Forgive me for my first post being what could be a basic question. Recently got the A1, and it’s been working great so far. I have one anomaly for something I’m trying to print. I’m using Orca Slicer. The object needs to be printed face down. I’ve used supports, reduced the layer height for the wonky area, but every time it comes out with all these rough lines and near the edge the slot, is coming apart. I’ve included a picture of the object in Orca Slicer, so you can see how it was oriented during the print, and a photo of the actual print with a red triangle pointing to the issue. This all really new to me, so any help would be appreciated. I’ve run other prints that have turned out great, it’s just the one section. I’ve also printed this object face up, and that resolved the issue for that section, but the face quality was not what I’m looking for. Any help very much appreciated!
Looks like a support issue. Check out the top support layer and first bridge layer orientations in the slicer Preview: ideally they should be perpendicular to each other. If they’re parallel, the bridge layer can fall into gaps in the top support layer. Rotating the model 90 degrees around the z axis can help a lot.
You could also try changing the support Interface pattern to be grid, as that provides support to bridge layers in any direction.
Thanks for the response. The support pattern was set to grid. I tried rotating the model 90 degrees, and the problem section got worse. I don’t think its a support issue. It seems more like when the printer is printing the rows to span the section, the rows are not sticking together properly. I also tried bumping the quality for that section way up, but as I mentioned, that print came out the worst so far.
Bridge rows are printed without touching each other deliberately, I think so that they remain independent and don’t weigh each other down. They should stick to the following rows, but perhaps not so well close to edges as you have here.
In my experience, bridging layers almost always come out poorly because of this. For long flat bridging layers I sometimes find that removing the bridge layer with a sharp edge after printing results in a neater part.
Could you perhaps tweak the part design, to add a tiny chamfer to that edge? Or perhaps design support into the part itself, so you can focus on supporting that edge better?
Thanks for the suggestions. For now it seems like the best solution is to just make the “slots” a separate back plate that can be attached to complete the section. This allowed the slots to be printed on the actual plate, and it came out straight, clean, and adhered together.