Any 3D printing enthusiasts?

kat.ingalls · ‎03-28-2013

I've been interested in 3D printing for a long time, but have never really had a chance to experiment. We just got a MakerBot Replicator 2 in the Autodesk Portland office, and I'm excited to get it set up and start using it! Especially with Fusion 360 🙂

I'm sure there's a lot of us that are 3D printing hobbiests. Would love to hear your experiences, any tips you have for a newbie, and definitely looking forward to seeing your 3D-printed creations in the gallery!

Kat

Fusion 360 Social & Community Manager
twitter: @adskFusion360
facebook: /fusion360

cekuhnen · ‎03-31-2013

Hi there,

I use 3D printing from time to time for jewelry and product design.

Here is a recent project I did. Sculpted with subdivision surface modeling and then printed via ShapeWays.

This is great that this type of technology is getting so affordable now.

Claas Kuhnen

Faculty Industrial Design – Wayne State Universit

Chair Interior Design – Wayne State University

Owner studioKuhnen – product : interface : design

big_red_frog · ‎03-31-2013

I have been running a replicator 2 since Christmas as purely a home hobby interest.

I had been using inventor fusion ( since migrating from 123D beta 9 ) as my modelling package, and now looking to make the shift to Fusion 360 with the inventor fusion beta expiring on windows 😞

cekuhnen · ‎03-31-2013

So how is your impression of it? How is the print quality and detail level of that new replicator 2?

Claas Kuhnen

Faculty Industrial Design – Wayne State Universit

Chair Interior Design – Wayne State University

Owner studioKuhnen – product : interface : design

michaelpgeyer · ‎03-31-2013

We just got a replicator 2 for the Autodesk office here and are going to get it set up this week. Any advice on setup or best practices for using it with Fusion 360?

Mike Geyer

Anonymous · ‎04-01-2013

Yeah, I got my Rep2 a month or two ago, and I've definitely found that there's a learning curve.

1) Make sure it's in a temperature-stable area, preferably 70F or higher. Don't blow fans on it or put it near open windows. Temperature gradients inside the build area can lead to warping and delamination.

2) Use the blue painters' tape that comes with the machine, and buy a few rolls to use thereafter. You can re-use the tape until it starts to tear up with use; no reason to replace it with each build. Using the tape aids adhesion to the build plate and helps prevent the first layer from peeling back--a surefire way to ruin your prints.

3) Make sure to design your parts so that there is a large flat area at the bottom. Even if you plan to remove it later, the flat area (known as a 'raft') will aid adhesion. Don't use the Makerware's built-in 'raft' feature, because this doesn't always stick well to the build plate. A single .25mm (i.e. one layer at Medium res) solid chunk at the base of your part will suffice.

4) You'll need a pair of needle-nose pliers near the machine for removing build supports, and a palette knife to separate parts from the build plate. I have a painter's knife that works brilliantly.

5) The extruder can bridge over taps of 2cm or less without much difficulty, so keep that in mind when deciding whether or not to build 'supports' into your print. Supports are indespensible at times, but if you can get away without using them the prints will often be much cleaner. A little planning while still in CAD land is a big help.

6) Be sure to tighten the X and Y motor couplings before you use the machine and frequently thereafter. If your prints are leaning to one side or another or you're seeing unexpected tolerance problems, this is likely the problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76XaGlyG0Z0

7) Be sure to lubricate the X-pulley frequently by adding grease and then jostling the belt back and forth. The grease quickly gets squeezed out, and a sticky pulley can mess up your prints. If the printer starts squeaking at you, that's probably the issue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP47vjSZQtA

8) I found that the Makerware 'Medium' quality setting is fast, but quite poor quality. The 'High' quality setting is incredibly slow, but better. My compromise is to keep the quality preset on 'Medium' but crank the thread size down to .1mm (rather than the default .27mm), and up the number of walls to 3. That seems to work beautifully for most prints, and it slices much faster than the 'High' resolution setting.

Good luck!

kat.ingalls · ‎04-01-2013

Agreed, such an exciting time. 🙂 How did you find working with ShapeWays? Was it a pretty easy process? I love their site, but have never used their services before.

Kat

Fusion 360 Social & Community Manager
twitter: @adskFusion360
facebook: /fusion360

kat.ingalls · ‎04-01-2013

Wow, Adam - awesome advice!! Thanks so much for taking the time to share those tips. Will definitely put them to good use. Really insightful suggestion about quality vs. filament size. We have the 1.75mm to start... wonder how that will turn out. 😉 Can't wait to get started!

Have you tried printing anything built in Fusion yet? And big_red_frog, looking forward to hearing how Fusion 360 compares to Inventor Fusion for 3D printing!

Thanks again for the awesome tips 🙂

Kat

Fusion 360 Social & Community Manager
twitter: @adskFusion360
facebook: /fusion360

big_red_frog · ‎04-01-2013

Will be trying the basic workflow shortly. Now I can get my legacy .dwg in, going to tweak a file, and see if I can successfully export to watertight .stl and slice away...

cekuhnen · ‎04-01-2013

What ever can create polygon meshes should produce well working STL files. I send models to Shapeways made in Rhino, Alias and also a lot from Blender. My last jewelry project was a pure Blender modeling and it all worked out fine.

Of course how good the export STL mesher is can decide matters and Rhino sometimes uhm ja ...

Shapeways service is pretty easy like Amazin. Upload file (make sure your mesh is water tight and has no issues - you can use Netfabb for that), select material, hit print, pay, wait, open mail package : enjoy !

Claas Kuhnen

Faculty Industrial Design – Wayne State Universit

Chair Interior Design – Wayne State University

Owner studioKuhnen – product : interface : design

Anonymous · ‎04-02-2013

So far, my only 3D printing experience has been with a part I created in Fusion.

Unfortunately, the expiration of the Fusion program and move to 360 came as a complete shock to me when I tried to finish my second part for 3D printing this morning. 😞

But on the plus side, I got great results first time around and am expecting much the same again when I get back up and running again. Hopefully Fusion 360 is as good and reliable as the previous version - don't really want to go to a competitor.

Using Shapeways btw - but I think I'll look into getting my own 3D printer soon - realistically, between their profits and shipping charges, I'm going to end up spending a fortune so might as well get my own gear. 😄

Anonymous · ‎04-02-2013

I've been using my office Thing-O-Matic while I wait for my Robo 3D to be built.

One issue that has carried over from the Inventor Fusion (Mac) product is that the product doesn't seem to generate correct STL when fixed joints are involved. FreeCAD opens my file just fine but Replicator G just shows one of the sides of the joint. I've fixed this in the past by loading into FreeCAD, entering edit mode and then re-saving the file.

I don't know if this is a flaw in the, now obsolete, ReplicatorG or F360.

cekuhnen · ‎04-02-2013

@Anonymous wrote:

Using Shapeways btw - but I think I'll look into getting my own 3D printer soon - realistically, between their profits and shipping charges, I'm going to end up spending a fortune so might as well get my own gear. 😄

Very true with the price of desktop 3D printers they make sense to buy when you print a lot. Shapeways is great because they offer many print and cast option.

Claas Kuhnen

Faculty Industrial Design – Wayne State Universit

Chair Interior Design – Wayne State University

Owner studioKuhnen – product : interface : design

cekuhnen · ‎04-02-2013

@Anonymous wrote:

FreeCAD opens my file just fine but Replicator G just shows one of the sides of the joint. I've fixed this in the past by loading into FreeCAD, entering edit mode and then re-saving the file.

FreeCAD is quite an interesting project - while quite buggy and lacking many surfacing features. However their drawing/sketch and feature system works surprisingly well.

Claas Kuhnen

Faculty Industrial Design – Wayne State Universit

Chair Interior Design – Wayne State University

Owner studioKuhnen – product : interface : design

Anonymous · ‎04-03-2013

@cekuhnen wrote:

FreeCAD is quite an interesting project - while quite buggy and lacking many surfacing features. However their drawing/sketch and feature system works surprisingly well.

I've never used FreeCAD for design as the Fusion interface made more sense to me and I couldn't keep FC running for more than a few minutes at a time but it has helped me make an STL printable!

cekuhnen · ‎04-03-2013

FreeCAD is propably the most crash prone software I know 😉

Did you ever try NetFAbb to fix STL models? The basic version is free.

Claas Kuhnen

Faculty Industrial Design – Wayne State Universit

Chair Interior Design – Wayne State University

Owner studioKuhnen – product : interface : design

Anonymous · ‎04-03-2013

@cekuhnen wrote:
FreeCAD is propably the most crash prone software I know 😉

Did you ever try NetFAbb to fix STL models? The basic version is free.

I didn't even know it existed. I'll try it on my next print!

cekuhnen · ‎04-03-2013

I found it very usefull as it can perform many mesh repair functions (fill holes naked edges shells etc ...)

If you dont know about it you should take a look at it.

Claas Kuhnen

Faculty Industrial Design – Wayne State Universit

Chair Interior Design – Wayne State University

Owner studioKuhnen – product : interface : design

kat.ingalls · ‎04-03-2013

You mean Inventor Fusion? You should still be able to use and access the software... Hope that helps with any hiccups! Glad to hear your transition to Fusion 360 seems to be going smoothly, though! And thanks for the rad loyalty 😉

Did you see this Kickstarter project?
10x10x10 printer for $200. Or were you looking to build a custom printer?

Kat

Fusion 360 Social & Community Manager
twitter: @adskFusion360
facebook: /fusion360

Anonymous · ‎04-04-2013

I was just going to buy one of the £500 ones you can get "off the shelf" now, but that Kickstarter looks very interesting. Specs look good enough for me at first glance so I'm going back there as soon as I finish typing this to take another look. 🙂 Thanks for posting.

On the Inventor Fusion thing: it seemed to be completely dead. I tried for a while but it just kept reporting (on all of my machines at home and at work) that a license couldn't be obtained. That was when I learned that Fusion had been made obsolete in favour of this 360 beta. So I uninstalled it - perhaps hastily.

I'll admit I was a little annoyed, but my beta application got processed pretty quickly and I really don't mind shifting to a new product and giving feedback. As soon as the installer download gets fixed, I'm sure all will be fine. 🙂