already noted. As well, A direct drive system would allow a less-powerful stepper motor to be used, which cuts down on the carriage mass problem.


Question:
I've got some sliced models that represent the right-side arms and legs of a robot. I'm really happy with how they printed, so now I'd like to print the left-side arms and legs.

I was thinking it would be pretty trivial to parse the G-code file using Python and change the value of all the Xn commands from n to 2*h - n, where h is in the middle of the bed, say 110 or 120 mm for an Ender 3.

Before I fire up my favorite IDE, are there any major gotchas I might encounter from such a naïve approach to mirroring the G-code like this? I originally sliced in Cura 4.9.1.

Answer:
If your slicer does not have a mirror operation or a scale that allows negative values then mirroring in the G-code should be straightforward.
As long as your printer doesn't have certain specific tool change or homing or purge positions that are done in the G-code you can just transform it, otherwise you would want to skip these sections and just do the model data (it should be obvious looking at the code where model data starts).
In order to mirror it you just need to swap out the X coordinates in your G-code, If (0,0) is the center of your bed, as is often (but not always) the case for delta printers you will just want to negate the X, so
```
G1 X30 Y-3 Z2
```
becomes
```
G1 X-30 Y-3 Z2
```
.  If your coordinates have (0,0) in a corner  (often the case for orthogonal printers) then you want to subtract X from the maximum X value. for instance if your bed is 250 mm wide then in
```
G1 X30 Y10 Z3  X30
```
becomes
```
X(250-30)
```
or
```
G1 X220 Y10 Z3
```
.
There is only one caveat, some slicers will switch to relative movement using
```
G91
```
for certain operations and then back to absolute with
```
G90
```
, so you will want to look out for these. Between a
```
G91
```
and a
```
G90
```
you will want to negate the X, no matter where the origin of your printer is.
When writing your script, I'd keep track of the minimum and maximum values encountered and the new minimum and maximum values and print them at the end as a sanity check so you can see if anything is wonky.


Question:
Some people have figured out how to take raw LiDAR data and after going through multiple steps (using LAS tools, converting to digital elevation model (DEM), converting to an STL) getting an STL file that they can then slice and print.

Could you write a program that cuts out all of those intermediate steps and converts raw LiDAR data directly to an STL that can be printed? Could you even cut out the need for slicers and just go straight to a G-code file?

Is this even possible?

From 3D Printing Models derived from Lidar Data:

Retrieve Lidar Data

Process Lidar Data

Create a DSM

Export the DSM into a .STL

Process for 3D Printing

3D Print!

Answer:
TL;DR - The problem would
appear
to be that some of the steps require a bit of manual tinkering in order to complete them successfully - it isn't just a simple question of conversion. So, no (not currently).
Also, whilst writing this answer, it dawned on me that unless someone has actually managed to automate the whole process already, then your question may merely invite opinions (rather than factual solutions).
From the link that you provided the conversion stages seem to be:
Obtain the
```
LAZ
```
file from LiDAR
```
LAZ
```
to
```
LAS
```
```
LAS
```
to
```
DSM
```
```
DSM
```
to
```
STL
```
```
STL
```
to G-code
These stages would need to be put into an automated pipeline.
Step 1
This step could be automated.
Step 2
The LAZ to LAS seems to be a straightforward conversion using  command line tools
```
las2las
```
,
```
lasview
```
and
```
las2dem
```
. This step
probably
could be automated (assuming that no manual intervention of the settings is required), as command line interfaces are easy to script (when compared with a GUI).
Step 3
This step uses one of three GUI applications and looks like some manual labour (like adjusting settings)
may
be required, it is not clear. If the applications suggested by the article have APIs then a CLI option of automating the process could be possible - again it is not clear just by reading the article.
Step 4
This step again uses a GUI (possibly to employ the export plugin and certainly to visualise the results) and so would appear to need some settings modifications and reiteration, to quote:
the conversion settings are something that will have to be explored via trial and error in order to figure out what is right for your dataset. In order to visualize the differences between the different settings you will have to open the .STL file into a software designed for 3D Printing.
Step 5
While the use of a slicer
can
be automated (assuming that you have predefined (known parameters) thresholds), it usually requires some manual intervention (at least to begin with). If you google "automate slicing" then some interesting links appear, but usually they are for batch processing of similar objects/models.
Summary
The language used in the steps above contains a lot of conditionals (may, can, could) because there are a lot of variables involved. A substantial amount of research would be required to get these elements of the pipeline to work together seamlessly. So, it is unlikely that a "point and click" solution exists where an STL file would just pop out at the end, with no manual intervention.
That said, if your LiDAR datasets were consistent (i.e. similar environments, similar objects being scanned) then you
may
be able to find a range of settings, for each stage, that work consistently well for a particular scenario. Then with these settings - in combination with some command line or Python scripting and/or an appropriate GUI scripting tool - you might be able to automate some, if not all, of the process.
Looking even further ahead, by using
Machine Learning
you may be able to train a model to learn to examine the visual feedback stages and then auto-tinker with the settings in order to get better results - however, whilst not in the realms of impossibility, it certainly is rather cutting edge (at this point in time). In a few years time though, it almost certainly will be possible.


Question:
I have a Prusa i3 MK3 or maybe it was upgraded to a i3 MK3S.

How can I figure out?

The description of the upgrade kit talks about

the SuperPINDA (how is it different from the old one?)

a number of small changes (which?)

improved plastic parts (which parts, how are they different?)

metal clips (where to look for them?)

a number of minor changes to the extruder plastic parts (which ones, before and after?)

I'd like to figure that out without taking the printer apart.

Answer:
The MK3 has 4 pins on the filament sensor, the MK3S has only 3 pins. While you need to take the extruder apart to see that, you can also have a look at the cable instead:
Matching the sensor, the MK3 has a 4 strand wire including blue and the MK3S has a 3 strand cable without blue.
Looking under the heatbed, you'll find the MK3 bearings are fixed with U-bolts while the MK3S has broader bearing clips.


Question:
I recall seeing that it's possible to "bake" or "anneal" or even "remelt" PLA prints to strengthen them.  As I understand it, the main effect is improving layer adhesion, which is the main source of weakness in tension in the original Z-axis direction.

Yes, I can print with a hotter nozzle (up to a point) to increase layer adhesion, print with a larger nozzle orifice, print with increased layer height, print slower -- but at a minimum those require reslicing, and affect print appearance (hotter nozzle causes stringing, thicker layers are more visible, etc.).

Baking a print does none of that, as long as it's supported (often done by bedding it in salt).

Question is, how hot?  I presume I don't want to go all the way to printing temperature of 180-220 °C, but the plastic transition level of roundly 50 °C isn't hot enough for this.

Answer:
I've only annealed PEEK personally, but a quick search returns varying recommendations:
All3DP
recommends 1 hour at 70 °C.
X3D
recommends 1 hour at 110 °C.
Matterhackers
recommends 10 minutes at 105 °C for Tough PLA or HTPLA.
A post on
Reddit
recommends "a few hours" at 110 °C.
I'd do a test suite with pieces at 70 °, 90 °, and 110 °C for an hour each and test/compare.
Be mindful of any chemicals that might be released.


Question:
I know that it's said the PLA becomes brittle when kept in a humid environment, but my case is slightly weirder:

I have rolls of 1.75 mm PLA that I bought years ago and they are fine. But if I leave my spool fed inside the PTFE (Teflon) tube of my 3D printer, that part that is inside the PTFE tube, and only that part, gets brittle. The filament spool is always (even when stored) in open air.

Is it still the humidity that somehow is better kept inside the tube, or is there a weird reaction of PLA with PTFE?

Answer:
I have this exact problem as well. I am feeding filament from the dry box through the tube into the top of the hot end. After approximately 2 days I would notice that the filament is broken somewhere close to the hot end. I don't believe that it's just humidity.
I suspect that the filament being brittle and being made to conform to the PTFE tube's shape, having been recently on a spool, is causing the breaks.
As a result, I'm going to write a small script that will heat the hot end and eject 200 mm of filament every so often.
EDIT: Whilst the script works, the filament would just break somewhere else lower down in the tube. Therefore the amount of filament that would need to be extruded periodically would be just wasteful. A better solution would be to unload the filament, either manually or automatically (somehow).


Question:
I'm currently printing 11 copies of the same model.  I noticed as it's printing that it seems to work on one model at a time but doesn't travel to the nearest model next.  I suspect it's traveling around the bed in the order that I put the models in the slicer.  This is resulting in extra unnecessary travel and therefore, increasing print time.  I slice in Cura 4.9.

Is there a slicer that handles this better? Or is there a way to optimize movements in Cura?

Answer:
Long story short:
I only know the setting "Combing Mode OFF" that improves the travel paths. In my case it did not help. In your case I suggest you should give PrusaSlicer a try. I assume that the overall print duration will be improved because of a better calculation of the travel paths. But this is only my personal opinion between these two Slicers.
Further explanation:
I downloaded the Cura 4.9 and made an install from scratch. I tried to reproduce your issue by placing lots of copies of the same part. As printer I selected the Ultimaker S5 and used the standard configuration for slicing. I let Cura arrange the parts on the print plate.
I checked the travel paths between the parts and in most cases Cura has chosen the nearest distance to move the printhead to the next part. In my opinion, there could be a more efficient choice for the next part to print.
After this first test I experimented with the settings (e.g. "Combing Mode" OFF) but without an improvement in travel movements.
In the past I used Cura in combination with an Ultimaker S5 at work to print parts for production usecases. Over the past two years I recognized lots of parts where the travel movements have been chosen very unefficiently at the cost of high print duration.
For comparison I used my standard slicer "PrusaSlicer" and did the test under the same conditions: standard settings, auto-arrangement of the parts.
Overall the travel paths are calculated more efficiently, but there is also some room for improvement.


Question:
I have designed a cupholder for my center console in my truck with PETG. I was hoping it wouldn't deform and it didn't for a while but we got some high temperatures the past few days (around 32-38 °C or 90-100 °F).

Kind of figured it wouldn't hold up mid-summer but I was wondering if ABS would be my next best choice or if there is something better for this. It does see some sunlight but not a lot.

I do want to start producing some to sell and don't want it deforming in high-temperature areas. Also, I have an Ender 3 Pro so I can't do super crazy filaments.

Answer:
ABS, or preferably ASA which is "a better ABS", is probably your main option. ASA holds up better under UV/sunlight and is easier to print (less warping). Like ABS it should be printed with ventilation, and benefits some from an enclosure but can be done without it or with a primitive one (cardboard box).
Another great option would be TPU. It's not subject to a glass transition temperature above room temperature (my understanding is that technically its
$T_g$
is very very cold, but that may be a misunderstanding) and does not really warp/deform permanently until you reach temperatures near what you could print it at. I've used it as a mold for melting crayons in an oven at 175 ˚F (80 ˚C) with no problem. Depending on your perspective it could be easier or harder than ABS to print. If your extruder is bad at handling flex materials you might have to go really slow, or you might have trouble with jamming on retraction, but unlike ABS it has no heat/warping issues while printing and can be done even on a cold bed, and does not particularly need ventilation (although as always, be careful if you have pet birds around).
Note that while TPU is considered a "flex" material, it can be fairly rigid at high infill with rigid infill patterns like triangles or cubic, or printed 100% solid, especially if you go with harder variants. 95A is typically the highest you see but sometimes you can find 98A.


Question:
I want to plug in my drivers from the printer into my Raspberry Pi. I want to control the printer's axes by sending G-code directly from the Raspberry Pi command line (if possible) to the drivers.

Is that possible and if yes does anyone know how? As I stated above without using any 3rd party program/software.

Answer:
You can send the data to the serial port using
```
echo
```
, but you'll have to use
```
cat
```
to get the response.


Question:
Using 3D printing I'd like to create a text oversized keycap that uses several strong LEDs to make the text light as red or green, depending on status.  It's quite similar to what are called annunciators on aircraft:

I'd like to create an MX keycap with this ability and size with the backlighting changing from green to red to indicate something is on or off. I understand including the MX connector in the center, but how would I print a black panel and leave the text transparent, or at least transluscent?

Answer:
There are a few possible ways you could go about this:
If you have a multi-material printer, you may be able to print with both a transparent or translucent material for the internal structure of the print and an opaque material for the external parts of the print. PET(G) may be suitable for this purpose but is harder to print compared to standard PLA.
You can print the entire print in a translucent material, mask off the lettering at the front and spray paint the rest of the print.
You can create a multi-part print, where one outer 'shell' is printed in opaque filament, and another piece in translucent material, which will mate together after printing.
You can deboss the lettering of your print, and with the letters face down to the bed, print the first layers in an opaque material, and then swap filaments to a translucent material for the rest of the print, spray painting the upper parts of the print to match a uniform color, while leaving the bottom untouched.
There are several advantages and disadvantages to each method:
Requires that you have a (typically) expensive upgrade installed onto your machine, but would be the most straightforward way to go about this.
Requires precise masking of your letters to make them come out looking nice, but will give you sharper, more defined edges on the lettering.
Will require you to design for tolerances for the two parts, or add glue in the post-processing steps, But could be produced en masse with two printers, one for each material.
Can be a bit fiddly, and will possibly result in an undesired look, with the lettering being debossed into the part, But would be less complex than the other options.
Pick whichever method you wish, or try all of them to see which gives you the best results.


Question:
Ok I’m so new at Blender. Half the time it’s knowing what question you have to ask to get the answer you need...

I want to make a 3D printable warrior type action figure but I only have one very detailed frontal view. Can I input that image into somewhere and it gives me a 3D model to start from? Like will it generate a 360 view? I have no idea where to start.

Answer:
In short, no. A 2D image has insufficient information to determine a 3D form.
If you want to do this yourself, what you could do is start with the 2D outline in a program like Blender (as 0scar mentioned in a comment), extrude it to make a thin "cardboard cutout", then begin shaping it into three dimensions from there. Imagine it like cutting a slab of Play-doh with a cookie cutter matching your 2D outline, then using the picture and your imagination as a guide to form it into 3D. I'm not sure whether something like that makes any more sense than just starting from scratch modeling it.
Alternatively, nowadays there
might
be some "AI" models to produce a reasonable guess at what 3D structure you want, with the knowledge that it's supposed to be a person, for a 2D image you provide. I'm not sure if there's anything yet of usable quality, but it's something you could look for.


Question:
I'm getting zits or blobs in lithophanes while printing on my Ender 3 and 10S Pro. I tried a suggestion: change resolution in mesh fixes of Cura to 0.5 (from 0.05 default). That removed the zits.

But now there are white patches as shown in the image. I reduced the resolution to 0.2 but to no avail.

Anyone else encountered this problem?

Answer:
In short, no. A 2D image has insufficient information to determine a 3D form.
If you want to do this yourself, what you could do is start with the 2D outline in a program like Blender (as 0scar mentioned in a comment), extrude it to make a thin "cardboard cutout", then begin shaping it into three dimensions from there. Imagine it like cutting a slab of Play-doh with a cookie cutter matching your 2D outline, then using the picture and your imagination as a guide to form it into 3D. I'm not sure whether something like that makes any more sense than just starting from scratch modeling it.
Alternatively, nowadays there
might
be some "AI" models to produce a reasonable guess at what 3D structure you want, with the knowledge that it's supposed to be a person, for a 2D image you provide. I'm not sure if there's anything yet of usable quality, but it's something you could look for.


Question:
I have an FDM printer, I printed ABS for years.

Since SLA printers became really cheap lately and are able to print finer details, are there resins out there as strong as ABS/PLA?

Answer:
I'm an owner of both an FDM printer and a resin one:
I've long searched a resin capable of printing durable objects even in tiny details but with poor luck.  I've tried ABS-Like resins, and they provide a slightly better resistance than regular resin but do not expect great improvements; I've tryed the siraya tech Blue V2 that is for sure much more durable but eventually would fail on the smaller details...
In the end i think I'll try the flexible resins like the Liquicreate flexible X or the Siraya tech Tenacious because those (similarly to TPU in FDM) can better absorb energy from impacts and having a smaller young's modulus can help when under load.


Question:
Wouldn't it be better to mount lead screws with the motor on top and the bottom end unconstrained? Compared to the conventional way (motor on the bottom) the lead screw would be under constant tension rather than compression and any misalignment would always be "pulled straight" and in this way minimize z-wobble.

Here is a image for clarification:

With the motor on top the load of the bed will help to move the lead screw in line with the mount. In the opposite case the load tends to further increase any misalignment.

Answer:
The motor is mounted in a fixed position no matter if it's on top or bottom.
You can imagine the lead screw as a rod hanging down and supporting the bed in the Z direction only, because all of the XY rigidity comes from the Liner rails the bed is attached to it works just as well if the stiff rod is under compression instead of hanging from the rod.
Any forces that might "pull it straight" are the same forces that can cause Z wobble so you would not want to even try to use the misalignment to straighten a bent lead screw.
The only thing this that really changes with this orientation is if the lead screw is under tension or compression. Even a relatively thin lead screw can easy counter the forces of gravity and the forces is the same in both directions. Its easy and cheap to make a smooth rod or rail straight but not so easy to make a threaded one straight.


Question:
How safe do you think it is to run an SLA 3D printer in the bedroom? I am planning to run Mi Air Purifier 3H/C while the printer is running, I am also thinking about adding this inside the actual printer (Elegoo Mini Air Purifier with carbon filter).

Is this safe or still too risky?

Answer:
The motor is mounted in a fixed position no matter if it's on top or bottom.
You can imagine the lead screw as a rod hanging down and supporting the bed in the Z direction only, because all of the XY rigidity comes from the Liner rails the bed is attached to it works just as well if the stiff rod is under compression instead of hanging from the rod.
Any forces that might "pull it straight" are the same forces that can cause Z wobble so you would not want to even try to use the misalignment to straighten a bent lead screw.
The only thing this that really changes with this orientation is if the lead screw is under tension or compression. Even a relatively thin lead screw can easy counter the forces of gravity and the forces is the same in both directions. Its easy and cheap to make a smooth rod or rail straight but not so easy to make a threaded one straight.


Question:
I've been using a resin printer for some time now, and am looking for a filament printer to compliment it. It will mostly be used to print scenery or bases to match 3-6" models printer on the resin printer.

I'm aiming for an entry level printer, or possible a mid level one on black Friday sale if I can find one.

Should I limit myself to looking for one with a heated bed or auto-bed leveling, or should I mark these down as being bonus features that are nice to have but which are not essential for the kind of printing that I will be doing?

I will probably be using basic budget filament to print items under 6". Probably no more than 2 prints a week.

Answer:
Most "auto-leveling" is not leveling but compensation for a non-flat or non-level bed surface. It's helpful to beginners who don't understand bed leveling or evaluating bed surface flatness and replacing a bad bad, for the sake of being able to get started without prints failing to adhere, but it will necessarily give you moderate to severe accuracy problems in the first cm or so of your print unless you manually level the bed right too. (This is as opposed to real three-point, three-motor leveling systems, which
do
really level and are great, but won't be found on entry-level printers.) Decide whether you want to spend money on that accordingly.
Personally, I find heated bed unnecessary unless you'll be printing ABS, ASA, or maybe PETG (it's hard but not impossible to print PETG without it). Heating the bed kinda makes PLA print worse (at least there are tradeoffs; it does help adhesion though), and flexible materials never need heat. However, pretty much all popular printers nowadays offer a heated bed anyway, so I don't think you'd be saving anything by going without it, and you're likely enough to want it at some point that you should just get it.


Question:
My OctPrint and Monoprice Maker Select IIIP (A Wanhao i3 Duplicator Plus clone) were working fine, but suddenly today the hot end won't heat up anymore. I tried disconnecting the OctoPrint USB and resetting the printer power, and it still couldn't heat up the extruder, such as through the filament menu.

But then it got weird.

I left it off for a few hours and turned it on to see if it was getting 12 V to the hot end, and it was heating up again!  So I plugged in the OctopPrint and we're back to square one, the extruder has just been cooling down. I know the thermistor is working, because it's accurately following the temp, such as following the cooldown after the heating stopped working again.

Is it possibly I have a dead hot end and for some reason it temporarily started to work again?  Maybe an intermittent short?

I guess the next step is to open up the base and look at the connector to the motherboard, and or measure for 12 V

Answer:
This has nothing to do with OctoPrint itself, the cause is related to the printer itself, not the print server running the printer.
This is a pretty commonly seen issue (usually seen at heated beds), this is caused by faulty wires/cables or connectors. This usually happens after a vast period of usage. You should (periodically) check the cables and connectors. You could even test if the heater cartridge works by connecting it directly to the power supply.
Considering the limited amount of costs involved to replace the heater cartridge, it is preferred to replace the heater with a similar specification heater element (voltage and power).


Question:
I have an STL (Raspberry Pi 4 casing) that automatically places itself like below on the bed surface:

Would it be a better and more efficient print if I place it like this:

At first, I thought this is no-brainer, the bigger surface should be the bottom layer. However, the horizontal print might result a more efficient head movement.

Answer:
The second placement is a better choice from an overall standpoint. In the vertical placement, adhesion is going to be more critical, although Prusa printers have good bonding for PLA and ABS, from my direct experience.
The other aspect of more importance is that the holes are going to be distorted in the vertical arrangement. The cut-outs in the smaller portion will also "droop" unless otherwise supported. If supported, you'll have greater post-processing labor and unsightly surfaces.
The design is quite well done, as the corners have radii which allows for smoother carriage travel, rather than abrupt stops with direction changes at each end.
Importing the model and having the result appear as in the first image means that the designing software swaps the z-axis and the y-axis, which is relatively common.


Question:
I am printing Benchies at high speed, I successfully printed one at 300 mm/s. If I set the speed to 400 mm/s, the Y axis begins shifting around. This is usually accompanied by a banging sound.

In addition, the extruder motor occasionally clicks. When it clicks, the filament shoots back out a little bit.

Print settings:

Infill: 100 %

Hotend: 200 °C

Bed: 60 °C

Material: PLA

Infill: Lines

Walls: 2

Top/bottom layers: 2

Speed: 400 mm/s

Jerk: 400 mm/s

Acceleration: 1000000

I am running custom Marlin-based firmware on the stock mainboard.

The printer shakes my desk when printing like this.

Answer:
TL;DR: Don't do that.
Detailed answer: You need motion limit parameters that actually make physical sense, and firmware capable of executing a motion plan according to them. Your jerk and acceleration settings absolutely don't. Marlin's whole implementation of jerk is wacky (note: modern Marlin versions don't even use it but an alternative they call "junction deviation" instead) and likely to cause problems above very low values; I never was able to take it above 25 or so on Marlin without layer shifts. Acceleration is dependent on the stepper motor torque and the mass you'll be accelerating. For the Y axis, that's the bed, and it has enough mass you won't accelerate it above 12000 mm/s² or so, much less the requested 1 km/s² plus near-infinite acceleration from the extreme near-instantaneous 400 mm/s velocity change ("jerk").
The speed of 400 mm/s is achievable if you don't do it instantaneously. Stepper motors begin to rapidly lose torque beyond a certain speed due to limits on how fast the magnetic field can build up and be reversed, which has to happen for each step.
This calculator
can compute the limits if you know the properties of your motor. For the Ender 3 Y axis motor, the limit is around 425 mm/s or so if I'm remembering right.
For actual print speed, though, the hotend and extruder cannot keep up with anything nearly that high. 150 mm/s is about the limit with that hotend, and it might even be lower with a stock extruder. Fortunately, Benchy is mostly acceleration-bound, not top-speed-bound, so if you can get your acceleration profile right, you can still print quite fast.
Now the next limit you'll hit is Marlin. Marlin is... not good at high speeds and accelerations. Often the layer shifts you hit with Marlin aren't even physical limits but Marlin bugs. If you want to go fast, you need Klipper, not only because it lacks these step timing bugs, but because you need its Input Shaper feature to keep the high acceleration from tearing your printer apart (literally, vibrating all the screws out!).


Question:
I have used PLA and PLA+ so far and I know that it can use ABS and PETG but I'm curious what other materials could I in theory use with my Ender 3?

It is a stock configuration, for the time being at least until after Christmas, and my grandfather and I have designed an enclosure to build together.

Answer:
Consider
Wood PLA
.  It is similar to PLA but more abrasive, and with different happy-temperatures.
Especially useful if you want to paint your output, or if you have woodworking skills/tools then prints can be (somewhat) worked and incorporated into larger projects.
Imagine printing detailed
scallions
or
crenellations
or
gargoyles
for a spooky dollhouse - the main walls would use an inordinate amount of filament whereas sheet-wood is cheaper.


Question: I've changed SD cards, printed from USB connection, upgraded/reloaded firmware and attempted using different software packages.  Nothing has worked yet.  When connected via USB, I get a "disconnected" error after a few minutes into the print.  Also, the LED lights now either don't work at all or will randomly go out after a few minutes - usually indicating that the print failure is imminent.  I've had the printer for about 4 years without issues.  I don't want to replace the motherboard only to find out it's the power source or vice versa.  Help?

Answer:
I recently had this problem and narrowed it down to the part cooling fan (on the side of the extruder head).  I diagnosed the problem by noticing that the printer would reboot shortly after the second layer started, only on PLA prints.  Of course, the part cooling fan is not usually started until after the first layer.  It was shorted and when the printer got to the second layer it would overload the power supply and cause a reboot.  Took a while to determine this, but it is worth looking at if somebody else is having this problem.
I would guess that any shorted fan, even the extruder fans, might cause a similar issue, however, I don't know this for sure.


Question: Suppose I have the X, Y, and Z coordinates (either in a list or a function z = f(x,y)) that defines a shape as the one provided and I want to 3D print it with a solid bottom, is there an easy way to do this? If not, how can a functionally well-defined shape be put into a 3D modeling software like FreeCAD?

Answer:
For stuff like this, OpenSCAD is your friend. There are several different approaches you could take:
Generate an image file with grayscale color representing the height of the function on an XY grid, and use the
```
surface
```
feature to import it as a heightmap.
Write the function as a mathematical expression in OpenSCAD language, and write a module to generate a
```
polyhedron
```
by iterating over a sufficiently fine coordiante grid, sampling the function, and producing points and triangles.
Use a library someone else has already written for this purpose. I'm not aware of specific ones but pretty sure there are quite a few.


Question:
I have been printing toy cars for about a month now and my Ender 3 has stopped extruding plastic even when I insert filament, it has been about a day since it stopped working. Is there any tips for getting it working again?

I tried manual feeding which worked.

Answer:
You need to figure out what is not working
Is the hotend getting hot?   If not, melted filament won't come out.
Is the nozzle clogged?   In your toolkit was a bit of thin wire for poking into the nozzle - try that and see what happens.
You may need to heat the hotend, extract the filament, wait for it to cool, remove the bowden tube and push the wire up from below, if the obstruction is too big to come through the 0.4mm nozzle.
Is the extruder pushing/feeding filament?  Undo the bowden tube at the top, tell the control panel to extrude and observe if plastic moves.  An Ender3 V2 has the round handle on top, you should see it slowly revolving.
If you can see the gears turning and the filament is not coming through, try snipping that piece off and inserting a fresh end.  Also clean inside the pushing gears of the extruder, could be simple plastic detris laying about.
Are you having reel problems?  Can you tug on the filament and have the reel turn? If not, it might be binding on the roll, or knotted/tangled.


Question:
When I pluck the belts of my CoreXY printer, I feel significantly different tension between the two idlers on the back and the tension on the sides, between the gear on the stepper shaft and the idler on the back.

Is this normal? If not, what could be the cause?

For reference, I'm using this support for the idlers:

Answer:
If you are referring to the tension in a single belt, but ar different positions, the tension is everywhere the same. It is one belt, the force/tension is the same in the belt. If the length of the belt is shorter because of a carriage to idler, the plucked sound may differ but the tension is the same.
If you are referring to different belts, e.g. the top versus the bottom belt, for CoreXY machines, the tension in the two separate belts should be equal to allow equal force pulling the carriage. If uneven, this may lead to incorrect/skew prints or binding of linear bearings (from experience). A typical layout of the mechanism is shown below. Note that there are several solutions for placing the belts; they can be in the same plane (where the belts cross in the back, as depicted below) or have the belt each in their own plane (as in the HyperCube Evolution design as depicted in the image of the question).
Drawing published by Ilan E. Moyer, taken from
http://corexy.com
.
For both options, incorrect belt tension causes for different forces onto the the printhead carriage and result in a torque on the carriage (either in X-Y or in X-Z). E.g. a tight blue belt with a less tight red belt cause a resulting counter-clockwise torque on the carriage in the image below:
I use
a tool (gauge)
to determine the tension to compare both belts and make sure the tension in both is the same:
Many CoreXY designs can adjust the tension of the belts at the carriage by screws. Some designs feature the stepper in the back and an adjustable pulley in the front.


Question:
I bought an Ender 3 V2 printer and printed successfully with PLA and PLA+. Ender 3 V2 is rated at <= 250 °C but when I set temperature above 200 °C to print to PLA+, I get an error message "Nozzle is too lowperature" and the printer freezes (the term lowperature is actual and not a typo error).

I tried to raise the temperature gradually. I started at 200 °C and have gone to 205 °C and a little bit more. I started printing and I might get this message again or might not. Also, the temperature seems to change or lower while printing. It is not stable.

Any suggestions as to what causes this unstable behavior?

Following the above behavior, I was able to raise the temperature to 213 °C and I was printing for 10 minutes or so, then I got the message "thermal runaway".

I managed to capture the event here

Answer:
This sounds like a bad thermistor. Try replacing the head thermistor, see if this fixes it.
As for the strange error message, it looks like the word Temperature is being drawn on the wrong line, and then "is too low" writes over it.
See the way the word lines up below:
```
```
nozzle temperature
is too lowperature
```
```


Question:
For some reason, my larger prints, or rather the ones that I create, have this "dotted" line in them. And, that line usually splits into two pieces.

I use Ultimaker Cura for a slicer, I use Blender for modeling, and I have an Ender 3 Pro

Let me know if anyone knows the reason for this as it's preventing me from making things on my own.

Picture:

Here's my Cura file, if anyone needs it

Answer:
At first glance, this looks like it could be missing layers.
There are five possible causes for missing layers.
Something is off mechanically.
Check to see if anything has slipped, shifted, moved, or popped out.
Misalignment
Check to see that all three axes are properly aligned and haven't shifted. If there is any resistance, something is misaligned, bent, or a problem with the bearings.
Bad Bearings
If a bearing is the culprit, it will make some noise. The bearing will also exhibit some uneven motion in the print head.
Lack of Lubrication
Check to see if any of the axes are binding in any way. A little, and just a little, bit of sewing machine oil can be the solution.
Under-Extrusion
This is a whole different set of problems that requires a new question to get an answer.
For more detailed information, see All3DP.com's article "
3D Printing Troubleshooting All Common Problems
"


Question:
Can you convert a 3D printer to a laser engraver?

If so is there a specific thing I have to buy?

Answer:
Yes, one can convert a 3D printer into a Laser Engraver, and it isn't even all that problematic.
You'd need to acquire a laser diode. These are usually not available with a lot of power - certainly not the hundreds of Watts that come from a proper CO2 laser - but depending on your printer, it might be pretty much a bolt-on addon.
The conversion isn't
too
invasive, and takes much less time than building a printer from a set.
All3D
converted an Ender-3 to have a laser within less than an hour. In their step-by-step guide, they wired it into the 5V part cooling fan port of their printer. Whatever laser diode you choose, the setup will be similar, as long as your diode works with 5 Volt power.
Once installed on the physical side, you will need to prepare your prints with a different "Slicer" that uses the commands for the fan speed as powers for the laser:
```
M106 S
```
sets the power to S, where S is a number from 0 to 255 ; Without an S value, it turns on to the last setting (if turned off via
```
M107
```
)
```
M107
```
turns off the laser.
One such slicer would be
Creality Workshop
, which would work with any Marlin-run printer, as long as you use the fan as the diode's power source.