I’m aiming to “unroot” a part of the model in a spot where the planar cut wouldn’t work. I guess that combining what you explained about both the planar cut and the negative objects, the only way to do it would be to clone the model, cut away all but the bit I want and then use that as a negative shape to remove the “bit” and leave a spot where to reinsert later?
Yes, cloning a part then trimming the clone and using it as a negative will definitely do the job. However… trying to get the negative into the exact same spot will drive you nuts through trial and error. That’s because the slicer doesn’t have a true alignment tool other than the center function. So here is how to fake it out using the center tool.
Before you clone your part. You wan to bracket it with four primitive objects that are negatives. Make them four fairly equidistant primitives. They can even be 1mm x 1mm x 1mm. Because their negatives, they won’t show anyway. But… when you center your object, the slicer will use the four corners of the furthest object and if those are the corners of a box, then your object will always be centered.
Then clone your object, center both objects, then make it part of the assemblies. Then take the cutout and make it a negative. My centering it on the four corner objects you well get a pixel perfect match.
However… you will likely want to scale your hole just a smidge to allow the other object to fit. Either by growing the negative by let’s say 0.1% - 1.0% depending on the size of your model. This will give you wiggled room to adhere the two objects together.
I do have a bit of a trouble visualizing the process, to be honest. Sorry ^^;
Thats a strange orientation I think for this model. Personally I would stand it upright so that the feet were slightly penetrating the bed and use tree supports.
Yes, it’s hard to convey without a visual.
I’ll try to give a quick example. By quick, I don’t mean quick for you but quick for me as in just plugging away with the easiest, albeit most numerous steps.
What we are going to do is to rely on only five tools: Clone, Cut, assemble, center and negative part. Ideally, one would use the Boolean tool for this which would allow this to occur in fewer steps but that’s a pretty advanced topic.
I’m going to pretend I want to make the roof of a benchy out of a different filament. This requires printing the roof and the benchy separately if they are let’s say, PETG and PLA.
THIS IS A CRUDE EXAMPLE!!! We are not going to demontrate a perfect fitment, just the opposite to show centering and cloning models to be used as cutout tools. Again, Boolean is better suited for this but much harder to use.
The goal here is to use for corner objects of any size, here we will use cubes, and bracket the object and create an assembly, we’ll use the for corners spaced apart to allow for easy centering. Then well clone it, make any edits to make that into a cutting tool. Reassemble and then merge it as a negative part.
Big benchy
Clone 4 cubes that are negative parts and spread them evenly.
Close the whole assembly and move it to the plate.
Note the green arrows point to the outer most corners of the assembly. This will allow us to center the whole object even when we make edits.
Cut your object of desire to it’s dimensions. In this case we are going to take the lid off the benchy so that we can use it as a cut tool later. Note that I separate the two objects after I assemble them. You can only do this to two parts if they are part of an assembly, otherwise the slicer will simply drop the unsupported part onto the plate.
Note that I separate the two objects after I assemble them. You can only do this to two parts if they are part of an assembly, otherwise the slicer will simply drop the unsupported part onto the plate.
This is what that assembly looks like when we view the four corner blocks. Click to zoom full screen and note that I start labeling the objects which will let me keep track as I move on.
Even though a P1 without AMS doesn’t directly support multicolor filament, I am nevertheless going to add another filament so I can color for contrast. Note that I move the cut yellow model onto the plate. I will later merge the individual objects and make the yellow parts negative parts.
I will use the centering tool to overlay two models and since it was a clone, it will match up the four corner blocks. I then scale the benchy down 4% to make it a little smaller than the cut tool. Ideally you will want to grow the cut tool instead but I am going to do the model being cut rather than the tool to illustrate the point.
I change the type of the cutout tools to negative parts one by one. Unfortunately, I’ve never found a way to shift-select multiple objects and edit the type.
Now I slice. Because I made the model larger, It creates a shell around the bench. Had I made the tool larger, it would have complete cut off the benchy roof. This would allow one to create a “Shell” which could be glued to another model.
Now you would repeat this with let’s say another filament to print only the cabin top and then attach the two together.
1 Like
Try increasing the nozzle temperature. This can help layers blend better and reduce the appearance of distortion. Then try reducing the print speed for this part of the model. This can help reduce stress on the material and improve the quality of the print. For now this is all I can advise.
Thank you Olias for that very detailed tutorial 
I’ll get myself more fimlament and try it (running low!).
Alvin, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll run a few tests. I’m using the base settings defined for matte PLA by Bambu (the AMS deals wit this). Would testing this by increments of 5° be too shy?