Topic: Slicing large .stl's into multiple prints
Call me stupid, but how do I cut an .stl into smaller parts so I can print the object in full scale and friction weld them together?
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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → XYZ Printing DaVinci → Slicing large .stl's into multiple prints
Call me stupid, but how do I cut an .stl into smaller parts so I can print the object in full scale and friction weld them together?
Actually a good question.
The largest I've tried is a 390mb stl of a marine reptile.
The way I do it is using slic3r 1.1.4.
My procedure to cut large models, making sure errors are minimized is:
1 - Open Slic3r, click File - Repair STL File. Select your STL, and it will automatically generate a "fixed" OBJ file. (Sometimes it won't be able to fix everything, and you might have to manually fix things, but it's rare)
2 - In Slic3r, click Add, or drag and drop your OBJ onto your plater. Then click Export STL. This will be your full fixed model.
3 - On the plater, double click your object, or select your object, and click the View button.
4 - It might take a while for the 3D view to come up. Be patient. When it's up, you can slide the Z slider to indicate where to cut.
5 - You will now have a model sliced in two at the point you specified. Click Export STL to get your cut model.
6 - For BIG models, I will slice each section I want, delete the other models, keeping only the section I want to save. That way I have each section in a different STL file.
Bonus tip: If you have less than 12GB of memory and are trying to slice a very high detail large model, you may notice your slicer will crash once it runs out of memory.
Coupla things that might help:
- Print settings - Advanced - Other -> Set resolution to 0.1 or 0.2
- Print settings - Advanced - Other -> Set Threads to 1. It will take a lot longer to slice, yes. But having 4 threads will take up roughly 4 times as much memory, sometimes more, sometimes less
- Reboot your computer, kill all non essential startup services/apps
If you're looking for some fairly large, open source STL's to test out, try thingiverse:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:54994
More helpful than you can imagine. Thanks for the quick response.
Glad I could help.
Post feedback on how you did, with pics/screenshots so others can learn too
SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → XYZ Printing DaVinci → Slicing large .stl's into multiple prints
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