I cannot figure this one out and kindly need help. I am trying to make a simple outline of a cat with a flat top layer. But the top layers are always getting, what I am assuming, are Z drags.
I have been adjusting the Z retraction. No luck at .05, 1, and finally 3mm. I tried top layer Concentric, Rectangular, Monotonic and Monotonic Line options. Adjustments are made on the filament settings.
@JonRaymond
Ahh… you may be onto something. I double the height to .40" and gave it a fresh slice down the middle of the z plane & deleted the top. Sliced the bottom and it looks different. Test printing it now on regular .20 standard.
Gyroid dosen’t cross itself, cubic I use alot.
May want to increase top layers as well so you don’t see the outline of infill when it’s done. I really only use those two most of the time with crosshatch as well.
You can play with them by making a 2-3mm square with no top layers, varying the infill on each. There are also prints you can download on Makersworld to see what they are.
Missed the “and why”. I use mostly becasue I don’t get that scrape, as well as some are better for strength. Some infills combined with wall strength and line width can create some very strong prints with PLA.
If you’re doing mainly prints like the one shown then it won’t really matter that much. Strength isn’t the goal but finish. Top layers will hide the little droop that happends when it bridges over putting down the top layers. Especially if you use a less dense infill pattern.
So my 6" test print had the same issue in the real life photo above. But this time on the slicer preview it shows 2 of the many lines. Pic below.
I am wondering if my plate is too hot and warping the plastic during printing, causing it to bow. Basically what @JonRaymond suggested earlier. Downloading test print files from Makerworld to try things.
You can find the “step” by using the preview pane of the slicer, and inspect the rendered model on your monitor.
It is especially visible in this case, as the final layer is the undesirable “top step.” So if you move up and down the layers via the right-side layer navigator, the top being a noncomplete outline of the model should ring alarm bells right away
The model is occupying it’s defined space, it just happens to have a slightly skewed 90.5 degree angle as its top surface.
It only becomes a “Step” when you slice it and the program has to decide if plastic goes there or not. At some point, that angle started making the model occupy more than 50% of that 0.2mm layer height, and the slicer made a decision to fill it with plastic.
In whatever modeling software was used to make this, I would suspect you can measure angles. The slicer doesn’t know you want that surface to be a flat plane with respect to Z. If you want it to be a flat plane, and it isn’t a flat plane, you do what JonRaymond did, and perform a planar cut.
So as a follow up, I did the print this using the new file sent to me by @JonRaymond . It is much better, but the lines are still there.
Pics & settings below. I made this one 5" tall instead of 6" to speed up print time. Same thickness at.20". Fuzzy settings off. I also did a 50% sparse infill density. It is almost like the fill pattern can only be “so big”.
Here is an update after a manual filament calibration. Fuzzy walls, 25% gyroid fill, monotonic top layer & 5 top shell layers. No z retraction. Left is not ironed & right is ironed.
This is drastically better. The previous results were deep physical marks (assuming not actually a z drag issue at this point). The surface of both is consistent and the marks you do see cannot be felt. Ideally I would love to remove these noticeable marks as to only see the monotonic pattern. I am assuming we may be at a physical limitation of the machine, or more likely, my knowledge.
You may be able to tune your ironed edge’s pits a little better by using more than 1 wall on the top surface. Bambulab software by default enables 1 wall on top, which helps look good without ironing. but… Ironing avoids the edge at about the same width as half a wall. If you have more walls for it to smooth over, those spots where pits can form (gap between top solid surface + wall) are moved inwards in the model, and thus get a couple passes from the iron.
You may end up trading the pits on the inside edge of your outer wall for overflow/flashing on the outer edge of your outer wall, but idk, if you want to test, try it out.
