Tried it with Orca Slicer today. No difference. It still adds the funky artifacts in the sign background layers in anticipation of the higher levels that actually contain the text.
Well its hard to know what artifacts you want gone when you dont share any images
It’s not just enough to remove artifacts between letters. The artifacts are undeneath the letters, but their effects are seen in between letters since the topmost layer of the sign’s background doesn’t print in one big section, but as a bunch of small sections that are individually filled in. Even if the angle of printhead movement doesn’t change, if the printhead is not moving from one edge of the sign to another in a back and forth consistent pattern for the top layer of the sign’s background, but is instead stopping at various artifacts placed underneath where the letters will be printed on higher levels, then for shiny filaments that becomes a noticeable in the finish, as in this photo:
The artifacts were shown in the OP. That is what this thread is discussing.
OK, I figured out a very stupidly convoluted way to sorta do this in Bambu Studio (Orca Slicer not required):
- Place the sign(s) on the bed plate
- Use the Cut [C] tool to cut the sign at the boundary between sign background and sign text. Be sure that “Cut to Parts” is selected before making the cut.
- In the objects list view (left side of screen), expand the object and color the text part of the object to your constrasting color.
- Under the Quality menu (back on Global settings view), change “Only one wall on top surfaces” from “Top surfaces” to either one of the other two settings (Topmost Surface, or Not Applied).
The result will be that the slicer adds some artifacts underneath the text, but on top of those layers with the artifacts, there will be two layers of smooth consistent edge-to-edge filament extrusion, leaving the top layer of your sign’s background nice and smooth.
Yes, it’s a hack. But the Slicer has issues adding all these unnecessary artifacts in the first place.
Here’s a comparison of “with the nonsensical artifacts” and “no artifacts” (the desired behavior). These are layers underneath the text, before the text starts printing.
Try this instead.
Identify the layer height N of the text base in the slicer preview.
In prepare add a “height range modifier” for N-.1 to N+.1 to the base.
In the modifier change “wall loops” to some bigger number (try 10 for example.)
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So is this in conjunction with the “cut to parts”? It doesn’t seem to do anything with a sign whose text and base are one part.
No, instead of. I just made a plate and dropped some text onto it as a test, the text and base were all the same object and color, no parts. It may not be a general purpose solution, sorry about that. Figured I wouldn’t need it again so I didn’t save it the 1st time, but I recreated it, maybe play around it with it a little and see if it is applicable to yours? Seems to work in my contrived example. Maybe try changing some of the parameters?
test.3mf (39.3 KB)
I appreciate the test file. I think I broke the solution by adding a cube on top of the surface (to approximate the arrow that is on one of my signs). See attached.
test - broken.3mf (51.9 KB)
I appreciate your troubleshooting. This would be way above my head without your help. I have been messing around a bit on signs that include arrows, and have found that your initial suggestion of adding a height modifier from N -0.1 to N +0.1 with 10 wall loops works in conjunction with changing the global setting of “Only one wall on top surfaces” set to “Not applied” or “topmost surface”. It doesn’t work completely, but it does work enough to get 2 good top layers on the sign background before the text is laid down. Yes, as you observed it adds extra wall loops around the perimeter, but that is ok because I have a raised border printed on top of these loops, at the same height level as the text.
Even though this is not a comprehensive solution, this is getting me by. The 3rd layer down in the sign’s body still has an arrow shape filled in separately from the rest of the background. Then it prints 2 layers over the complete sign body, then starts printing the text, border, and arrow. Really strange behavior.
If I am printing a sign with only text and border without the arrow, I don’t need to take such drastic measures. No height modifier is required… just changing the top surface setting. The result is that the 4th layer down in the sign body may have a few artifacts, but on top of that I get 3 full layers across the entire sign body.
Thanks again. Good enough to finish this project and move on until Bambu Lab addresses it more thoroughly.
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