So, I was trying to work with Autodesk Meshmixer to generate support like I said in the last post, but it wasn’t producing support material that I was very happy with. I realized that I was thinking about things all wrong; I was looking at Meshmixer as a way to fix Slic3r, when I realized I just need to figure out how to replace Slic3r all together! One program that does both no support and support would be a much better alternative than one program that does no support and an external program to add support to an .stl file. Enter Simplify3d! From having used Simplify3d on other printers, I know that its support material is beautiful and comes off incredibly easily.
In order to transition my Hyrel to Simplify3d, I had to start from the ground up, creating a new printer in Simplify3d, specifying bed size, specifying extruder tool positions, etc. However, once I tweaked some settings, I got a pretty decent print out!
However, there are a few things I don’t like about the print that will require tweaking. The biggest example is the right picture above; the infill and top/bottom layers are really weak. There’s not enough filament flowing when these layers are built. So that will require some tweaking within the software to make them perfect! However, for a first attempt, it’s not bad.
I know this print doesn’t have support material, but that’s because I wanted to get the basic settings correct first before I moved onto a more complicated support material print! Stay tuned as I detail how I tweak my settings to get them perfect.
John (aka The Mad Printer)
The Mad Printer 