Anette from GoldenDrops

In this tutorial you will learn how to prepare file for printing good quality model that need to be supported because of it’s hanging surfaces.

First of all, download Anette model from designfutures (you can use any other model you desire). Arrange it on the bed (rotate and/or scale) and click “VOXELIZE”.

When the software is finished with voxelizing your model, you should be automatically moved to voxel editor window. Here you can set all settings regarding 3d printing process.

First of all choose preset for your printing. We will use 1.75mm filament because we will use 1.75 Plastic Extruder. Now, set the layer height with which you would like to print. Higher layer makes prints much faster, but gives more rough surface. Afterwards, set infill ratio of your print. Since it is a figurine only, it doesn’t have to be durable. Infill of 12-15% should be more than enough (even without any infill this model will print correctly).

Now set bottom layer of printed model. Mainly, when there is support in the model, touching buildplate, power raft is a must-have. If the support is not touching the buildplate anywhere, then set bottom layer depending on the material you print with: power raft ABS for ABS or power raft PLA / box for PLA and its derivatives.

Now we need to add supporting structure to the voxel object. To do this click “Generate Support” button. The support should show up as blue, partially translucent object. Now click the “support settings” button. In the menu that appears you can adjust settings of generated support (you can adjust them before generating). The most important is “cutoff angle”, which determines minimum slope on the model’s surface to generate support below. Usually ZMorph machines can easily print up to 60 degrees of sloped surfaces. Next setting that you can adjust is the empty distance between model and last layer of support. Distance of around 0.4-0.5mm is usually good value. Finally you can change type of support (Standard, Outline, Outline + Infill) and which extruder should print support (especially useful when you want to print with dissolvable material).

Also by expanding advanced options you can of course change retraction settings, outline count (for figures change it to 2), infill etc.

Finally you can inspect layers of your print using slider on the right side of the screen.

Last step to do is to click GENERATE GCODE, and when the software finishes working, print your file either via USB cable through Voxelizer, or from internal/external SD card of your machine.

NOTES:

• Printing with ABS material, results in easier support removal.
• When choosing Outline + Infill type of support infill amount will be set to same as infill ratio of the main model.
• When printing with PLA set the min distance parameter to higher value (0.5-0.65mm), when printing with ABS, lower it (0.3-0.45mm). When you want to print with dissolvable support set it to 0 (for more information go here).
• You can also download ready for printing .gcode file below.