How do I get sharper corners on holes and text on outside walls?

[Scott_M]

I am wondering what to set to get sharper corners on raised text or through holes on the sides of my prints. With stock settings and running at standard speed on a hole it seems to add a generous radius which just doesn’t look that great. If the object has a sharp corner it does that nice and sharp. I know it can do it , the windows on my benchys look good. If there is raised text it seems to add a radius at the base of the text and the top, the text does not look sharp. I am sure there is a setting I am overlooking somewhere. Or should I just print slower?
I am using a P1P / no AMS and mostly ORCA, and my ORCA calibration cube looks great the raised and negative features look really good.
I can add some images if my description is not sufficient.

TIA
Scott

EDIT: to add images
More info
The text below is about 7mm high and all 3 letters together are about 16mm long. And protrude .35mm
Layer height .2mm .4 nozzle printed with PETG

On the prepare tab

Sliced

Grey PETG

White PETG

[Scott_M]

Added images to first post

Scott

[william.e.lewis464]

change it to a .08 layer or .12 max and re run it in normal speed, two things either you have to reduce the layer height which is easiest but takes longer or make the model text more pronounced in your flavor of CAD/Modeling software while thinking about the layer height you want. But either will fix this

wonder if turning off ARC control might help?

[Olias]

Looking at the letters I count between 22-24 layer lines. Assuming a .28 layer height or even a 0.20 layer height, which if I do my math correctly, makes those characters between 4-6mm in height. I think you may be asking too much from your filament and printer. They look fine to me for that kind of resolution on PETG.

[StreetSports]

If it were me, I would slow it down, lower temps and add fan if I wanted sharper corners. Also check belt tension.

[Scott_M]

Thank you for your reply’s
William
The text was added in Orca. I will try a smaller layer height.

Olias
Yes the layers are .2 and the height is 7mm ( as stated above )
I will reprint the lettered section tomorrow in PLA and see if that makes a difference.

Street Sports
Both of the "sliced " pics show the speed. ( pics above and below ) the outer wall is going pretty slow already. And my temps are optimum for this filament.

The parts are sanding sticks for 1/4" x 6" belts. I do not think they would hold up if printed in PLA. I push on them pretty hard sometimes.

This is a pic of it sliced showing inner layers. The one before the outer is going about 200mm/s ,but the outer is only going 60 something. and all the other square corners on the parts are pretty square.

Thanks again

Scott

[RocketSled]

[Scott_M]

Thanks RocketSled, now I have several things to test tomorrow.
On this print it was set to .012mm

Much appreciated !

Scott

[Scott_M]

I had some time today to do more testing. I tried to incorporate all suggestions.

To save some time and material I split the model on both sides of the text and kept the center section.

First test was with the same settings as used on the original prints, the only change was printing with PLA instead of the PETG. I could not see much difference. That could be the color, the yellow I used was kind of hard to see. I wanted to use gray ( it was the easiest to see on the other prints ) but I did not have any.

The next test was at half speed " Silent" mode . Again not much better.

The next test was with the resolution set to .002
Standard mode , still not much improvement
Silent mode, maybe a little better

Next I changed the layer height to .12mm and repeated the above tests. pics below, all PLA, all .12mm layer height.

These 2 are both “standard mode” .012 resolution on top .002 resolution below it.

These 2 are both “Silent mode” .012 resolution on top .002 resolution below it.

Here is a side view of the “Silent mode” .002 res. which was the best of them all if you look really close.

The whole part is only 9mm tall so these pics are really zoomed in. looking at them sitting on my desk, you can barely tell any difference. So I though maybe the text was just not standing proud of the surface enough for the toolhead to make a sharp turn cleanly.

So the next test was with the text sticking out another .5mm. It was run at .12mm layer height and .002 res in “Silent mode” Better still, but it sticks out to far to be comfortable in the hand. And sitting on the desk with the others it only looks like the text is taller. Not much sharper at all.

Look at the far right leg of the “M” it is almost a complete radius , hardly any flat on top. Could that be an acceleration issue?

So after all of this I am coming to the conclusion that this is just asking to much of a .4mm nozzle. I do not have a .2mm to try for the sake of thorough testing. I also don’t think it would be worth the time added to the print and it might make it weaker in end use. I may get the .2 in a future order and see if it will print this just for satisfaction of finishing the R&D.

Many thanks to those who offered suggestions it is appreciated !

Scott

[RocketSled]

As you demand feature sizes that approach the diameter of the extrusion, you reach a limit in the “resolution” of the print. Remember, the printer is trying to stay inside the outer dimensions of the model’s geometry, so things that protrude are going to have rounded corners to keep the extruded plastic inside that outline. If the width of the feature is small, the feature ends up rounded off. Like what you’re showing in that last image. The only way you’re going to make noticeable improvements is to make the lettering bigger so those rounded off features are proportionally smaller.

If you measure how wide the “legs” of the “M” are, I bet they’re close to 2mm or smaller (assuming a 0.4mm nozzle).

[skyme]

If all edges in x/y are too round, try lowering the k-factor.

[Scott_M]

@RocketSled
That makes perfect sense. I was just thinking it would resemble the sliced pics a little more.
Side note: If your screen name has anything to do with Col. John Stapp ( “the fastest man on earth”) pulling 46g’s in a sled…I’m a big fan

@skyme
I tune all of my filaments and usually tend to go a bit on the light side on K factor so I do not want to reduce it much more. This is the only area that is showing issues. All other corners are sharp.

Again, many thanks to all for the replies !

Scott

[RocketSled]

I’ve always been something of a performance-car guy. Once, I took a co-worker for a ride in my recently modified (I added a supercharger) Z06 Corvette and he remarked that it was a “real rocket sled”. I’ve been going with that as a handle ever since, following one rule: The next car I buy has to have more HP than the last car I bought. As a strategy, it’s encouraging me to keep my last car. I have to move up in to the 700+ HP range with my next purchase. I don’t think I want a street car with more power (unless it’s electric, but I am waiting since I think battery technology needs to be a bit better).

[Scott_M]

I sold my 1969 AMX a couple of years ago, I miss it. 390, dual quads, 12 teens in the quarter

Scott

[RocketSled]

With the right tires, I’d have gotten the Z in to the low 11s or high 10s. I was able to hit 11.82s once, on street tires. But mostly now I do twisties. Just mashing the gas and going fast in a straight line wasn’t that much fun…

[KanneKaffe]

Here is an example from me. You can compare a little. I have a constant layer height of 0.2mm on the entire object, including the lettering. The size/height of the “g” is about 5mm. Printed with a 0.4 nozzle. I think this corresponds to the greatest possible sharpness that can be achieved because the lettering is embedded in a different colour and therefore the direction for printing the lettering is rotate by 90° to the outer wall of the black object. I could certainly increase the sharpness by a factor of 2.5 by switching to a layer height of 0.08mm, but I don’t think this is necessary on my model.

The lettering protrudes one line width beyond the black wall. To achieve this, I left the font protruding a little less than 0.5mm.

Good evening!

[RocketSled]

Orientation matters, too. If the text protrudes from a vertically oriented face, you will get very different results compared to if the text protrudes from a horizontally oriented face. XY motion is continuous, so sharp edges get rounded off, but Z motion is discrete, sharp edges will be much “crisper”.

Small text will print better protruding (or inset) in to a horizontal surface than vertical.

[Scott_M]

Sorry for the late reply, turned into a crazy week.

KanneKaffe
That looks pretty good.

RocketSled
The top of the part has features that are far more important than the lettering so it is placed for the best printing mechanically. I will live with the lettering.

Thanks to all for all the feedback, It is very much appreciated !!

Scott