diff --git a/doc/Home.md b/doc/Home.md index cdbe12562fe..fce4bc34805 100644 --- a/doc/Home.md +++ b/doc/Home.md @@ -1,8 +1,37 @@ -Welcome to the OrcaSlicer WIKI! +# Welcome to the OrcaSlicer WIKI! -We have divided it roughly into the following pages: +Orca slicer is a powerful open source slicer for FFF (FDM) 3D Printers. This wiki page aims to provide an detailed explanation of the slicer settings, how to get the most out of them as well as how to calibrate and setup your printer. -- [Calibration](./Calibration) -- [Print settings](./Print-settings) +The Wiki is work in progress so bear with us while we get it up and running! + +## Print Settings, Tips and Tricks (Work In Progress) +The below sections provide a detailed settings explanation as well as tips and tricks in setting these for optimal print results. + +### Quality Settings +- [Layer Height Settings](print_settings/quality/quality_settings_layer_height) +- [Line Width Settings](print_settings/quality/quality_settings_line_width) +- [Seam Settings](print_settings/quality/quality_settings_seam) +- [Precise wall](Precise-wall) + +### Speed Settings +- [Extrusion rate smoothing](print_settings/speed/extrusion-rate-smoothing) + +### Multi material +- [Single Extruder Multimaterial](semm) + +### Printer Settings: +- [Air filtration/Exhaust fan handling](air-filtration) +- [Auxiliary fan handling](Auxiliary-fan) +- [Chamber temperature control](chamber-temperature) +- [Adaptive Bed Mesh](adaptive-bed-mesh) +- [Using different bed types in Orca](bed-types) +- [Pellet Printers (pellet flow coefficient)](pellet-flow-coefficient) + +## Printer Calibration +The guide below takes you through the key calibration tests in Orca - flow rate, pressure advance, print temperature, retraction, tolerances and maximum volumetric speed +- [Calibration Guide](./Calibration) + +## Developer Section - [How to build Orca Slicer](./How-to-build) +- [Localization and translation guide](Localization_guide) - [Developer Reference](./developer-reference/Home) diff --git a/doc/print_settings/quality/quality_settings_layer_height.md b/doc/print_settings/quality/quality_settings_layer_height.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..350738f379a --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/print_settings/quality/quality_settings_layer_height.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +# Layer Height + +This setting controls how tall each printed layer will be. Typically, a smaller layer height produces a better-looking part with less jagged edges, especially around curved sections (like the top of a sphere). However, lower layer heights mean more layers to print, proportionally increasing print time. + +### Tips: +1. **The optimal layer height depends on the size of your nozzle**. The set layer height must not be taller than 80% of the diameter of the nozzle, else there is little "squish" between the printed layer and the layer below, leading to weaker parts. + +2. While technically there is no limit to how small a layer height one can use, **typically most printers struggle to print reliably with a layer height that is smaller than 20% of the nozzle diameter**. This is because with smaller layer heights, less material is extruded per mm and, at some point, the tolerances of the extruder system result in variations in the flow to such an extent that visible artifacts occur, especially if printing at high speeds. + +For example, it is not uncommon to see "fish scale" type patterns on external walls when printing with a 0.4 mm nozzle at 0.08 mm layer height at speeds of 200mm/sec+. If you observe that pattern, simply increase your layer height to 30% of your nozzle height and/or slow down the print speed considerably. + +# First Layer Height + +This setting controls how tall the first layer of the print will be. Typically, this is set to 50% of the nozzle width for optimal bed adhesion. + +### Tip: +A thicker first layer is more forgiving to slight variations to the evenness of the build surface, resulting in a more uniform, visually, first layer. Set it to 0.25mm for a 0.4mm nozzle, for example, if your build surface is uneven or your printer has a slightly inconsistent z offset between print runs. However, as a rule of thumb, try not to exceed 65% of the nozzle width so as to not compromise bed adhesion too much. diff --git a/doc/print_settings/quality/quality_settings_line_width.md b/doc/print_settings/quality/quality_settings_line_width.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..ae4ae052333 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/print_settings/quality/quality_settings_line_width.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +# Line Width + +These settings control how wide the extruded lines are. + +- **Default**: The default line width in mm or as a percentage of the nozzle size. + +- **First Layer**: The line width of the first layer. Typically, this is wider than the rest of the print, to promote better bed adhesion. See tips below for why. + +- **Outer Wall**: The line width in mm or as a percentage of the nozzle size used when printing the model’s external wall perimeters. + +- **Inner Wall**: The line width in mm or as a percentage of the nozzle size used when printing the model’s internal wall perimeters. + +- **Top Surface**: The line width in mm or as a percentage of the nozzle size used when printing the model’s top surface. + +- **Sparse Infill**: The line width in mm or as a percentage of the nozzle size used when printing the model’s sparse infill. + +- **Internal Solid Infill**: The line width in mm or as a percentage of the nozzle size used when printing the model’s internal solid infill. + +- **Support**: The line width in mm or as a percentage of the nozzle size used when printing the model’s support structures. + + +## Tips: +1. **Typically, the line width will be anything from 100% up to 150% of the nozzle width**. Due to the way the slicer’s flow math works, a 100% line width will attempt to extrude slightly “smaller” than the nozzle size and when squished onto the layer below will match the nozzle orifice. You can read more on the flow math here: [Flow Math](https://manual.slic3r.org/advanced/flow-math). + +2. **For most cases, the minimum acceptable recommended line width is 105% of the nozzle diameter**, typically reserved for the outer walls, where greater precision is required. A wider line is less precise than a thinner line. + +3. **Wider lines provide better adhesion to the layer below**, as the material is squished more with the previous layer. For parts that need to be strong, setting this value to 120-150% of the nozzle diameter is recommended and has been experimentally proven to significantly increase part strength. + +4. **Wider lines improve step over and overhang appearance**, i.e., the overlap of the currently printed line to the surface below. So, if you are printing models with overhangs, setting a larger external perimeter line width will improve the overhang’s appearance to an extent. + +5. **For top surfaces, typically a value of ~100%-105% of the nozzle width is recommended** as it provides the most precision, compared to a wider line. + +6. **For external walls, you need to strike a balance between precision and step over and, consequently, overhang appearance.** Typically these values are set to ~105% of nozzle diameter for models with limited overhangs up to ~120% for models with more significant overhangs. + +7. **For internal walls, you typically want to maximize part strength**, so a good starting point is approximately 120% of the nozzle width, which gives a good balance between print speed, accuracy, and material use. However, depending on the model, larger or smaller line widths may make sense in order to reduce gap fill and/or line width variations if you are using Arachne. + +8. **Don’t feel constrained to have wider internal wall lines compared to external ones**. While this is the default for most profiles, for models where significant overhangs are present, printing wider external walls compared to the internal ones may yield better overhang quality without increasing material use! + +9. **For sparse infill, the line width also affects how dense, visually, the sparse infill will be.** The sparse infill aims to extrude a set amount of material based on the percentage infill selected. When increasing the line width, the space between the sparse infill extrusions is larger in order to roughly maintain the same material usage. Typically for sparse infill, a value of 120% of nozzle diameter is a good starting point. + +10. **For supports, using 100% or less line width will make the supports weaker** by reducing their layer adhesion, making them easier to remove. + +11. **If your printer is limited mechanically, try to maintain the material flow as consistent as possible between critical features of your model**, to ease the load on the extruder having to adapt its flow between them. This is especially useful for printers that do not use pressure advance/linear advance and if your extruder is not as capable mechanically. You can do that by adjusting the line widths and speeds to reduce the variation between critical features (e.g., external and internal wall flow). For example, print them at the same speed and the same line width, or print the external perimeter slightly wider and slightly slower than the internal perimeter. Material flow can be visualized in the sliced model – flow drop down. diff --git a/doc/print_settings/quality/quality_settings_seam.md b/doc/print_settings/quality/quality_settings_seam.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..7777be8ff66 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/print_settings/quality/quality_settings_seam.md @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ +# Seam Section + +Unless printed in spiral vase mode, every layer needs to begin somewhere and end somewhere. That start and end of the extrusion is what results in what visually looks like a seam on the perimeters. This section contains options to control the visual appearance of a seam. + +- **Seam Position**: Controls the placement of the seam. + 1. **Aligned**: Will attempt to align the seam to a hidden internal facet of the model. + 2. **Nearest**: Will place the seam at the nearest starting point compared to where the nozzle stopped printing in the previous layer. + 3. **Back**: Will align the seam in a (mostly) straight line at the rear of the model. + 4. **Random**: Will randomize the placement of the seam between layers. + + Typically, aligned or back work the best, especially in combination with seam painting. However, as seams create weak points and slight surface "bulges" or "divots," random seam placement may be optimal for parts that need higher strength as that weak point is spread to different locations between layers (e.g., a pin meant to fit through a hole). + +- **Staggered Inner Seams**: As the seam location forms a weak point in the print (it's a discontinuity in the extrusion process after all!), staggering the seam on the internal perimeters can help reduce stress points. This setting moves the start of the internal wall's seam around across layers as well as away from the external perimeter seam. This way, the internal and external seams don't all align at the same point and between them across layers, distributing those weak points further away from the seam location, hence making the part stronger. It can also help improve the water tightness of your model. + +- **Seam Gap**: Controls the gap in mm or as a percentage of the nozzle size between the two ends of a loop starting and ending with a seam. A larger gap will reduce the bulging seen at the seam. A smaller gap reduces the visual appearance of a seam. For a well-tuned printer with pressure advance, a value of 0-15% is typically optimal. + +- **Scarf Seam**: Read more here: [Better Seams - An Orca Slicer Guide](https://www.printables.com/model/783313-better-seams-an-orca-slicer-guide-to-using-scarf-s). + +- **Role-Based Wipe Speed**: Controls the speed of a wipe motion, i.e., how fast the nozzle will move over a printed area to "clean" it before traveling to another area of the model. It is recommended to turn this option on, to ensure the nozzle performs the wipe motion with the same speed that the feature was printed with. + +- **Wipe Speed**: If role-based wipe speed is disabled, set this field to the absolute wipe speed or as a percentage over the travel speed. + +- **Wipe on Loops**: When finishing printing a "loop" (i.e., an extrusion that starts and ends at the same point), move the nozzle slightly inwards towards the part. That move aims to reduce seam unevenness by tucking in the end of the seam to the part. It also slightly cleans the nozzle before traveling to the next area of the model, reducing stringing. + +- **Wipe Before External Perimeters**: To minimize the visibility of potential over-extrusion at the start of an external perimeter, the de-retraction move is performed slightly on the inside of the model and, hence, the start of the external perimeter. That way, any potential over-extrusion is hidden from the outside surface. + + This is useful when printing with Outer/Inner or Inner/Outer/Inner wall print order, as in these modes, it is more likely an external perimeter is printed immediately after a de-retraction move, which would cause slight extrusion variance at the start of a seam. + +## Tips: +With seams being inevitable when 3D printing using FFF, there are two distinct approaches on how to deal with them: + +1. **Try and hide the seam as much as possible**: This can be done by enabling scarf seam, which works very well, especially with simple models with limited overhang regions. +2. **Try and make the seam as "clean" and "distinct" as possible**: This can be done by tuning the seam gap and enabling role-based wipe speed, wipe on loops, and wipe before the external loop. + +## Troubleshooting Seam Performance: +The section below will focus on troubleshooting traditional seams. For scarf seam troubleshooting, refer to the guide linked above. + +There are several factors that influence how clean the seam of your model is, with the biggest one being extrusion control after a travel move. As a seam defines the start and end of an extrusion, it is critical that: + +1. **The same amount of material is extruded at the same point across layers** to ensure a consistent visual appearance at the start of a seam. +2. **The printer consistently stops extruding at the same point** across layers. + +However, due to mechanical and material tolerances, as well as the very nature of 3D printing with FFF, that is not always possible. Hopefully with some tuning you'll be able to achieve prints like this! + +![IMG_4059](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e60c3d24-9b21-4484-bcbe-614237a2fe09) + + +### Troubleshooting the Start of a Seam: +Imagine the scenario where the toolhead finishes printing a layer line on one side of the bed, retracts, travels the whole distance of the bed to de-retract, and starts printing another part. Compare this to the scenario where the toolhead finishes printing an internal perimeter and only travels a few mm to start printing an external perimeter, without even retracting or de-retracting. + +The first scenario has much more opportunity for the filament to ooze outside the nozzle, resulting in a small blob forming at the start of the seam or, conversely, if too much material has leaked, a gap/under extrusion at the start of the seam. + +The key to a consistent start of a seam is to reduce the opportunity for ooze as much as possible. The good news is that this is mostly tunable by: + +1. **Ensure your pressure advance is calibrated correctly**. A too low pressure advance will result in the nozzle experiencing excess pressure at the end of the previous extrusion, which increases the chance of oozing when traveling. +2. **Make sure your travel speed is as fast as possible within your printer's limits**, and the travel acceleration is as high as practically possible, again within the printer's limits. This reduces the travel time between features, reducing oozing. +3. **Enable wipe before external perimeters** – this setting performs the de-retraction move inside the model, hence reducing the visual appearance of the "blob" if it does appear at the seam. +4. **Increase your travel distance threshold to be such that small travel moves do not trigger a retraction and de-retraction operation**, reducing extrusion variances caused by the extruder tolerances. 2-4mm is a good starting point as, if your PA is tuned correctly and your travel speed and acceleration are high, it is unlikely that the nozzle will ooze in the milliseconds it will take to travel to the new location. +5. **Enable retract on layer change**, to ensure the start of your layer is always performed under the same conditions – a de-pressurized nozzle with retracted filament. + +In addition, some toolhead systems are inherently better at seams compared to others. For example, high-flow nozzles with larger melt zones usually have poorer extrusion control as more of the material is in a molten state inside the nozzle. They tend to string more, ooze easier, and hence have poorer seam performance. Conversely, smaller melt zone nozzles have more of the filament solid in their heat zone, leading to more accurate extrusion control and better seam performance. + +So this is a trade-off between print speed and print quality. From experimental data, volcano-type nozzles tend to perform the worst at seams, followed by CHT-type nozzles, and finally regular flow nozzles. + +In addition, larger nozzle diameters allow for more opportunity for material to leak compared to smaller diameter nozzles. A 0.2/0.25 mm nozzle will have significantly better seam performance than a 0.4, and that will have much better performance than a 0.6mm nozzle and so forth. + +### Troubleshooting the End of a Seam: +The end of a seam is much easier to get right, as the extrusion system is already at a pressure equilibrium while printing. It just needs to stop extruding at the right time and consistently. + +**If you are getting bulges at the seam**, the extruder is not stopping at the right time. The first thing to tune would be **pressure advance** – too low of a PA will result in the nozzle still being pressurized when finishing the print move, hence leaving a wider line at the end as it stops printing. + +And the opposite is true too – **too high PA will result in under extrusion at the end of a print move**, shown as a larger-than-needed gap at the seam. Thankfully, tuning PA is straightforward, so run the calibration tests and pick the optimal value for your material, print speed, and acceleration. + +Furthermore, the printer mechanics have tolerances – the print head may be requested to stop at point XY but practically it cannot stop precisely at that point due to the limits of micro-stepping, belt tension, and toolhead rigidity. Here is where tuning the seam gap comes into effect. **A slightly larger seam gap will allow for more variance to be tolerated at the end of a print move before showing as a seam bulge**. Experiment with this value after you are certain your PA is tuned correctly and your travel speeds and retractions are set appropriately. + +Finally, the techniques of **wiping can help improve the visual continuity and consistency of a seam** (please note, these settings do not make the seam less visible, but rather make them more consistent!). Wiping on loops with a consistent speed helps tuck in the end of the seam, hiding the effects of retraction from view. + +### The Role of Wall Ordering in Seam Appearance: +The order of wall printing plays a significant role in the appearance of a seam. **Starting to print the external perimeter first after a long travel move will always result in more visible artifacts compared to printing the internal perimeters first and traveling just a few mm to print the external perimeter.** + +For optimal seam performance, printing with **inner-outer-inner wall order is typically best, followed by inner-outer**. It reduces the amount of traveling performed prior to printing the external perimeter and ensures the nozzle is having as consistent pressure as possible, compared to printing outer-inner. diff --git a/doc/Extrusion-rate-smoothing.md b/doc/print_settings/speed/extrusion-rate-smoothing.md similarity index 100% rename from doc/Extrusion-rate-smoothing.md rename to doc/print_settings/speed/extrusion-rate-smoothing.md