Issue with 3D STL file for Prusia

[Anonymous]

My co-worker and I are having some issues getting my STL files to work properly in the new Prusia printer he has.

I work with Frame Generator and Tube and Pipe. While the rest of the components work fine in the assemblies. We are running into the issues with Frame Generator and Tube & Pipe.

The Frame Generator has issues with HSS not getting supported in the 3D mesh since it is hollow. Our 2nd issue is the steel members have weak connections to one another.

The other issue is with Tube & Pipe. Which is the same issue with the HSS from Frame Generator. The 3D printer has issues with the hollow aspect. And it ends up collapsing or breaking.

Any support on any of this would great. Thanks! 🙂

[3DAli]

Hi

I have a fair bit of experience with 3D printing and modelling properly for 3D printing. This is not an Inventor related issue by any means. you need to understand the process of 3D printing and its limits thoroughly in order to get a high quality print. please send your files through and I see what I can do to help you with the issues.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the sanity check. Is there anything he needs to do in his Mesh program? Or a tutorial he should watch?

[3DAli]

not really, the only thing to watch for is to make sure you have one solid not multiple solids, this cause weak joints in 3D printed model. besides, you need to make sure the minimum wall thicknesses are meaningful specially if you are scaling the model down to fit on the build tray. for example if you have 50x50x5mm HSS and your model is scaled by 30% you are left with 1.5mm wall thickness on the HSS which might yield poor results, so my suggestion is to derive your assembly into a part and choose combine parts (no seam) and then use thicken/offset command to tweak wall thicknesses. I highly recommend using simplify3D to prep the model for 3D printing, you can get amazing results if you know how to use this software.

hope this helps

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

...new Prusia printer . 🙂

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What is the build envelope on the printer?

Are you printing 1:1 scale or are you scaling down to print?

If you are scaling down - what is the original bounding box size and then what is the scaled bounding box size?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Inventor creates editable Brep geometry. The main objective is to represent the geometry is high quality and high precision. 3D Printing requires special structure to support the body. Inventor is not good at creating such support structure. You may want to check out the free mesh editing tool, Autodesk Mesh Mixer (www.meshmixer.com). It has fairly extensive tools to manipulate and analyze mesh objects.

Many thanks!