SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Laying a part down flat on the bed

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (ronsii) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:28:59 +0000

jon_bondy wrote:

Thanks for all of your help.
Snapping to an angle forces the angle to only occur in discrete increments: not useful in this case, since the required angle was about 76.5 degrees.
Eventually, I simply re-created the part from scratch, flat on the XY axis.

Oh, I didn't mean to leave the 'snap to' button clicked I was mainly showing you the setting for 3 decimal places of precision... if you notice in the bottom of the screen it says 'angle 64.142'

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (lotw_1) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:50:58 +0000

jon_bondy wrote:

Thanks for all of your help.
Snapping to an angle forces the angle to only occur in discrete increments: not useful in this case, since the required angle was about 76.5 degrees.
Eventually, I simply re-created the part from scratch, flat on the XY axis.

And let's make that a tip for everyone making their own models. Make it flat on the X/Y if possible or at least some flat spot that can be rotated to easily by 90d.

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (jon_bondy) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 12:49:08 +0000

Thanks for all of your help.

Snapping to an angle forces the angle to only occur in discrete increments: not useful in this case, since the required angle was about 76.5 degrees.

Eventually, I simply re-created the part from scratch, flat on the XY axis.

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (ronsii) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 07:23:32 +0000

Hey jon, look what I found...

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (caswal) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:05:47 +0000

If you are still stuck on it. In 3DS Max you can create an object (e.g. a cube) on the surface of another object. Rotating the cube automatically to be aligned to the surface. You can then take the rotation of the cube and use those values to to rotate the object back on the flat.

Send me the STL and I can fix it up in a few ticks.

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (ronsii) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 02:51:44 +0000

pcpoirier wrote:

Rotate it in Slic3r, slice it and look at the 1st layer in G-Code editor; Show single layer to see is it is complete.
If not rotate again until flat.

While this might be great for simple things my last slice was over 26 minutes... granted it was .1mm and I could change it to .3 to test slice for flatness but even then it would still be over 8 minutes...

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (IanJohnson) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:29:04 +0000

I don't know much about sketchup, but maybe there is a free modeler somewhere that has an alignment tool that will let you select a face and align it with a plane.

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (pcpoirier) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:57:44 +0000

Rotate it in Slic3r, slice it and look at the 1st layer in G-Code editor; Show single layer to see is it is complete.
If not rotate again until flat.

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (ronsii) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:05:14 +0000

Oh. I get what your after now I usually just zoom in using RH and 'home in'(trial and error) on the numbers it only takes about 5-10 tries and I get close enough that it doesn't mess the first layers up.

Next time I'm messing around in any of my 3d programs I will look around and see if there are any power tools that might accomplish this

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (jon_bondy) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:32:46 +0000

I am using Sketchup, and it does measure the angle, just not accurately enough. It is actually interesting to watch Slic3r and the SD attempt to print something where it takes about 5 layers to lay down the bottom, from one edge to the other. The attempt is not successful, but it is interesting. Enter an angle of 1 degree into a regular print, if you're curious (and made of filament!)

I kept tweaking the rotation angles in Slic3r until it came up with something fairly close.

I designed a pyramidical lamp in Sketchup, and printed it in one pass. Turns out that wiring the thing is not easy, so I decided to print it as four separate panels, which I would glue together. This is why the part was designed in an orientation that did not start out flat on the X/Y plane. I imagine that others may encounter similar situations if they have to slice a part into separate pieces in order to print them, and then glue them together.

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (ronsii) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 01:56:55 +0000

What software did you design the part in? most programs have a measuring tool for angles including sketchup.

Re: Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (nickythegreek) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 01:49:29 +0000

you can do that in Repetier Host by using the Rotation input boxes under the Object Placement tab. You can even resave the STL once you have it in the position that you want it.

Laying a part down flat on the bed

null@example.com (jon_bondy) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:36:26 +0000

I designed a part up in the air, and now want to lay it flat down to print it. The problem is that I don't know the angle that I need to rotate the part so that it lies flat on the bed. Anyone know of software that would accomplish this rotation?