Feedback on PrusaSlicer File...?

[For Science!]

Dear LTT community,

 

If somebody has time, I was hoping maybe they could look at my first PrusaSlicer 3mf file and comment on whether it looks do-able, or whether you would have done something in a different manner that would make life much easier.

We are interesting in 3D printing molecular structures that are very irregular shaped, and so I think tree supports are the way to go. We are using a Prusa i3 Mk3s + MMU2S unit.

 

prusa.3mf

[Levent]

This can be done on resin printers quite nicely but this would be a extremely challenging print on a FDM printer like that i3 mk3. 

[For Science!]

14 minutes ago, Levent said:

This can be done on resin printers quite nicely but this would be a extremely challenging print on a FDM printer like that i3 mk3. 

the tree supports specifically? or the actual target?

I think the auto-generated lattice supports would be way to finicky to get out for some regions so if possible I think I would prefer tree supports.

We are limited to the i3 mk3 unfortunately so I would like to get it working with this restriction.

[tikker]

The left most support in the image might be a small weak point given the low surface area and height it needs to climb before attaching. Some of the supports near the top look like maybe even a bit overkill to me, but better safe than sorry at first. For me just trying it is the best way to learn with these kind of things, especially for exotic shapes. As @Levent says it  looks like a tricky one for FDM printer to me as well, so I'd advise to first do a test print in one colour to see how it prints, tweak some settings and then do the real one with the colours you want. You could even try a scaled version to save some filament during testing, but of course won't be a 1:1 test.

[For Science!]

@Levent@tikker Thanks for your insight, sounds like its a "try it and see" situation although I appreciate its going to be a bumpy ride.

I was hoping you could also give me some idea about the workflow of generating supports/gcode etc.

 

At the moment I use a program that generates a volume based on the molecular structure that gets exported as a .STL format (UCSF Chimera)

Then I read this into Meshmixer to scale, combine, orientate, and then generate the tree supports and export this as a .AMF format

Finally this gets read into PrusaSlicer for slicing.

 

If there are altenative ways you think that can improve the workflow (free software only, ideally) then this would also be helpful.e

 

[tikker]

10 minutes ago, For Science! said:

@Levent@tikker Thanks for your insight, sounds like its a "try it and see" situation although I appreciate its going to be a bumpy ride.

I was hoping you could also give me some idea about the workflow of generating supports/gcode etc.

 

At the moment I use a program that generates a volume based on the molecular structure that gets exported as a .STL format (UCSF Chimera)

Then I read this into Meshmixer to scale, combine, orientate, and then generate the tree supports and export this as a .AMF format

Finally this gets read into PrusaSlicer for slicing.

 

If there are altenative ways you think that can improve the workflow (free software only, ideally) then this would also be helpful.e

 

Whatever works really. I do whatever I can in the slicer. Slice the ST there and also let it determine supports. I use Cura which has tree support as well. Haven't used PrusaSlicer, but it probably does too. Not better per se, but might cut down on the number of steps/different software needed