I have a model that I designed, that I intend to use to simply dry some larger Silica beads. designed in Fusion 360 exported to Bambu studio and sliced. The preview looks great and it says it has 220 layers. But when I print it the printer “succeeds” after only 200 layers. It successfully prints the thinnest of the material sections so I know it’s not an issue with the model having smaller sections than my .4 nozzle. I’ve attempted to print it twice with the same result, so I don’t think it’s a power failure. since it happens on this model and only this model. Would love any thoughts folks have on what might be unique with this model.
Is the head still moving even though it’s not printing during those last layers? When you look in preview mode, does it show filament in those layers?
No, the print head is homed and I get a Print succeeded from bambu handy.
Does the preview show filament to be printed in those layers?
yes, If I scroll the layers in the preview, it shows material being added.
Whats your slice settings?
Unfortunately you’re out of my level of experience. Good luck! I don’t understand why it’s doing that. It is a complex model, though. Maybe that has something to do with it?
pretty much standard “.2 standard” profile settings, changed sparse infill from grid to Gyroid, 15% infill, enabled standard(auto) supports and Bridging flow at .9. Everthing else is default profile settings
P1S BTW
Im wondering if top extrusions are a little large and its detecting top as minimal wall. Is detect thin walls enabled or disabled?
it’s turned off, Wall loops set to 2, The walls are 3mm, with a 1.5 mm deep lip that is 1mm wide(if that makes sense).
for reference:
with the exception of the lip(which it doesn’t quite get to), this top shape is identical to the shape at the base, and that prints fine.
Thanks for looking BTW, appreciate the help.
Before you do anything. Reformat the SD Card in the printer. These kinds of errors can be caused by bad blocks on the memory card.
I’m guessing that there is something in the way the model is being sliced that may be causing the Gcode to send erroneous data.
If you could also provide some of the following before we go onto troubleshooting. If I can ask you to post some more shots?
- Zoom into this section here and do a screengrab so we can see what the slice looked like up close.
- Can you show a photo of the incomplete model both zoomed out and zoomed in at the model edge, more specifically can you place a ruler next to it so we can see at what height it failed at?
- Please post a screengrab of the model in the planning screen so we can see what the model intent was before slice. A closeup and macro view of the edge like bullet #1 would be helpful.
- Can you post a screengrab of the objects menu so we can see what the slicer believes it is slicing? What we’re looking for is the possibly that you may have multiple geometries in an assembly that are confusing the slicer. This is a common problem for merged items.
- Using the measured height of the printed model, can you determine which layer the printer failed and zoom into the slice at that layer? For clarity sake in case it’s not obvious, you would find the layer height in mm here:
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Some suggestions for troubleshooting.
- The first thing I would suggest after you’ve reformatted the memory card that is, is to cut the model into a smaller section of the print. You’re going for these goals here.
- Reduce the amount of filament and time it takes to test.
- Verify that it is the model not the slice. If the section does not show the the exact same problem, then it’s time to look at what happened with the slice.
- Perhaps you can try changing the scale of the model by using the scale tool you can scale the model to either 95% and a second slice to 105% to see if the scale affects the slice. If it does, then you may have segments of the model that are two thin to render or there just may be a corruption in the slice.
- I’m assuming you exported the model as an STL, which is commonly accepted. However, if it’s a rendering issue within the slicer, a STEP file renders more accurately. It’s what I use for all my CAD work because it’s more precise and avoids many slicing glitches like the one you’re experiencing. Once imported, the mesh is still the same as an STL, but any vertices of the mesh will be sliced more accurately.
- Sometimes, it can be off by as much as 0.001mm, which can affect how it slices, especially with an object like this that have a pattern, which can confuse the algorithm.
- This next item you will need Orca Slicer because Bambu Studio does not have this feature, I’ll link below. Once you determine the layer height from bullet 3 above, you can navigate to the spot in the Gcode where the failure is occurring.
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Slice the model and move the slider to the offending layer(example uses layer 57 at 11.4mm)hit the letter C which will bring up the code menu and click on the double chevron to shrink the color scheme legend out of the way which will bring in a larger window. Paste that screengrab here.
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You can march up and down the layers by clicking on the layer number and using the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard you can increment and decrement in your Gcode. You don’t need to know Gcode, just look for differences in the slicer commands. Once you spot the differences, you can post them here or better yet, upload the 3MF file with “only one build plate and” and model to ensure we are looking at what you’re looking at. Make sure it’s an actual 3MF of a failed print too.
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In this example between layers 57 and 56 as an example, we see that the slicer somehow thought that the later needed to change from 0.2 to 0.200001. Why? Is anyone’s guess but it’s those differences that some members here more familiar with Gcode can help interpret.
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Orca Download.
In case you haven’t used Orca before, it is a fork of Bambu Studio and is a far more robust slicer with many quality of life enhancements such as the CAD-like coordinates cube that any CAD user will quickly recognize.
That, among other things like baked-in calibration utilities such as Flow-rate, Temp tower, etc., will make you wonder why you ever used Bambu Studio at all. But know that you don’t have to choose; both slicers run the same base code and therefore can coexist on the same machine. So, there’s no downside to having both. You’ll want to check the “Advanced” tab to get all of the goodies, though.
Here’s the download link.
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I set top shell thickness to 0 and rely on top shell layers, could be worth a try.
It is a strange one.
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Thanks, there’s a lot to unpack here:
will take a look at the Orca settings tonight, but out of curiosity, is Orca generally preferred? I tried it for a bit but felt like it kept screwing up my 3MF files and I got tired of rebuilding them. I’ve gotten in the habit of exporting only to Step since the files tend to be smaller and round objects are less faceted and closer to round. So this was a .STP file.
Zoomed view of the slicer:
Zoomed view of the prepare(same section):
I’m 99% sure it’s not an object collision since I built this from a sketch and it is a single object, base plate with a shell extrusion(but I will validate that this evening and post it.)
and some of the photos:
Okay. Thanks for posting the additional details. This is quite helpful, and I applaud the measurements using a caliper.
Since you’re already using STEP files, it eliminates file corruption as a leading candidate. What I didn’t find in the photos was the smoking gun I was looking for and that was some feature or demarcation that would cause the slicer to believe it was finished with the model.
So what we can know is that between the measured height of 29.45 and calculated height of 32mm and the photo of the model, somewhere the slicer omitted the last 2.55mm of model. The question is why.
Try to export as an STL file from Fusion360.
I’ve seen this happen before with other models, and this can be attributed to the STEP file being incorrectly interpreted. This is especially true if you’re using the latest version of STEP, version AP242. If you’re using Fusion360, if memory serves that outputs at the latest version of AP242. You want to use the earliest version if possible which is AP203. The reason is that I found that when one may have multiple features in the CAD model, the later versions don’t always import correctly. I’ve had cases where entire assemblies were ignored in my multi-part model. Reverting back to AP203 eliminated this but truth be told, I don’t believe that Fusion360 allows you to select which version to export, or at least the free version does not. If your model does not include assemblies, it may not be the case. However, in this case, just to rule out a defective input, fall back to an STL file and see if it produces a different result.
The other thing you’ll want to do is now that you know that 29.45mm is where the slice is corrupted, use the method I posted above to examine the Gcode at those layers.
On the object view I have 2 objects on that plate the cap and the base, the base IS made up of two separate fusion components exported together, the threaded tube and the circular base, perhaps that’s the object collision?
I took about a 10 degree slice out of my model exported one as an STL and one as a Step, pulled them both into orca and they both printed all the way to the top. So either the issue is in the section with the two separate components or it’s in Bambu studio. But it’s consistently printed past the threaded opening.
Next I guess I’ll take a 10 degree slice that includes the section with the opening and see how it prints
Video of timelaps could shine some light into this maybe?
20 layers seem to be 4mm in height, so that you can see what’s the printer was doing during the last 20 layers
I am curious if it just finished the print when reach layer 200 or during layer 200 or right after layer 200.
Could you post a screenshot of the “Line width” Pre-view?
And perhaps look at differences between “Classic” Wall generator and “Arachne” Wall generator (Quality tab)?
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I think that’s a very good diagnostic measure. If you could cut a section of the model, let’s say between the 3:00 O’clock and 4:00 O’clock position such that there is only one model on the print bed, you will have isolated the model into a smaller verifiable section to use as your test subject. You’ll not only save a lot of filament but you’ll be able to run many more back to back quick tests.
What we want is a text scenario that isolates as much of the problem but minimizing the amount of filament and slicing. This will yield loads of useful data.
This is essentially what I did,
needed to get some other items printed last night so still pending a test with the threaded opening.
also will google Arachne wall generation 