We got you a present: Single Extrusion Printable “Merry Christmas” 3D model, and a JellyBOX-ready “Merry Christmas” gcode!
(The attached files don’t have the ‘from IMADE3D’ part 😉
~ Your cinnamon-spruce-snow-holliday loving persons at IMADE3D.
merry_christmas_0.7mm-wide.stl (170.2 KB)
merry_christmas_0.7mm-wide.gcode (602.6 KB)
PS: If you elect to process the STL yourself, set the extrusion width to 0.65mm (no matter what nozzle size you got). (And if your nozzle is bigger than 0.65mm, then switch to a smaller one, duh.)
OK, maybe you can finally clear this up for me. Every time I think I understand what the line or extrusion width value actually does, I see something that doesn’t quite fit. Maybe switching between slicers doesn’t help. Anyway, what does the value actually represent?
The physical width of the bead of plastic deposited, which is probably wider than the nozzle diameter due to squishing. In this case, it’s a value that can be tweaked based on the physical behavior of the plastic and printer so that your slicer’s output more closely models reality.
A value that contributes to how many steps the extruder motor turns in order to push enough plastic through your nozzle to produce a line of that width. Also depends some on the squishiness, but in this case the value is more like a setting to push more or less plastic for a requested physical output.
3). Both?
Neither?
Depends on your slicer? I’ve noticed that Slic3r PE lists the standard line width as .45 on a .4mm nozzle. In Cura, the default line width for infill is .6mm.
Great question @Joel, and, yes, this is possibly a confusing topic.
I’m thinking I should make some properly phrased and precise blog post on this at some point.
Here, I recorded an answer; I believe I touched on everything you mention:
https://www.useloom.com/share/ed4d64ebab53435e87cef3f73b623484
<img src="/uploads/default/original/1X/90bff08a438022d01983ebf2760813c65f8072aa.jpg" width=“300” heigh"auto">
PS to the video: It follows that even within one slicer, you can have different combinations of parameters that would result in the same gcode.
So it sounds like, within Cura at least, it is probably safe to treat line width as a close analog to flow rate. That is, the software thinks of the ultimate line width as a consequence of the proximity of the nozzle to the nearest layer or the bed. In prints like the Merry Christmas design, there is only 1 (maybe 2) pass over each piece of geometry, so aggressive line width isn’t going to cause problems with the infill/shell interface or tapered face details.
This also makes sense when compared to how some slicer profiles set a higher line width for their first layer to improve adhesion (while some use the initial layer height). Die swell is an interesting thing, too. I’ve noticed that Polyalchemy filament exhibits extreme die swell, to the point that extrusion tests almost look like some sort of living worm polyp.
For each nozzle size, you get a range of line widths, basically overextrusions, that will work well, depending on the nozzle geometry (how wide the bottom is so that is can still ‘smooth out’ the overextrusion. I’ve printed as big as 0.8mm with 0.4mm nozzle, but I’d say that’s the upper limit.
That’s right. Some slicers use ‘1st layer line width’, some use ‘1st layer flow’, some use ‘1st layer height’ … and it’s all just a way to affect the extrusion rate on the 1st layer compared to the rest of the print. In the end, the real height still depends on you actual Z height, and not on the flow rate…You just get thicker or thinner.
Question is what does it mean to
There are many parameters that are equivalent, but it’s still easier to treat them as separate to map onto different goals.
One, in Cura, there is ‘flow’ in the Material category. This one, presumably, would be used to compensate spool/ manufacturer differences (real vs. ideal 1.75mm diameter).
On the other hand, there’s the ‘line width’. Even though it’s doing the same thing, it’s best used for another situation: for a reasonably calibrated printer, if you want to print let’s say a single wall that’s 0.7mm in the model like the merry christmas, it’s still easier to set the in Cura as 0.65-0.69mm line width than to play with extrusion multiplier and measure the outcome several times until you reach the desired width.