1 Topic by scobo

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Topic: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

So I finally bit the bullet and shelled out for S3D and been trying it over the weekend.
It certainly has plenty of settings and some nice tools such as the print preview and mesh repair.
Machine control isn't working too great on my machine but that's probably because I'm on 1.1.E firmware and 1.1.J is recommended. I'm not too fussed anyway as I print from SD card mostly.
I've now got my print settings dialed in pretty well after a fair bit of trial and error.
Print quality seems good although I'm not convinced it's that much of an improvement over some other free slicers such as Cura, which I've been using almost exclusively over the past few months.
Slicing time is certainly way faster than xyzware but then most other slicers are. I'd say it's on a par with Cura for speed.
It does have some great features missing from other software such as manual support editing and layer by layer print settings which will come in handy from time to time but overall, I'd have to say it's a bit overpriced IMO. It is nice having so much functionality in one program though.
I'd be interested to hear other opinions and see what settings others are using to see if my print quality can be improved.

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
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2 Reply by aestheticus

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

That's unfortunate to hear. I was close to getting S3D myself. Hopefully as you dial in the software with your machine you start to get superb quality from your prints.

3 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

I am trying it out as well, so far it has a steep learning curve compared to Cura Host and Repetier Host. Once I get my 1.0 back up and running I will try it out more.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

4 Reply by scobo (edited by scobo 2015-06-01 19:53:36)

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

One thing I've found so far is that changing the extrusion width setting to "auto" has made a big difference to outer shell finishes.
With it set to the default 0.4mm, I was getting gaps on top and vertical shell finishes and poor layer bonding.
Auto sets it to 0.48mm and seems to give much better results.

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

5 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

scobo wrote:

One thing I've found so far is that changing the extruder width setting to "auto" has made a big difference to outer shell finishes.
With it set to the default 0.4mm, I was getting gaps on top and vertical shell finishes and poor layer bonding.
Auto sets it to 0.48mm and seems to give much better results.

.48 is what it should be based on a .30 layer height. I have no idea why people are obsessed with changing this all the time.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

6 Reply by scobo

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

carl_m1968 wrote:
scobo wrote:

One thing I've found so far is that changing the extruder width setting to "auto" has made a big difference to outer shell finishes.
With it set to the default 0.4mm, I was getting gaps on top and vertical shell finishes and poor layer bonding.
Auto sets it to 0.48mm and seems to give much better results.

.48 is what it should be based on a .30 layer height. I have no idea why people are obsessed with changing this all the time.

Should it be a different value for .2 and .1 layer height in that case ?

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

7 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

scobo wrote:
carl_m1968 wrote:
scobo wrote:

One thing I've found so far is that changing the extruder width setting to "auto" has made a big difference to outer shell finishes.
With it set to the default 0.4mm, I was getting gaps on top and vertical shell finishes and poor layer bonding.
Auto sets it to 0.48mm and seems to give much better results.

.48 is what it should be based on a .30 layer height. I have no idea why people are obsessed with changing this all the time.

Should it be a different value for .2 and .1 layer height in that case ?

Yes, it is supposed to be 60%..

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

8 Reply by scobo

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

Just noticed a typo in my previous post. That should be extrusion width, not extruder width.
So Carl, 0.2mm layer height would need an extrusion width setting of 0.32mm then ?

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

9 Reply by evanalmighty

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

Layer height and extrusion width are 2 different things.  Extrusion width should always be at around 120% of the nozzle size.  If you have a .4mm nozzle, the extrusion width should be .48mm.  This is called die swell.  The material is being extruded out of the nozzle under pressure, so the width of the material coming out of the nozzle is actually wider than the nozzle diameter itself.

Layer height is just the thickness of each layer.  This should no higher than 75% of the nozzle width.  So layer height for a .4mm nozzle should be no thicker than .3mm.

10 Reply by evanalmighty

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

For basic parts, you're not going to see much of a difference between S3D and the free slicers.  Try a complicated part that requires a lot of support and also supports in difficult to reach/remove places.  That's when you'll come to truly appreciate the power of S3D.  I also like how I can load multiple parts on the print bed and have different print settings for each part.

11 Reply by scobo (edited by scobo 2015-06-02 07:08:24)

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

Thanks for that. Not sure why they left the Da Vinci profile set to 0.4mm in that case ??
I would recommend people to change this to 0.48mm as it certainly made a difference in my case as I mentioned.

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

12 Reply by RudydG

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

I am also looking at S3D, and to be honest, this is the first "negative" post i read about it.  I will follow this post, hopefully you find your way, and it gets working great (has to be for this price)
Greetings,

Rudy

13 Reply by scobo (edited by scobo 2015-06-02 18:07:19)

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

Don't get me wrong, it is a great bit of software. I'm just not quite as blown away by it as I was expecting to be on first impressions.
I'm sure I've still got a fair bit to learn so my print quality with it may well improve.
Like I said, it's definitely a vast improvement over xyzware but if you're already using other slicers, you may not see that big a difference in print quality initially.
And it does have some handy features that aren't available in other programs.

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

14 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

scobo wrote:

Don't get me wrong, it is a great bit of software. I'm just not quite as blown away by it as I was expecting to be on first impressions.
I'm sure I've still got a fair bit to learn so my print quality with it may well improve.
Like I said, it's definitely a vast improvement over xyzware but if you're already using other slicers, you may not see that big a difference in print quality initially.
And it does have some handy features that aren't available in other programs.


I am still trying to see these handy features that cost 150 bucks. I have compared it to Craftware which is free for now and to me Craftware is nearly a clone and allows custom placement of supports and such. Still playing with it myself but I believe it also allows layer settings like temp and infill as well.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

15 Reply by scobo (edited by scobo 2015-06-02 20:19:26)

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

carl_m1968 wrote:

Still playing with it myself but I believe it also allows layer settings like temp and infill as well.

Yes, you can set "processes" for different sections of the print whereby you can vary any of the print settings.
This would be useful for instance if you needed a lot of infill at the bottom of the print and less at the top. Or you could change the layer height if you needed more detail at a certain part of the print.

https://www.simplify3d.com/support/tuto … f-a-model/

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

16 Reply by medfoch

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

I am have been using S3D for about a month now - I can tell you it is WAY better than any of the free slicers.  I am running .91 mod and I have tried all of the popular free slicers.  They all have pros and cons, but I am very happy with S3D as it has ALL of the pros and very few cons.  The surface finish of all my prints have greatly improved and I used to not even bother with a complex print that needed supports - now with S3D I love printing with supports!  and the more complex the part the better.  I believe that S3D is worth every penny.

17 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

scobo wrote:
carl_m1968 wrote:

Still playing with it myself but I believe it also allows layer settings like temp and infill as well.

Yes, you can set "processes" for different sections of the print whereby you can vary any of the print settings.
This would be useful for instance if you needed a lot of infill at the bottom of the print and less at the top. Or you could change the layer height if you needed more detail at a certain part of the print.

https://www.simplify3d.com/support/tuto … f-a-model/

Actually I was talking about if it was available in Craftware or not. If it is then 150 for S3D is pretty much a rip off. However my Delta and Da Vinci both went down before I really got to play around with Craftware.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

18 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

medfoch wrote:

I am have been using S3D for about a month now - I can tell you it is WAY better than any of the free slicers.  I am running .91 mod and I have tried all of the popular free slicers.  They all have pros and cons, but I am very happy with S3D as it has ALL of the pros and very few cons.  The surface finish of all my prints have greatly improved and I used to not even bother with a complex print that needed supports - now with S3D I love printing with supports!  and the more complex the part the better.  I believe that S3D is worth every penny.

Did you try Craftware? What did you think of it?

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

19 Reply by montressor

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

Just downloaded Craftware. I'll try it out. I've been using S3D for a while now and been quite happy - frankly $150 wasn't that big a deal to me as it made me able to get good results quickly and I value my time.

One note: I'm on a  Mac and S3D - while not perfect - has decent Mac support and feature parity and concurrent releases with the Windows version. The Windows version of Craftware is b1.10 while the Mac version is still at b1.06. Doesn't inspire confidence that they're taking the mac version seriously, but maybe it's just the Windows version was buggier.

Davinci Duo, Repetier 0.92, OctoPi

20 Reply by scobo

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

Carl, how do you find the print quality with S3D on the Da Vinci ?

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

21 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

scobo wrote:

Carl, how do you find the print quality with S3D on the Da Vinci ?

To be honest my first run was when my extruder died. Might be why I am somewhat sour towards the program even though I know it is not at fault. So I never really got to see what the finish and such looks like. I plan to fo a side by side of a few items with similar settings using Cura Host, S3D and Craftware. See which tirns out the best.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

22 Reply by scobo

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

Ok, I think I've finally got settings dialed in that I'm happy.
I've been using the wrench on Thingiverse (the one that prints as one part) to compare with other slicers. Admittedly, it's a tough print for any slicer.
Cura didn't give a great finish and there was stringing on the gear wheel although it did produce a working wrench.
I've just printed it with S3D with no stringing and a perfect finish for the first time.
The 2 settings I changed that made the biggest difference were extrusion width set to auto (0.48mm) and extrusion multiplier set to 1.1.
Someone kindly took the time to write a guide to all the settings over on the S3D forum .... https://forum.simplify3d.com/viewtopic. … amp;t=2367

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

23 Reply by RudydG

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

Well, i did it, bought the prog.
First impressions: (DV 1.0 + repetier, macbook air mid 2012 with 480 SSD)
Program is NOT mac friendly, experienced like 20 crashes, got no preview, lots of little problems.
In the end, tried with the profile Velleman 8400, and then the prog gives a preview. Hopefuly stays that way.
Also, have to drag and drop the stl file to get it in without crashes
First print, missed a part, detected an error, than wasnt fixed by S3D.
Start and end G code has to be entered manualy, not nice. without this tweaking, printing just gets on the way, with cold bed and extruder. Can imagine for a newbi that its problematic.
Now i have these issues fixed, i will try to get it printing. (dont trust it yet to let it print overnight)
Keep you posted

24 Reply by RudydG

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

RudydG wrote:

Well, i did it, bought the prog.
First impressions: (DV 1.0 + repetier, macbook air mid 2012 with 480 SSD)
Program is NOT mac friendly, experienced like 20 crashes, got no preview, lots of little problems.
In the end, tried with the profile Velleman 8400, and then the prog gives a preview. Hopefuly stays that way.
Also, have to drag and drop the stl file to get it in without crashes
First print, missed a part, detected an error, than wasnt fixed by S3D.
Start and end G code has to be entered manualy, not nice. without this tweaking, printing just gets on the way, with cold bed and extruder. Can imagine for a newbi that its problematic.
Now i have these issues fixed, i will try to get it printing. (dont trust it yet to let it print overnight)
Keep you posted

Ok, thing is tweaked now, start and stops like it should.
This weekend will start my first real print ;-)
I can already tell, that this expensive program was not a plug and play solution.
But, will see what the future brings.

25 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Simplify3d - 1st impressions

RudydG wrote:
RudydG wrote:

Well, i did it, bought the prog.
First impressions: (DV 1.0 + repetier, macbook air mid 2012 with 480 SSD)
Program is NOT mac friendly, experienced like 20 crashes, got no preview, lots of little problems.
In the end, tried with the profile Velleman 8400, and then the prog gives a preview. Hopefuly stays that way.
Also, have to drag and drop the stl file to get it in without crashes
First print, missed a part, detected an error, than wasnt fixed by S3D.
Start and end G code has to be entered manualy, not nice. without this tweaking, printing just gets on the way, with cold bed and extruder. Can imagine for a newbi that its problematic.
Now i have these issues fixed, i will try to get it printing. (dont trust it yet to let it print overnight)
Keep you posted

Ok, thing is tweaked now, start and s
tops like it should.
This weekend will start my first real print ;-)
I can already tell, that this expensive program was not a plug and play solution.
But, will see what the future brings.


There is no host software that is plug and play. That is nature of 3d printers.  They will always require adjusting. In fact every time you change your filamwnt you will most likely have to adjust your temperature and feed speeds.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.