3D printing flush text.

[justinEW3F7]

I have simple workflow that is causing me some serious headaches.  The end result I am looking for is just a flat square piece that is 125mm wide and 6mm thick.  I sketched this shape out and extruded it.  I then created a new sketch on the face and created text. I cut the text out of the shape .4mm deep.  Then turned the sketch back on and extruded the text as a new body .4mm.  One thing I did notice is that Fusion did not like a lot of the fonts I selected.  At first it went unnoticed but upon closely inspecting it was extruded weird(if it even let me extrude).  I went back and exploded the text to confirm that there was overlapping faces.  After this was finally figured out I saved it as mesh 3mf.  Imported into bambu studio.  Here is where things went way down hill.  I could not change the filament for a given body.  The only way to change would be to paint.  Which only does the surface.  This problem was repeated with a simple cube as well.  Even though a given filament is shown in the objects tree it will not slice it with this color.  I went back and saved it as an STL.  After that I was able to change the colors but it Imported as a single body.  The message asking if I wanted to do multiple bodies never came up.  My work around was exporting the text and main body as two different files then importing them individually.  I really feel like this workaround should not be necessary and I am being an idiot.  Also why is the meta data of the 3mf preventing it from being edited in the slicer??  

[Drewpan]

Hi,

This is definitely a Slicer problem and possibly a Font Choice problem in fusion.

Not all fonts 3D print nicely unless they are huge. I don't know why this is but

it is. Sometimes it is something as subtle as using Bold or Italic and it will work.

Sometimes you need to simply pick a different version of the same or a similar

font. Have you tried bumping the size up a point or two?

If you have created the fusion object correctly then you should be able to print

the object and the text as separate objects. Have you checked that when you

created the text to be placed into the embossed holes you selected New Body?

If you didn't then it will simply have merged with the original body. It might

look different on the surface but it is all one. Double Check this setting as it is

easy to forget or miss it. Then double check that there actually IS a new body

that you can click on and it is the actual text.

If you have done all that then the problem will be with your Slicer. Bambu Studio

will accept both 3mf native files and stl files. If you have created a single object

then it will not be able to differentiate the text from the embossed holes. If it

can't detect it then it can't print in a different filament.

I have used fusion to create both stl and 3mf files and used Bambu Studio as well

as a number of other popular Slicers. This sounds like something fairly straight

forward. If you have multiple objects then Bambu should recognise them and you

should be able to print in multiple colours.

Cheers

Andrew

[justinEW3F7]

I did end up getting it to work with an STL.  I made the text a component and the main body a seperate component.  Then exported them individually and centered them.  If I try to export them at the same time the slicer doesnt recognize the tex at all. 

  I am realitivly new to 3D printing but intermediate with fusion.  I've done a dozen or so other projects as 3mf, those where either single color or i painted a surface with other colors.  Now I have a situation where I need the whole object to be a different color and thats where its being weird.  Even just using a very simple cube.  When I go to the objects tree and select a filament, it will show the new filament in the tree but the slicer will not recognize it at all.  Its like the Fusion meta data is overwriting the slicer data.  Its kind of driving me crazy haha

[Drewpan]

Hi,

I thought that might have been an issue. Think about it this way. Bodies make up

Components but only Components can be manipulated with Joints and such. If you

try to join two bodies then they become one body but you have to use a Joint for

components. This would explain why your Slicer couldn't determine the text because

it was not actually separate from the main body. As soon as you turned the text into

a component the Slicer had something it recognised.

If you are a little weak in places with fusion then I strongly recommend that you have

a read through the documentation and do the embedded tutorials within it. Also the

Self Paced Learning and AutoDesk University have some great resources for learning.

Cheers

Andrew

[justinEW3F7]

Sorry I am terrible at explaining myself.  So making it a component didnt actually fix the issue at all.  It was saving it as an STL and that still didnt solve the issue fully and required a work around.

 1. STL file uploaded in slicer converts the project into a single piece.  Even when saved as components.  The components have to be exported and imported separately for this to work

2. Saving as a 3MF recognized the individual parts but would not allow to change the individual filaments to change the color of the text.  I could change the entire project or paint.  The color would change in the object tree but would not slice.

3.  The problem with the filament change happens even with simple shapes.  I did a simple cube.  I was again able to change the project filament but if I went into objects and did so it would not apply to the actual slice.

So my thought is that with STL even though the text and main body are seperate components they are flush and  there is zero gap, and that causes the slicer to think thag it is a single object.

The 3MF has more meta data so the slicer recognizes that there are multiple components but that data is also preventing the material of those components from being manipulated individualy.  

I hope that did a better job explaining where I am struggling.

[etfrench]

Stl and 3mf is your problem.  Exporting as a step file allows you to set the color for each body/component in Bambu Studio. 

In Fusion, create the text in a component.  Export the text component and the main body as a step file. In Bambu Studio keep them as one part after Bambu Studio converts the step file. (It may or may not ask this each time).

[justinEW3F7]

Ahh ok thats similar to what I ended up doing except I made both items a component, which is why I had to import them individually.

  Any idea why the 3mf file does not work so well?  Im still new to the 3d printing but everyone seemed to lean towards that as their go tom

[etfrench · Accepted solution]

I stopped using mesh files quite a while ago.  The step files are converted in Bambu Studio with finer resolution than the mesh file resolution in Fusion.  Export the components as a single step file, not individually.  It helps if you have the main body and the text as subcomponents with the same parent.  The top node in the Browser is also a component, so if your text and main body are in separate components, turn visibility off on any extra components and export the top node.  You can also just keep all of the bodies in one component and export that, but that's not the best workflow.

[obulesub]

Hello @justinEW3F7,

If the information provided by the etfrench helps answer your question, please consider marking it as the Accepted Solution so it can help other users as well.

Let us know if you still need any further assistance.