The current version of Orca Slicer also added Scarf joint seams, where the seams get less visible (but wider) by printing them like wedges for each layer. I found it quite neat on round decorative objects where Seams can be very obvious. This feature released about a month after your video post.
@@SmallBatchFactory if you want perfection it may be but just enabling it and leaving all the settings as is makes a noticable improvement. Bambu Studio also implemented this feature in the beta build but seems to get worse results than Orca Slicer for now. It's not perfect but really nice for certain prints.
OrcaSlicer has a maximum volumetric flow calibration test built in as well, where you can visually inspect for under extrusion. I’ve recently moved to OrcaSlicer because of the built in calibration tests like SuperSlicer and extra things like Inner/Outer/Inner walls, and Poly holes.
I've seen those but wasn't sure if visual inspection is enough for a meaningful choice. There are a few really cool features, over all the GUI feels a bit sluggish to me though. I may have to try Superslicer
Yeah, here the periodic head movement is not distracting anymore. But I have to say, that the elephant foot compensation (atleast in Cura) only adjusts the first or first few layers. But the elephants foot stems from the first 4-6 layers.
@@SmallBatchFactory it depends, most people have what we call ceramic beds, these are very cool, they release the print when they cool off. And cling on like a 5 year old child that's afraif from santa.
Another great way to avoid stringing is pressure advance in the Klipper firmware. Recently tuned a friend’s Ender 5 Plus (just upgraded with Klipper, otherwise stock) with Polymaker CosPLA and was able to use 1 mm retraction, using a pressure advance of iirc roughly 0.8. It also helps print quality overall, especially on a machine with overall marginal acceleration performance like that one.
Another good video with some great advice. I just moved over to Orca Slicer and have been printing with it, for the last week... it's an excellent slicer, with a well balanced combination of Cura/Prusa features. The z-seam functions are robust and they've improved overall quality. I've bumped my speeds by about 15-20% and get the same quality prints.
It's definitely a great Slicer. I just can't wrap my head around some UI decisions. Might be just old habits but some features are even missing (mentioned in my "remove logos" video). For someone using those features it can be a real bummer. And the second issue is I can't easily transfer my profiles and Prusa probably won't port the mk3 profiles over.
Great content! I’m currently trying to figure out how to get rid of the hull line after just discovering what the heck was going on and what it was called! If you don’t have a video on that id love to see you cover it
Thanks! There's a great article on the Prusa website about the hull line. The short version is you have to do a lot of tinkering for your machine and material. Sadly there is no cookie cutter method and it's a whole lot of work for one single use case. Another model might end up totally different still.
I’ve also noticed missed or even combined walls when using a step file using Bambu studio. I designed a part with a thin inner moving part and it would always fuse that part with the walls next to it even though the tolerances were more than adequate.
Thank you very much for these tips! I tried to print an aritculated dragon 6 times and over and over there was the same problem. After watching this video I finally printed one. Thanks!
@@SmallBatchFactory In the middle of the print filament stopped coming out of the nozzle and the print looked like here 0:54. The print succeeded after I changed some retraction settings.
@hubert1889 I see, thanks! I've had that with TPU in the past, to the point we're I turned it off completely since I couldn't get any retraction to work
Agree with your tips in general. I prefer using Cura, but I get slightly better print results usually from Orca. That said, I was better at dialing out small issues like blobs and stringing with Cura. In Orca even with the wipe and seam gap settings, I tend to get a seam that looks unfinished rather than nice and clean. It's crazy how detailed you can get on dialing in print settings. I'm pretty used to just going through every menu at least once when I'm doing a new print with a specific material now. I know how each setting will affect something and I try to get it where I want it based on quality vs strength vs speed.
Haven't used Cura in years, maybe I should. Prusa Slicer just has so many great profiles already but I'm also experienced enough to do my own so maybe I should. To be honest I didn't do more than a few test prints with Orca yet since it still feels a bit alien to me. It has a few neat additions but it's also incompatible by choice (no ini file import from Prusa Slicer)
@@SmallBatchFactory I think the Cura interface just works better for my brain and process. I like the terminology used in some cases better too, but I have been using Orca most lately. If Cura would just add a few of the features from Orca I'd def use it more. I think for any Klipper machine with web tools, Orca makes a lot more sense as well. I haven't actually used vanilla Prusa, but I gather it's much the same with a different layout. That's really annoying about not letting you import from Prusa though. I have pretty much never used fully standard built in profiles in either slicer. I'm always tweaking and messing around. Can't help myself. I watched too many videos on how to improve prints to leave well enough alone.
@802Garage last time I used Cura you could also customize that options were shown. Was a bit confusing for me as a beginner.. Y first prints were all with concentric tops and bottoms since I didn't know any better. Not the strongest way to stack layers. It's probably the experience factor for me, Prusa Slicer is a bit Menüo riddled. Orca feels clumsy and not very responsive. I'm at a point where I can usually predict the outcome of whatever settings I set so maybe it's time to build my own profiles. The profile management in Prusa Slicer always seemed odd to me since you have to adjust every single layer height on its own and so many times things like Z-Hop just silently came back without me noticing...
@@SmallBatchFactory Hahaha they def all have their quirks! Yeah same here though I'm pretty on top of what all the settings will do now. Cura still hides a bunch of options, but it's easy enough to just make them all visible, which is what I did. :D
@802Garage as newbie having all those important options hidden bothered me. I like the Prusa approach there they have three skill tiers and mark every option green, yellow and red. Although I often don't agree with their chosen tiers
Thanks for the video. There are some excellent tips and suggestions even though I’m still struggling to understand their meaning. I’m brand new to the hobby. I’ve just obtained an Ender 3 (OG) printer. I’ve muddled through a few prints with the quality of the prints being surprisingly decent. That being said, I’m trying to learn PrusaSlicer setting by setting. Are there preconfigured filament setting files that can be downloaded? Seems that the filament manufacturers would provide these but I’ve been unable to any, except for those provided in PrusaSlicer. Can the material profiles for one brand of PLA+ Matte be used for all PLA+ Matte filaments? I have a ton of these questions. I’m slowly making my way through your catalog but any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the videos
Thank you for watching! In my experience specific settings for different filaments of the same category don't matter nearly as much as one would think. I usually just use "generic PLA" (PETG, ABS and so on). Some manufacturers recommend a different temperature range than the generic profile (Extrudr PETG prints a bit colder for example) and that's what I change then. If you're into optimizing the very last bit out of speed (quality is usually fine either way) you can tune a profile to perfectly fit a material. Did that when we printed face shields for the pandemic with an ABS filament. The profile completely fell apart when I used another ABS brand. For me speed doesn't matter that much. With experience you'll be able to tell issues while printing and adjust settings on the fly (I. E. matte outer walls indicate print temperate needs to be higher)
The issue with the step files is the program they were exported from. I usually find that fusion 360 step exports will have holes, almost exclusively on chamfer faces. The normal for those faces appears to be reversed. If you load a step file that has issues into FreeCAD, then convert to mesh; you will see that the faces with reversed normals match up with the missing faces in Prusa Slicer. I do not see the same behavior with step files exported from FreeCAD. I am sure there is an easier method, but I usually rebuild the edge that the chamfer was put on, then re-create the chamfer and export.
That's interesting! The step files came from Fusion and also had chamfers around the edges. And here I am expecting those files to be correct... Funny enough Fusion creates flawless STLs, but of course from their own internal f3d file format.
Content idea: SEMM Single extruder Multi Material. So multicolour without AMS. It's poorly documented, still requiring lurking through prusa forums, but very interesting. In few months I'm going to dive into it for my home cockpit (simpit) panels (labels in white). Idea 2: FreeCAD. So hot right now! ;)
Sounds interesting. In the past I did such things with material change at a certain layer or even setting the material change in the GCODE by hand. I tried FreeCAD a few times but didn't like how complicated things are handled. Especially that you can't extrude parts of a sketch, you always have to extrude everything.
@@SmallBatchFactory And that's why you should read the FreeCAD 1.0 release notes on the wiki! :) Multi profile sketch extrusions are now supported, plus many many more!
@@SmallBatchFactory From what I've read the SEMM should allow for multi color within a single layer. Different layers in multi color are obvious. You insert Pause right in Orca layer slider and change the filament as you normally would. The 0rinter doesn't care what you are doing during the pause :)
Do you have any videos that go into better explanation of MIN/MAX FAN SPEED THRESHOLD under the Orca Cooling tab of the filament section? Or even in Prusa, as I use both for different things. It is a setting that I am adjusting, but am not really sure what it is doing except changing my print speeds.
Basically min fan speed is what is used as if the layer time is at "enable fan of layer print time is below" (Prusa)" or "layer time" (Orca) and Max fan speed is used when the time is shorter as in "slow down if layer print time is below" (Prusa) or "layer time" (Orca). Everything in between means the fan speed is somewhere appropriate between min and max speed. You can see the print speed of you select "print speed" instead of "feature type" at the bottom of Prusa Slicer. It's got to be somewhere in Orca, but I currently don't know where.
Unless you got issues with the current settings I'll leave the rest of the settings as they were. Length and speed depend on the printer and type of filament.
Thank you! For now that's all I have, the channel is still pretty new. I'm still "stuck" on Prusa Slicer since I'm used to that interface and transfering my profiles is hard. Working on using Orca more in the future.
I may have to give Superslicer a shot since the Orca GUI feels a bit alien to me. I don't have any Bambu printers so their studio probably won't work for mine.
@SmallBatchFactory have you done a video, or would you be willing to make a video, showing how to print PVA with PLA for Bambu Labs printers? Particularly with the X1C and/or P1S? Does OrcaSlicer have good initial settings (I don't own a 3D printer at the moment, but I want a printer that can do PVA really well). Does the AMS for the BambuLabs printers have the capability to dry PVA sufficiently enough to print reliably with it (if at all)? If not, what would you recommend for drying PVA? I'm seriously considering buying the X1C with an AMS just so I can print PVA with PLA as easily as possible--due to the lidar sensor and a few other upgrades for general long-term durability and the ability to experiment with other filaments when I feel more confident in my abilities.
I neither have a Bambu printer nor PVA at hand. Printing those materials is more or less the same on any printer. You'll be using Bambu's own Slicer, Orca is just the open source version for other printers. They have plenty of profiles which should work flawlessly. The AMS has no integrated filament drying. You'd have to dry it somewhere else, in a food dehydrator for example, then put in the AMS and add a box of silica pearls to keep it dry.
@@SmallBatchFactory thanks for the quick reply! Hopefully PVA won’t be too hard to print with for Bambulabs. A cousin’s work (which is a manufacturing facility for PTFE baffles for the semiconductor industry-ie they work with many type of plastics) has a bambulabs 3D printer that they got last year. They’ve tried PVA but said that it was difficult to work with. Or that it was bad for the nozzle or something like that. I know that PVA loves to string, but I was surprised that they were having such difficulty with PVA. Granted, I don’t know if they were using the X1C or something else. Plus, while I imagine they dried their PVA before use, I don’t know that for sure. This is part of the reason I want to see a video on the subject with one of these printers. I want to know if Bambulabs really can do it without a lot of tweaking of the slicer settings. Do you know of a video that does a good job of showcasing the X1C’s and/or P1S’s ability to print PVA? I’ve tried to look, but I didn’t really find anything.
@TheBSprince I wouldn't worry too much about "can the Bambu do it". The materials properties are the same on any machine. It's more about the manufacturer of the filament, they can vary quite a bit. I assume you want to print soluble support material from PVA. HIPS is also a viable alternative, dissolvable in lemonene. PVA is very nichy so there's not a lot of info on it out there. I have no videos in mind but my suggestion is ignore which printer they use, it really doesn't matter that much. Apart from actual shortcomings (defects) they all get the job done.
Thanks for the in-depth video. You almost need to make a slicer-to-slicer dictionary to make sense some settings 😁. Did you ever notice how programmers and engineers are terrible at naming things clearly?
I'm still lost how to handle between Don't Slow Down for Outer Walls, Minimum Layer Time, Max Flow Rate and regular Speed settings. Especially the DSDfOW.
Minimun layer time primarily ensures you're not printing so fast that the print becomes a blob (only relevant if a layer doesn't have much area to cover). Max volumetric speed impacts every movement, like a limiter. You can't go above that, no matter what speed you set. Haven't used DSDfOW so far. I prefer slower outer walls for better looks
@@SmallBatchFactory Thanks. A gold mine channel you have and thanks for responding. With disabling DSDfOW it's not about not slowing down but keeping the speed more consistent... at the cost of not slowing down. The problem with the slowdowns is: 1. There is no smooth transitioning. 2. The speed can change several times per mere 10 mm of print height.
Thanks a lot! Doesn't sound like a big problem to me. Never had any reasons to keep speed more consistent. It might be different for bowden systems though
I've been printing a lot of parts with threads (for astro) but only in a small section. I'd like to print the threads at a finer resolution and the rest standard, is that possible? Artillery X2 with Cura and Marlin. I used your bed-leveling patches, that helped. Also (ahh 2 questions!) is there a good startup or pre-print ritual to go through with the printer besides turning on the heat, z=0 with paper and go?
I don't know about Cura but usually Slicers can't do differnt layer heights for the same part at different positions. Technically it's possible if you combine 0.2 mm overall with 0.1 mm, but not out of the box AFAIK. Bed leveling is usually necessary only once in a while for manual leveled beds. The only thing I find absolutely mandatory is cleaning the bed with a quick wipe of isopropyl alcohol. Ideally you have things like G28 (homing) directly in the Slicer as start GCODE added to every print file automatically.
By resolution, do you mean layer height? If so, you might want to try using adaptive layer height with your model. You’d then be able to set finer layer heights in the threaded section and thicker layer heights elsewhere. It’s particularly helpful with round objects (e.g. spherical) to reduce the layer stepping effect
@@larsboner9224The tab is resolution and there is also layer height. I'll check out adaptive layer height. Yes the lens holders are round but not spherical. Flat. I see what you mean.
Interesting. I always have excellent results with step files on PrusaSlicer. But I don't use Fusion360. I use FreeCAD. Maybe the F360 step export is defective?
Someone else also said that and backed it up with examples. I would've expected Fusion to handle such an essential thing flawless. I'll have to do a few more tests.
@@SmallBatchFactory can we get some more love for FOSS CAD software please? Imagine if all that money people spent on licenses, instead only a fraction went towards good FOSS CAD projects like FreeCAD. We would all have much better CAD, freely available.
I still have to figure out how FreeCAD works, it's a bit clumsy but I really love the idea. It would be cool to have CAD tool doing one thing really great (solid modeling for example) instead of trying to do everything but working only half the time. Fusion is also free for personal use so I have a hard time using FreeCAD fighting against the usability issues when I just want to get things done. I'd love to donate to. FreeCAD in the future if I manage to raise enough funds.
I purchased a Bambu A1 printer in December. I have been using Cura for four years with my other 3D printers and I’ve been using Ironing with Cura and my prints look great. In Bambu Slicer I have been trying to dial in my ironing settings, but I have had no luck in getting a successful print with Ironing enabled. Do you have suggested settings I can use for Ironing? Thanks!
It's not always about the settings. I'm not sure about your other printers but Google tells me the A1 has one of those pointy nozzles. In my experience you get not that good of a result with those compared to the E3D ones with a larger flat area around the orifice.
For every print. I had a HyperCube around 2018 and I spent AGES tuning it. Even printing plain cylinders (not vase mode), I got the seam to vanish. Sadly the slicer profiles are long gone, but iirc it was mostly the things you covered - wipe and coasting, no Z hop, good retraction length and restart length. I also had to perfectly tune extrusion multiplier per roll of filament. I was printing only with eSun because their filament diameter was consistent around and along the whole roll. I've only just gotten back into printing and my Prusa Mini has a very visible seam. It's really bothering me.
@JamieBainbridge sounds intriguing. I have to give it a try when I have some time to spare. Looks like the hypercube was a direct drive printer, with a bowden like the Prusa mini tuning can be a lot more tricky. Never got my CR-10 to stop leaking. But that was also with older Slicer versions.
Any tips on setting up a a printer with klipper? Iv a cr10 smart pro running a sonic pad and I can't see any1 doing a video on how to set that up to get the best possible results
I know it's not what you want to hear but the Klipper documentation is really great for getting the best out of the printer. For a start you can probably use the config of an Ender 3 and go ahead from there.
@@SmallBatchFactory I was using the ender 3 s1 pro profile for the marlin but once changed over to klipper I wasn't sure if I should change it to klipper in the settings? Also in cura u disable acceleration control but is there the same in orca I wasn't sure I could see it being new to 3d printing I couldn't find a good start point for orca with klipper
@@SmallBatchFactory thanks ill go hunt for that I couldn't see it initially! Should I change the gcode to klipper or leave it marlin (in cura it's marlin)
Dann brauchst nen anständigen Drucker. Die Geräusche hängen von den Treibern für den Motor ab. Da kannst du im Slicer nix machen. Der Prusa im silent Modus ist enorm leise.
Personally, I think it's overrated that normal filament has to be dried. I use PETG, which has sometimes been lying around open for years and have never had any problems with it. The prints were always perfect. On the topic of drying in the oven. Of course I can dry the filament in the oven. Nobody would probably think of doing this with food at the same time. And it is not forbidden to clean the oven afterwards 😅
I also rarely dry my filament. As you said, not many issues. Stringing is a bit more noticeable. I only ever dryed Nylon and a spool of PETG specifically for this video. You'd have to clean the oven very thoroughly. I have so much residue in my printers acrylic sheet, I wouldn't want to have the same on my ovens walls. It's just not worth the effort, filament dryers are pretty cheap.
@@SmallBatchFactory OK, maybe you're right and I should reconsider. What works well are fruit dryers. I think the Sunlu dry box is useless. As far as I know, I saw it at a friend's house, this box doesn't have any vents for the warm air to escape. This means that the warm, moist air remains trapped in the dry area. Or has sunlu changed the design? Your IKEA Hach is great 🙂
At least I wouldn't risk it. Ultimately it's everbodies own decision. The Sunlu I got is a newer version with a small fan. Food dehydrators are probably better. Only advantage is the Sunlu has a spool roller so you can print out of it. Thanks, those IKEA boxes are sealed really good. I have a few more but that's the only one you can print directly out of.
The current version of Orca Slicer also added Scarf joint seams, where the seams get less visible (but wider) by printing them like wedges for each layer. I found it quite neat on round decorative objects where Seams can be very obvious. This feature released about a month after your video post.
I've heared of it. AFAIK it takes a lot of tinkering
@@SmallBatchFactory if you want perfection it may be but just enabling it and leaving all the settings as is makes a noticable improvement. Bambu Studio also implemented this feature in the beta build but seems to get worse results than Orca Slicer for now. It's not perfect but really nice for certain prints.
I have to try it. Couldn't get myself to make Orca my daily driver yet.
Seems Bambu is lost without taking innovation from the open source community.
You have to love searching for this exact topic and finding your video 30 seconds later.
I was in a hurry to finally upload, seems there was a good reason to hurry!
OrcaSlicer has a maximum volumetric flow calibration test built in as well, where you can visually inspect for under extrusion.
I’ve recently moved to OrcaSlicer because of the built in calibration tests like SuperSlicer and extra things like Inner/Outer/Inner walls, and Poly holes.
I've seen those but wasn't sure if visual inspection is enough for a meaningful choice.
There are a few really cool features, over all the GUI feels a bit sluggish to me though. I may have to try Superslicer
this is one of the best printing tips videos I've come across. thank you!
I'm going to have to rewatch this one a few times to really digest all the good bits of info in it!
You're always welcome :-)
I need this guy on speed dial...
Great summary.
Orca is love, orca is life.
Yeah, here the periodic head movement is not distracting anymore.
But I have to say, that the elephant foot compensation (atleast in Cura) only adjusts the first or first few layers.
But the elephants foot stems from the first 4-6 layers.
Sounds like you turn up the bed heat a bit too much. I've never whitened a real elephant foot, meaning the print getting soft and deforming.
@@SmallBatchFactory it depends, most people have what we call ceramic beds, these are very cool, they release the print when they cool off.
And cling on like a 5 year old child that's afraif from santa.
Another great way to avoid stringing is pressure advance in the Klipper firmware. Recently tuned a friend’s Ender 5 Plus (just upgraded with Klipper, otherwise stock) with Polymaker CosPLA and was able to use 1 mm retraction, using a pressure advance of iirc roughly 0.8. It also helps print quality overall, especially on a machine with overall marginal acceleration performance like that one.
Pressure advance is especially important for sharp corners. Even more so with a bowden system. It definitely also helps with stringing.
Another good video with some great advice. I just moved over to Orca Slicer and have been printing with it, for the last week... it's an excellent slicer, with a well balanced combination of Cura/Prusa features. The z-seam functions are robust and they've improved overall quality. I've bumped my speeds by about 15-20% and get the same quality prints.
It's definitely a great Slicer. I just can't wrap my head around some UI decisions. Might be just old habits but some features are even missing (mentioned in my "remove logos" video). For someone using those features it can be a real bummer. And the second issue is I can't easily transfer my profiles and Prusa probably won't port the mk3 profiles over.
Great content! I’m currently trying to figure out how to get rid of the hull line after just discovering what the heck was going on and what it was called! If you don’t have a video on that id love to see you cover it
Thanks! There's a great article on the Prusa website about the hull line. The short version is you have to do a lot of tinkering for your machine and material. Sadly there is no cookie cutter method and it's a whole lot of work for one single use case. Another model might end up totally different still.
I’ve also noticed missed or even combined walls when using a step file using Bambu studio. I designed a part with a thin inner moving part and it would always fuse that part with the walls next to it even though the tolerances were more than adequate.
Someone mentioned it might be an issue with the STEP files Fusion 360 generates
makes sense!@@SmallBatchFactory
Thank you very much for these tips! I tried to print an aritculated dragon 6 times and over and over there was the same problem. After watching this video I finally printed one. Thanks!
I'm glad I could help! What was the issue before?
@@SmallBatchFactory In the middle of the print filament stopped coming out of the nozzle and the print looked like here 0:54. The print succeeded after I changed some retraction settings.
@hubert1889 I see, thanks! I've had that with TPU in the past, to the point we're I turned it off completely since I couldn't get any retraction to work
Agree with your tips in general. I prefer using Cura, but I get slightly better print results usually from Orca. That said, I was better at dialing out small issues like blobs and stringing with Cura. In Orca even with the wipe and seam gap settings, I tend to get a seam that looks unfinished rather than nice and clean. It's crazy how detailed you can get on dialing in print settings. I'm pretty used to just going through every menu at least once when I'm doing a new print with a specific material now. I know how each setting will affect something and I try to get it where I want it based on quality vs strength vs speed.
Haven't used Cura in years, maybe I should. Prusa Slicer just has so many great profiles already but I'm also experienced enough to do my own so maybe I should.
To be honest I didn't do more than a few test prints with Orca yet since it still feels a bit alien to me. It has a few neat additions but it's also incompatible by choice (no ini file import from Prusa Slicer)
@@SmallBatchFactory I think the Cura interface just works better for my brain and process. I like the terminology used in some cases better too, but I have been using Orca most lately. If Cura would just add a few of the features from Orca I'd def use it more. I think for any Klipper machine with web tools, Orca makes a lot more sense as well. I haven't actually used vanilla Prusa, but I gather it's much the same with a different layout. That's really annoying about not letting you import from Prusa though. I have pretty much never used fully standard built in profiles in either slicer. I'm always tweaking and messing around. Can't help myself. I watched too many videos on how to improve prints to leave well enough alone.
@802Garage last time I used Cura you could also customize that options were shown. Was a bit confusing for me as a beginner.. Y first prints were all with concentric tops and bottoms since I didn't know any better. Not the strongest way to stack layers.
It's probably the experience factor for me, Prusa Slicer is a bit Menüo riddled. Orca feels clumsy and not very responsive. I'm at a point where I can usually predict the outcome of whatever settings I set so maybe it's time to build my own profiles. The profile management in Prusa Slicer always seemed odd to me since you have to adjust every single layer height on its own and so many times things like Z-Hop just silently came back without me noticing...
@@SmallBatchFactory Hahaha they def all have their quirks! Yeah same here though I'm pretty on top of what all the settings will do now. Cura still hides a bunch of options, but it's easy enough to just make them all visible, which is what I did. :D
@802Garage as newbie having all those important options hidden bothered me. I like the Prusa approach there they have three skill tiers and mark every option green, yellow and red. Although I often don't agree with their chosen tiers
Thanks for the video. There are some excellent tips and suggestions even though I’m still struggling to understand their meaning.
I’m brand new to the hobby. I’ve just obtained an Ender 3 (OG) printer. I’ve muddled through a few prints with the quality of the prints being surprisingly decent.
That being said, I’m trying to learn PrusaSlicer setting by setting.
Are there preconfigured filament setting files that can be downloaded? Seems that the filament manufacturers would provide these but I’ve been unable to any, except for those provided in PrusaSlicer. Can the material profiles for one brand of PLA+ Matte be used for all PLA+ Matte filaments? I have a ton of these questions.
I’m slowly making my way through your catalog but any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the videos
Thank you for watching! In my experience specific settings for different filaments of the same category don't matter nearly as much as one would think. I usually just use "generic PLA" (PETG, ABS and so on). Some manufacturers recommend a different temperature range than the generic profile (Extrudr PETG prints a bit colder for example) and that's what I change then.
If you're into optimizing the very last bit out of speed (quality is usually fine either way) you can tune a profile to perfectly fit a material. Did that when we printed face shields for the pandemic with an ABS filament. The profile completely fell apart when I used another ABS brand. For me speed doesn't matter that much. With experience you'll be able to tell issues while printing and adjust settings on the fly (I. E. matte outer walls indicate print temperate needs to be higher)
3:45
I have never ran into that issue with either Orca Slicer or Bambu Studio...
That's interesting...
For some reason it was only a real issue in Prusa Slicer. Some people said it's because of Fusion 360, that their STEP export is flawed
Excellent stuff!
The issue with the step files is the program they were exported from. I usually find that fusion 360 step exports will have holes, almost exclusively on chamfer faces. The normal for those faces appears to be reversed.
If you load a step file that has issues into FreeCAD, then convert to mesh; you will see that the faces with reversed normals match up with the missing faces in Prusa Slicer. I do not see the same behavior with step files exported from FreeCAD.
I am sure there is an easier method, but I usually rebuild the edge that the chamfer was put on, then re-create the chamfer and export.
That's interesting! The step files came from Fusion and also had chamfers around the edges. And here I am expecting those files to be correct... Funny enough Fusion creates flawless STLs, but of course from their own internal f3d file format.
Where can we get the bobble duck model? I want to mount one to my CR10 S4 top bar!
Added the links to the description for you
Content idea: SEMM Single extruder Multi Material. So multicolour without AMS. It's poorly documented, still requiring lurking through prusa forums, but very interesting. In few months I'm going to dive into it for my home cockpit (simpit) panels (labels in white). Idea 2: FreeCAD. So hot right now! ;)
poorly documented but with special facilities in the interface and gcode! (Multi material section in Orca)
Sounds interesting. In the past I did such things with material change at a certain layer or even setting the material change in the GCODE by hand.
I tried FreeCAD a few times but didn't like how complicated things are handled. Especially that you can't extrude parts of a sketch, you always have to extrude everything.
@@SmallBatchFactory And that's why you should read the FreeCAD 1.0 release notes on the wiki! :) Multi profile sketch extrusions are now supported, plus many many more!
@@SmallBatchFactory From what I've read the SEMM should allow for multi color within a single layer. Different layers in multi color are obvious. You insert Pause right in Orca layer slider and change the filament as you normally would. The 0rinter doesn't care what you are doing during the pause :)
@Tome4kkkk sounds like I need to check it out again!
Very nice walkthrough!
Do you have any videos that go into better explanation of MIN/MAX FAN SPEED THRESHOLD under the Orca Cooling tab of the filament section? Or even in Prusa, as I use both for different things. It is a setting that I am adjusting, but am not really sure what it is doing except changing my print speeds.
Basically min fan speed is what is used as if the layer time is at "enable fan of layer print time is below" (Prusa)" or "layer time" (Orca) and Max fan speed is used when the time is shorter as in "slow down if layer print time is below" (Prusa) or "layer time" (Orca). Everything in between means the fan speed is somewhere appropriate between min and max speed.
You can see the print speed of you select "print speed" instead of "feature type" at the bottom of Prusa Slicer. It's got to be somewhere in Orca, but I currently don't know where.
@@SmallBatchFactory thank ypu. You can see the print speed in Orca the same as in Prusa.
So, I'm getting back to "no Z hop". What would be your recommended Orca setting set for the entire Printer - Extruder - Retraction section?
Unless you got issues with the current settings I'll leave the rest of the settings as they were. Length and speed depend on the printer and type of filament.
@SmallBatchFactory So ill just leave everything from stock BL A1 profile, just z hop 0. Thanks.
Love your shirt LOL. Do you have more on Orca slicer I deleted all the others I had after just the first print, it was all I needed to switch.
Thank you! For now that's all I have, the channel is still pretty new. I'm still "stuck" on Prusa Slicer since I'm used to that interface and transfering my profiles is hard. Working on using Orca more in the future.
Great content as usual! Keep it up 💪
Thank you!
Cura's naming for slowing down before a layer is finished is the only one intuitively named lol.. "Minimum layer time"
It could've been so simple
Been a lot of bugs introduced to Orca as of late, so ive gone back to bambu studio.
I may have to give Superslicer a shot since the Orca GUI feels a bit alien to me. I don't have any Bambu printers so their studio probably won't work for mine.
It will, you can add your own custom printers to bambu studio. I did it for an old Tronxy X5S that runs klipper. Works really well.@@SmallBatchFactory
@SmallBatchFactory have you done a video, or would you be willing to make a video, showing how to print PVA with PLA for Bambu Labs printers? Particularly with the X1C and/or P1S? Does OrcaSlicer have good initial settings (I don't own a 3D printer at the moment, but I want a printer that can do PVA really well). Does the AMS for the BambuLabs printers have the capability to dry PVA sufficiently enough to print reliably with it (if at all)? If not, what would you recommend for drying PVA?
I'm seriously considering buying the X1C with an AMS just so I can print PVA with PLA as easily as possible--due to the lidar sensor and a few other upgrades for general long-term durability and the ability to experiment with other filaments when I feel more confident in my abilities.
I neither have a Bambu printer nor PVA at hand. Printing those materials is more or less the same on any printer. You'll be using Bambu's own Slicer, Orca is just the open source version for other printers. They have plenty of profiles which should work flawlessly.
The AMS has no integrated filament drying. You'd have to dry it somewhere else, in a food dehydrator for example, then put in the AMS and add a box of silica pearls to keep it dry.
@@SmallBatchFactory thanks for the quick reply! Hopefully PVA won’t be too hard to print with for Bambulabs. A cousin’s work (which is a manufacturing facility for PTFE baffles for the semiconductor industry-ie they work with many type of plastics) has a bambulabs 3D printer that they got last year. They’ve tried PVA but said that it was difficult to work with. Or that it was bad for the nozzle or something like that. I know that PVA loves to string, but I was surprised that they were having such difficulty with PVA. Granted, I don’t know if they were using the X1C or something else. Plus, while I imagine they dried their PVA before use, I don’t know that for sure.
This is part of the reason I want to see a video on the subject with one of these printers. I want to know if Bambulabs really can do it without a lot of tweaking of the slicer settings.
Do you know of a video that does a good job of showcasing the X1C’s and/or P1S’s ability to print PVA? I’ve tried to look, but I didn’t really find anything.
@TheBSprince I wouldn't worry too much about "can the Bambu do it". The materials properties are the same on any machine. It's more about the manufacturer of the filament, they can vary quite a bit. I assume you want to print soluble support material from PVA. HIPS is also a viable alternative, dissolvable in lemonene.
PVA is very nichy so there's not a lot of info on it out there. I have no videos in mind but my suggestion is ignore which printer they use, it really doesn't matter that much. Apart from actual shortcomings (defects) they all get the job done.
Thanks for the in-depth video. You almost need to make a slicer-to-slicer dictionary to make sense some settings 😁. Did you ever notice how programmers and engineers are terrible at naming things clearly?
I'm a programmer doing a lot of code reviews so yes, I totally noticed :-D at least in the Slicer they don't use abbreviations at every corner...
Right on the money with Z hop. I get SOOOOO much better quality without it. Be sure to use an infill that doesnt collide such as Gyroid.
It's the same as "don't use cooling on ABS", there's a dogma out there and no one bothers to ask twice.
great topic, thanks👍
I'm still lost how to handle between Don't Slow Down for Outer Walls, Minimum Layer Time, Max Flow Rate and regular Speed settings. Especially the DSDfOW.
Minimun layer time primarily ensures you're not printing so fast that the print becomes a blob (only relevant if a layer doesn't have much area to cover).
Max volumetric speed impacts every movement, like a limiter. You can't go above that, no matter what speed you set.
Haven't used DSDfOW so far. I prefer slower outer walls for better looks
@@SmallBatchFactory Thanks. A gold mine channel you have and thanks for responding. With disabling DSDfOW it's not about not slowing down but keeping the speed more consistent... at the cost of not slowing down. The problem with the slowdowns is: 1. There is no smooth transitioning. 2. The speed can change several times per mere 10 mm of print height.
Thanks a lot!
Doesn't sound like a big problem to me. Never had any reasons to keep speed more consistent. It might be different for bowden systems though
@SmallBatchFactory It's about PLA going from matte to shiny, back and forth. But I agree, it's an edge case.
Matte look is often a sign of too little temperature for the set speed. I'd expect faster printing to result in a more matte look
That's a sick shirt
Thanks!
I've been printing a lot of parts with threads (for astro) but only in a small section. I'd like to print the threads at a finer resolution and the rest standard, is that possible? Artillery X2 with Cura and Marlin. I used your bed-leveling patches, that helped. Also (ahh 2 questions!) is there a good startup or pre-print ritual to go through with the printer besides turning on the heat, z=0 with paper and go?
I don't know about Cura but usually Slicers can't do differnt layer heights for the same part at different positions. Technically it's possible if you combine 0.2 mm overall with 0.1 mm, but not out of the box AFAIK.
Bed leveling is usually necessary only once in a while for manual leveled beds. The only thing I find absolutely mandatory is cleaning the bed with a quick wipe of isopropyl alcohol. Ideally you have things like G28 (homing) directly in the Slicer as start GCODE added to every print file automatically.
@@SmallBatchFactory ok thanks, good to know.
By resolution, do you mean layer height? If so, you might want to try using adaptive layer height with your model. You’d then be able to set finer layer heights in the threaded section and thicker layer heights elsewhere. It’s particularly helpful with round objects (e.g. spherical) to reduce the layer stepping effect
@@larsboner9224The tab is resolution and there is also layer height. I'll check out adaptive layer height. Yes the lens holders are round but not spherical. Flat. I see what you mean.
Interesting. I always have excellent results with step files on PrusaSlicer. But I don't use Fusion360. I use FreeCAD. Maybe the F360 step export is defective?
Someone else also said that and backed it up with examples. I would've expected Fusion to handle such an essential thing flawless. I'll have to do a few more tests.
@@SmallBatchFactory can we get some more love for FOSS CAD software please? Imagine if all that money people spent on licenses, instead only a fraction went towards good FOSS CAD projects like FreeCAD. We would all have much better CAD, freely available.
I still have to figure out how FreeCAD works, it's a bit clumsy but I really love the idea. It would be cool to have CAD tool doing one thing really great (solid modeling for example) instead of trying to do everything but working only half the time.
Fusion is also free for personal use so I have a hard time using FreeCAD fighting against the usability issues when I just want to get things done. I'd love to donate to. FreeCAD in the future if I manage to raise enough funds.
Thats a bummer about STEP files. Guess ill have to go back to STL for now
Totally. But the good thing is other software can load and export them just fine so it's still the best base to have.
I purchased a Bambu A1 printer in December. I have been using Cura for four years with my other 3D printers and I’ve been using Ironing with Cura and my prints look great.
In Bambu Slicer I have been trying to dial in my ironing settings, but I have had no luck in getting a successful print with Ironing enabled.
Do you have suggested settings I can use for Ironing? Thanks!
It's not always about the settings. I'm not sure about your other printers but Google tells me the A1 has one of those pointy nozzles. In my experience you get not that good of a result with those compared to the E3D ones with a larger flat area around the orifice.
It is possible to entirely eliminate seam. It takes ages but you can do it.
Does it work universally then or just for the optimized print?
For every print. I had a HyperCube around 2018 and I spent AGES tuning it. Even printing plain cylinders (not vase mode), I got the seam to vanish. Sadly the slicer profiles are long gone, but iirc it was mostly the things you covered - wipe and coasting, no Z hop, good retraction length and restart length. I also had to perfectly tune extrusion multiplier per roll of filament. I was printing only with eSun because their filament diameter was consistent around and along the whole roll. I've only just gotten back into printing and my Prusa Mini has a very visible seam. It's really bothering me.
@JamieBainbridge sounds intriguing. I have to give it a try when I have some time to spare.
Looks like the hypercube was a direct drive printer, with a bowden like the Prusa mini tuning can be a lot more tricky. Never got my CR-10 to stop leaking. But that was also with older Slicer versions.
Oh I had Bowden on mine. The trick was a large enough retract to reduce pressure in the melt zone and a wipe to soak up anything remaining.
Any tips on setting up a a printer with klipper? Iv a cr10 smart pro running a sonic pad and I can't see any1 doing a video on how to set that up to get the best possible results
I know it's not what you want to hear but the Klipper documentation is really great for getting the best out of the printer. For a start you can probably use the config of an Ender 3 and go ahead from there.
@@SmallBatchFactory I was using the ender 3 s1 pro profile for the marlin but once changed over to klipper I wasn't sure if I should change it to klipper in the settings?
Also in cura u disable acceleration control but is there the same in orca I wasn't sure I could see it being new to 3d printing I couldn't find a good start point for orca with klipper
Orca also has a setting for acceleration control somewhere
@@SmallBatchFactory thanks ill go hunt for that I couldn't see it initially! Should I change the gcode to klipper or leave it marlin (in cura it's marlin)
@davyw2278 it's probably a good idea to set it to Klipper. No guarantee from my side though
Ich möchte vor allem LEISE drucken.
Dann brauchst nen anständigen Drucker. Die Geräusche hängen von den Treibern für den Motor ab. Da kannst du im Slicer nix machen. Der Prusa im silent Modus ist enorm leise.
Personally, I think it's overrated that normal filament has to be dried. I use PETG, which has sometimes been lying around open for years and have never had any problems with it. The prints were always perfect.
On the topic of drying in the oven. Of course I can dry the filament in the oven. Nobody would probably think of doing this with food at the same time. And it is not forbidden to clean the oven afterwards 😅
I also rarely dry my filament. As you said, not many issues. Stringing is a bit more noticeable. I only ever dryed Nylon and a spool of PETG specifically for this video.
You'd have to clean the oven very thoroughly. I have so much residue in my printers acrylic sheet, I wouldn't want to have the same on my ovens walls. It's just not worth the effort, filament dryers are pretty cheap.
@@SmallBatchFactory OK, maybe you're right and I should reconsider. What works well are fruit dryers. I think the Sunlu dry box is useless. As far as I know, I saw it at a friend's house, this box doesn't have any vents for the warm air to escape. This means that the warm, moist air remains trapped in the dry area. Or has sunlu changed the design?
Your IKEA Hach is great 🙂
At least I wouldn't risk it. Ultimately it's everbodies own decision. The Sunlu I got is a newer version with a small fan. Food dehydrators are probably better. Only advantage is the Sunlu has a spool roller so you can print out of it.
Thanks, those IKEA boxes are sealed really good. I have a few more but that's the only one you can print directly out of.
You guys probably live in a desert area
@@samsmucker6419 what you will say us?