There is plenty of room for improvement in how bambu studio spaces the objects when printing in vase mode, say. Depending on the height of the object, if less than the height to the x-axis, you can physically get many more on the build plate, without collisions, but the software ‘plays too safe’. If it is too difficult for the software to calculate optimum spacing for a tighter layout, then please allow a manual over-ride.
I just started playing around with “Print by object” a couple weeks ago and found the wiki page super helpful. It has really helped with the print quality from a couple of the parts I was batch printing.
Yes the limits are conservative but I can understand why. A manual over ride could get you into trouble pretty quick and I doubt Bambu wants to deal with the warranty claims from making this possible.
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I don’t think it’s all that conservative.
The height of any one object cannot be greater than the distance from the tip of the nozzle to the underside of the XY gantry rods. If any object is printed that’s taller than this, when the Z axis goes back to 0 for the next object, the top of the previously printed object will be above the gantry = bad. The slicer won’t let you do this.
But that’s not the only interference condition.
If you print any object that’s taller than the space from the tip of the nozzle to the bottom of the box the printhead is enclosed in, when the next object is printed, the printhead enclosure will smack the previously printed object. The slicer requires things to be spread out far enough the printhead’s box thing can’t bang already completed objects, too.
If what you want to print doesn’t violate any of these rules, at least the last time I tried it I had a lot more liberty over how closely things could be spaced.
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The height limit was the one that catches me sometimes as its not always obvious until you can picture where the print head travel is going to catch it out. If you could see the travel lines it’d make more sense.
I’ve had many frustrating minutes trying to get the right position when I know its under the height and boundary caps, in the end I give up and hit the second plate. I like the PBO for smaller pieces where I can print totally different profiles/colours without compromising quality and time. Its good also for uploading when you don’t have to split plates as things get messy and confused or just left off.
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The BL Wiki just keeps giving hey. Its one of the better ones I’ve seen and I normally brush them off as too disorganised or just not informative enough.
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The slicer could maybe be a bit smarter about routing around already completed prints. But there’s a point of diminishing returns. Do a lot of work that might let 1% of the users squeeze an extra one or two objects on to the build plate? Probably not worth it to BBL.
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If you have items, say, 30 by 40 by 20 mm high, then Bambu Studio can only place 6 on the build plate, in object order, whereas in reality it would be feasible to print 25 of these items. Their ‘safe area’ takes no account of direction and sequence of printing, afaik. For items taller than the distance of height of nozzle tip to x axis bar, (approx 50mm, iirc), then objects can not be printed side by side, but for an object of size 30 by 40 by 60 mm we should be able to have 4 of them on the build plate. For larger objects it is not such a waste of space. The actual usable build plate size is less than 256mm square, but my calculations are based on 256 mm square plate and clearances that I have measured between nozzle and edge of print head, etc., and the fact that there should be no need for the head to move into existing printed models.
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It would be nice if one could set the print order, so the slicer could print lower objects first and then taller.
Now the function fails because one object is too tall, while the alternative could be to just print that last.
Welcome to the forum.
You can actually already do what you’re requesting. You can reorder the prints and have the tallest print last as explained in the latter part of the wiki link I posted above.
Thank you for that. I was wondering how to do that but that truly helps.
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Actually … I’m using a Mac … how do I use the ctrl-E to display the label with the priming order.
Sorry … couldn’t find it in the shortcuts.