Preparing a Job for the Fortus 3d Printer with Insight

Transcription

1 Preparing a Job for the Fortus 3d Printer with Insight Digital Media Tutorial Written by Trevor Williams Setting your Modeler When you run Insight for the first time, you will need to specify what kind of 3d printer (called a modeler in Insight) you will be using. In our case, the Fortus 250mc. Press the modeler button in the sidebar. In the window that then pops up, make sure that you have selected the Fortus 250mc in the Modeler Type menu. Leave the Model Material, Color, and Support Material settings as shown here in this example and make sure that Invert Build Materials is set to No. Then select your slice height, either 0.007, 0.010, or Keep in mind that a smaller slice height takes longer to print, but will have a greater z-resolution. When you ve finished, press the green checkmark.

2 Loading your Model Go to File > Open and browse to your model. Only STL files are accepted by Insight. Depending on the size of your model, you may be prompted to automatically change the scale. Recheck your units in the modeler you made your STL in, and select the appropriate response. Orienting your Model With your model loaded into Insight, go to the STL menu at the top of the screen, then select Automatic Orientation. Typically, you will want to select Minimize Supports from the Method menu. If you are having trouble fitting your part within the build volume, you may instead want to select Rotate to Fit Envelope. When you ve selected the orientation method, click on the Execute button to begin calculating rotation. You may also want to make manual rotation adjustments. To do this go to STL > Rotate in the menubar. Change the Rotate Increment to the appropriate number of degrees, then click the button corresponding to the axis and direction you want to rotate your model in..

3 Setting Units and Scale To change the scale or units of your model, go to STL > Units and Scale in the menubar. In the sidebar that appears, change your units with STL units or scale uniformly with STL scale. To scale non-uniformly in a specific axis, check the checkbox and then specify your desired axial scale. To change your object to fit a specific size, change the X, Y, or Z dimensions at the bottom of the sidebar. Selecting Print Options When you ve finished orienting and scaling your object, go to Modelers > Setup in the menubar.

4 Set your Part Interior Style in the sidebar. Choose from the following options: Sparse Double Dense prints a crosshatch infill pattern which is light and strong. We recommend this setting for most models. Solid will be strongest, but use the most material and take the longest to print. Sparse Low Density will print a one-direction infill pattern with one filament every few millimeters. Sparse High Density will print a one-direction infill pattern with roughly two filaments every millimeter. Set your Visible Surface Style to Enhanced. If your model is taking too long to calculate, setting this to normal can speed up this process at the cost of small surface detail. Set your Support Style to one of the following options: SMART will calculate a minimal, cantilevered system of interconnected dissolvable support. We recommend this setting for most models. Basic will print a high density, one-direction system of support that will extend from all overhangs directly to the build plate. It takes longer to print and remove, but is very solid. Sparse works the same as Basic but prints at a lower density. Surround will encase the print in support material and increase its cross-sectional area to make it more stable. This is recommended for tall, narrow models. Break-Away will not use the dissolvable support, and will build support columns out of model material. Do not use this option. Calculating your Toolpath Once you ve selected your print options, checked your scale and oriented your model, press the green flag to calculate the various parts of your toolpath. NOTE: This process can take several hours for large, complex models.

5 Exporting your Toolpath When your toolpath is finished calculating, click on the Log button. Look for these lines of information to get your estimated build time and material consumption. You will be asked for this information when submitting your 3d print file. In Windows Explorer navigate to the location your STL was stored. There will now be a folder in that location with the name: ssys_[name of your STL file] Inside that folder will be a file that ends in.cmb This is the file you will upload to the 3d printing farm when submitting your file to print.