There are several things involved in 3D printing, and the actual 3D printer is just the “engine” behind a list many necessary components.<\/p>\n
First and foremost, of course, you need an idea.If you don’t have any ideas… well, I can’t help you much.<\/p>\n
But next you need software to turn your idea into a 3D model.\u00a0 Note that 2D drawing software, like Paint, won’t do what needs to be done.\u00a0 I played around with Blender a bit, but found it to be more geared toward a 3D animation process, and while it will let you create a 3D model and export it in the requisite STL file format, I just didn’t get along well with it.<\/p>\n
I switched to FreeCAD, and have been using it exclusively since then.\u00a0 Like any complex software, it takes some time, watching tutorials on YouTube, playing, making mistakes, learning how to correct them, and then getting a comfort level.\u00a0 I was using FreeCAD a couple of hours each day, and in about a week, I think I’ve learned what I need to do what has to be done.\u00a0 Am I an expert?\u00a0 Not yet, by any means, but I’ve got that “critical mass” of knowledge, so now at least I can ask intelligent questions when searching on the Internet.<\/p>\n
The 3D modeling program must be able to output a “mesh” file (oddly enough called an STL file).\u00a0 This “mesh” is a very large number of triangles that describe all of the walls and\u00a0edges required to represent your model.\u00a0 There really are no circles or curves at this point, though there can be many very small lines that look like a curve.\u00a0 These triangles are represented by X, Y, and Z coordinates (that’s what you\u00a0use when you go 3D!) for each of the 3 points of each and every triangle in your model.<\/p>\n
Having learned FreeCAD\u00a0 — I’ll call that the “front end” of the 3D printing process — there are two other pieces of software you need.\u00a0 There is the middle piece, whose job it is to take the 3-dimensional model you created and “slice it” into layers.\u00a0 The folks at Lulzbot recommend Slic3r, an open source program that does a great job for the average user.\u00a0 If you will become a professional 3D printer person, you will probably want to use other software that lets you tweak things at a more detail level, but for the average hobbyist, I think Slic3r does a great job, and indeed has both “Simple” and “Expert” modes, so even the beginner can start off in a very easy<\/em> mode.<\/p>\n Here’s a little bit of technical detail of the process that the “slicer” performs.\u00a0 See, all of those triangles output by your modeling process have to be “sliced” up, so that the printer can first be directed to print only the bottom-most layer<\/em> of the model (Z = 1).\u00a0 The slicer program typically generates a special code that many 3D printers understand, called G-Code (for “graphics code,” I imagine) — typically referred to simply as gcode<\/em>.\u00a0 So the slicer program outputs commands to move the extruder (more specifically, the “hot end” of the extruder — the place where molten filament comes out of the print head) almost completely down to the surface of the printer bed (“down” being in the Z direction), then along the X and Y axis as needed.\u00a0 Where the model “exists”, gcode tells the extruder to “extrude”; where the model is “empty”, the gcode tells the extruder to “retract”.<\/p>\n Only after the slicer has created all of the X-Y coordinate movements and extruder commands on the first level does it then command the printer to move “up 1 layer” (Z = 2).\u00a0 Now X-Y coordinates and hot-end extrude-retract commands are done for layer 2.\u00a0 When layer 2 is done, it goes on to layer 3, and so on.\u00a0 Keep in mind that the slicer program is just writing out gcode to a file at this point.\u00a0 The printer doesn’t even need to be turned on yet!<\/p>\n Once your slicer program has generated the gcode for your model, you’re now ready to print!\u00a0 The printer needs to be turned on, and the final software piece can be fired up — the “printer interface”.\u00a0 The main purpose of the printer interface program is to read the gcode and send it down to the printer in a cooperative way.\u00a0 3D printers – like their 2D counterparts – actually talk back and forth to whatever software is printing to them.\u00a0 For example, the printer interface usually can command the printer to start the hot-end and bed heaters by setting them to a specific temperature.\u00a0 (I print my PLA on painter’s tape with a hot-end temperature of 200 C [about 390 F]\u00a0and the bed temperature at 70 C [about 160 F].)\u00a0 The printer interface can then query the printer to determine what the actual temperatures are, and display them to the user.<\/p>\n The Lulzbot folks recommend a printer interface called Pronterface.\u00a0 This\u00a0– like FreeCAD and Slicr –\u00a0is open source software available for many platforms.\u00a0 I think it does a good job letting you know what’s going on with the printer, both before the printing actually starts, and during the actual printing process.\u00a0 I especially like the feature when it loads a gcode file where it reports the following info:<\/p>\n I’m a Windows guy, and run Windows 7 on my main desktop machine, and Windows 8.1 on my laptop.\u00a0 I run FreeCAD and Slice3r on both machines, but primarily do my model work on my desktop.\u00a0 I store the 3D files on a folder on my Microsoft OneDrive (I’m sure you can use any cloud-based storage you prefer).\u00a0 When I’m ready to print, I go back to the “craft room” and run Pronterface on my laptop, connected to the Lulzbot printer.<\/p>\n I’ll also mention that you can totally bypass the printer interface program by loading your gcode on an SDHC card, which is then inserted into the printer.\u00a0 That method works fine, and if you are using several printers to print out material in large quantity, I’m sure that’s the “right way” to do it.\u00a0 But for one-at-a-time development work, you’ll want the convenience of direct monitoring of the printer via the printer interface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are several things involved in 3D printing, and the actual 3D printer is just the “engine” behind a list many necessary components. You Need an Idea First and foremost, of course, you need an idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P76pQa-12","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":251,"url":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/?page_id=251","url_meta":{"origin":64,"position":0},"title":"Projects","date":"April 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Click the Projects menu above to see the various projects as sub-menus, or click below: Dragon - I'm planning an animatronic dragon to sit on my shoulder Neo-pixel mask - Franklin wanted a special mask for a convention he attended in Oct\/Nov 2014 Coins-Worth - this device will process everyday\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9,"url":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/?page_id=9","url_meta":{"origin":64,"position":1},"title":"About Ray","date":"June 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Boring Personal Details Semi-retired, which means I don't work for anybody else any more.\u00a0 But that doesn't mean I'm not busy! 60 years old, did my first programming on punched cards. Living in Arizona, where it's very hot in the summer -- regularly 125 degrees in my back yard\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70,"href":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64\/revisions\/70"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3d.rayharwood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Printer Interface: Pronterface<\/h2>\n
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Operating Systems: Windows 7 and 8.1<\/h2>\n
Manual Printing: SDHC Card<\/h2>\n