STL render is wonky in Simplify3D

[wvanhest]

I sketched out and extruded a hoolow chair in F360 and it looks alright in the initial render and import into Simoplify3D but then when I try and print it seems to ignore all but the first 11 layers. Pretty much it prints the backrest only and the first few layers of the "shell" - see screenshots

Wondering if its because it treats the two extrusions as different entities? I can't seem to join them as F360 sees them as a single body.

[TheCADWhisperer]

How much did you scale that down in order to print.

My guess is you scaled 3mm thickness down to basically no thickness.

Let's see.

If design is about 1500mm across the width and my printer envelop width is 150mm.

So I scale by 0.1 to get it to fit on the printer platen.

The thinnest feature is 3mm, so 3*0.1=.3mm, about the same thickness as three sheets of paper...

[LeonardoBN]

Hi @wvanhest. 

How large is the printer where you are printing it? It seems pretty big by the picture you attached.

It the printer is really big, it seems to me you haven't scale much your chair, or haven't scaled it at all, so I think you don't need to use Horizontal size compensation.

According to your F3D file, you have just one body, and it seems right. You could try to repair the STL, just to make sure.

I could see you have two Processes on Simplify. Are you using both of them? Make sure to select both when you Prepare to Print. Under these processes, check the Layer Modifications option, under Advanced. There you will notice if the options Start/Stop printing at height are correct.

Edit: the file seems OK, but I repaired it in Netfabb anyway.

[wvanhest]

I've got access to a big 3D printer prototype that is able to print 500 x 1500 x 1000 mm (XYZ) and have scaled it down to fit (I noticed my original was around 1700mm which is too big even when I angled it to fit the bed. The output nozzle is 3mm so I scaled the original layer to 3mm so that I could add shells to make a final thickness of 9mm. 

Tried to output again with SImplify3d, it seems to accept the backplate (where your back rests) but still won't output the height of the chair itself which is set at around 550mm.

[wvanhest]

Hi @LeonardoBN 

Thanks for the reply and the help.

I tried with your model and it still seems to render ok but when trying to print will only print the bottom layer or "backplate" as I call it. I think it may be a problem with my design or the stl output.

[LeonardoBN]

Interesting.

I tried to create a new printer here with the information you provided. Here I took my standard Process and tried to slice it:

Do you need to change printing parameters over the job?

[wvanhest]

@LeonardoBN 

Definitely something is off in the settings I think. I forced another profile like the D300VS Delta and it rendered ok (albeit off the entire bed as the model was too big) but when I go back to the "default" setting we have it doesn't want to show the extra layers.

I think I'll have to open up two instances of S3D and check off all the options side by side.

[wvanhest · Accepted solution]

Finally figure it out.

It was the “External Thin Wall Type” set to “Perimeters only” - see screenshot.

Once I allowed it to "allow single extrusion walls" then it modeled correctly and much faster than the original 196 hour (!) print time - down to 6 hr 54mins with moderate speed settings.

Putting a link here for anyone that had or has similar issues:  https://www.simplify3d.com/support/articles/printing-thin-walls-and-small-features/

Thanks @LeonardoBN and @TheCADWhisperer for pointing me in the right direction.