Earlier, we downloaded the DynamoClipper package that I wrote for just this purpose. In a C#, environment, the translation between the two formats is easy. It's not quite that simple, though Dynamo and Clipper think about Polygons differently, and we don't have the freedom we need in the Dynamo interface to make up for that. Dynamo allows users to use custom C# libraries and use them in Dynamo, so you might think that we could just import Clipper and move on. Thankfully, there is a library called Clipper which can be used from a C++ or C# program to do offsetting. Dynamo doesn't do this by default, and it's a bit too complex to do ourselves in this tutorial. This means we have to implement a process called polygon offsetting. We need an outer wall which has one edge on the boundary, and maybe more walls inside of that. Since we don't want just one wall centered on the part boundary, we can't just use the Polygons from the last step. Now that we have the outside of the part on each layer, we can work on building the part walls. Double-check that MinPoint.Z is indeed 0, and adjust if necessary. If you didn't, the code in this step might leave you printing in midair, or otherwise crash your print nozzle into the bed. WARNING: In the last step, you ought to have moved the mesh so that the bottom of the mesh was at Z = 0. By using the MinPoint and MaxPoint of this bounding box, we can find the top and bottom of the mesh, and use those in our code. To figure out the top and bottom of the mesh, we first grab the list of triangles in the mesh with Mesh.Triangles, then create a Polysurface container to hold them all, and finally compute the bounding box around the Polysurface (which is exactly around the mesh). ![]() " which goes up to but not past "end." In this case, we need to start at one layer height above the bed, then go up one layer height at a time, but not past the top of the mesh. This feature has the format "", and makes the list of numbers "start, start + step, start + 2*step. For the Z coordinate, we use Dynamo's built-in "range" feature. The X and Y coordinates don't matter, so we can just set both of them to zero. This node requires XYZ coordinates to construct a point. We create a Point.Båoordinates node for the origins of our planes. Since all of our planes are parallel to the build platform, we can just use the Z axis vector for each plane's normal. For this node, we need an "origin" point for each plane to pass through, as well as a "normal" vector perpendicular to the plane. To build the plane for each layer, we will use the Plane.ByOriginNormal node. If you select an STL file in the File Path node, you should see your design appear in the viewer. For this, we make a File Path node and connect it to a Mesh.ImportFile node. We also have to import our file to slice. However, you can get much fancier with sliders under the Core > Input menu. In Dynamo, the easiest way to do this is to double-click and create a code block with all the settings. ![]() ![]() Output File Name: the name of the final file of printing instructions (G-Code).Print Temperature: how hot the nozzle needs to be, in Celsius.Print Speed: how fast to move while printing, in mm/minute.Filament Diameter: the width of the filament we're using.We also need a few more settings for later parts of the process: Extrusion Width: how wide to make an individual wall of the part.Number of Perimeters: the number of solid shells on the outside of our part.Layer Height: the spacing between our two-dimensional layers.At the absolute simplest, we need four options to plan our paths: That way, it's easy for me to adjust the settings of my code without hunting through the entire file. In general, this tutorial will be pretty organic in the way we build our code, but I like to keep all of my "tweakables" at the far left of the canvas. In this guide, we'll take a look at how slicers work, identify the most important features for us to replicate, and build a complete slicer that's capable of making real 3D printed parts. This inspired me to write this guide so that even novice or inexperienced coders can understand the code at the core of 3D printing. I had to struggle through the code of one of the open-source slicers, and it was slow, frustrating work. When I transitioned from a 3D printing user to a developer of 3D printing software, there was very little information available to understand how slicers work. All of these slicers have dozens of features for customizing the results, but many users don't understand the internal workings of the programs themselves. ![]() Many of the existing slicers (slic3r, Cura, MatterSlice, etc.) are open source, though a few closed-source slicers exist (e.g. This program takes in a 3D model and puts out the instructions for the printer itself. At the core of 3D printing is a piece of software called the slicer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |