Anycubic Photon

[Mark W]

does running it flat [instead of angled slightly] actually reduce chances of success that much ?

On something like this, definitely.  If you take a slice right through the bottom of the gon, that entire surface area of the body is getting cured and stuck to the FEP.  That's a lot of force to overcome, so the risk is ripping the part away from the supports instead. 

Now if the car were angled about 15 degrees from end to end, that same slice no longer has the full surface area of the car, but instead only maybe 1/8th starting at one end.  Then each layer after continues that 1/8th slice, but further and further up and over until we reach the far end.  It will add time to the print since we divide that surface area into multiple slices, but it greatly reduces the suction force of the cured layer on the FEP film. 

[wvgca]

i should have mentioned 'with supports added'  ..
i know that flat with no support increases the hold be quite a bit

[Chris333]

I tilted my narrow gauge car about 7 degrees both ways. Even though it doesn't really have any large flat areas on it.

Now if I could just get rid of all those phantom triangles I could print more of them 

[Mark W]

Now if I could just get rid of all those phantom triangles I could print more of them 

Phantom triangles?  Did I miss something? 

[Chris333]

Phantom triangles?  Did I miss something?

Well that car is made up of 4 pieces that I joined in Sketchup. The first print was horrible with tons of triangles all over it. I did "something" in Netfabb to fix that.

Now I altered those drawings and re-joined into 1 piece. I can't figure out how to fix this one in Netfabb. I keep fixing it, but when I slice I can still see triangles all over. So I haven't bothered to try printing it.

When I search for what is causing it I get stuff about manifold edges and shared lines.

[rodsup9000]

Well that car is made up of 4 pieces that I joined in Sketchup. The first print was horrible with tons of triangles all over it. I did "something" in Netfabb to fix that.

Now I altered those drawings and re-joined into 1 piece. I can't figure out how to fix this one in Netfabb. I keep fixing it, but when I slice I can still see triangles all over. So I haven't bothered to try printing it.

When I search for what is causing it I get stuff about manifold edges and shared lines.

 It sounds like you have a lot of holes in it after you put it all together.  I had the same problem when I joined all 4 sides on my caboose this afternoon. I spent about 2 hours going through every place that joined to make it watertight.

[Chris333]

Netfabb says 0 holes, but 4 shells. Whatever a shell is.

I'll try Meshmixer when I get home.

[peteski]

Netfabb says 0 holes, but 4 shells. Whatever a shell is.

I'll try Meshmixer when I get home.

And I thought that holes in semiconductors were odd. . .
This is a while new world, isn't it? And a while new vocabulary to learn. 

[Chris333]

Well I understand what a hole is 

The thing is I draw these up with Sketchup and export as a .stl and they upload and print at Shapeways just fine. So they must be fixing them for me on the low.

[rodsup9000]

The retired architect/architectural builder friend of mine (who is also a S scaler) is in the process of building a HO scale model of Denver Union Station for a local model railroader's layout. He's been working on these window for awhile now, and I've tried to print them before on my FDM printer, but could never get a good watertight file. Well tonight I finally got a good file that I looks like it'll print right and just in time to give the printer a workout. I'm printing it at .02 layer height, per his request. So I got it loaded in slicer, set it at 20 degree angle, add the support, and sliced. Says a few minutes shy if 13 hours to print.
It barely fits the bed when laying flat.

[Chris333]

So trying to print my trucks with the grey and it just ain't workin'. Using
.02 layers
12s normal layer
6.5off
96s bottom layer
8 bottom layers.
It is shutting off and resetting on the first or second layer like 8 times in a row.

Now what sucks is I can't just change those setting. I have to put my models into the slicer and add supports one at a time and re-save the sliced file. That can take like 20 min to do.

After about 5 fails I cleaned off the plate and pulled out the vat to re-level, but it was still level so I didn't change that. The first layer is sticking to the plate so that is working fine. When the machine turns back on I can lift it up off the vat with no problems. So it is not stuck to the vat.

[rodsup9000]

So trying to print my trucks with the grey and it just ain't workin'. Using
.02 layers
12s normal layer
6.5off
96s bottom layer
8 bottom layers.
It is shutting off and resetting on the first or second layer like 8 times in a row.

Now what sucks is I can't just change those setting. I have to put my models into the slicer and add supports one at a time and re-save the sliced file. That can take like 20 min to do.

After about 5 fails I cleaned off the plate and pulled out the vat to re-level, but it was still level so I didn't change that. The first layer is sticking to the plate so that is working fine. When the machine turns back on I can lift it up off the vat with no problems. So it is not stuck to the vat.

  Your file should be OK. It think it's the "Z" axis that doing the reset. Mine did it again tonight and I reset the Z where there was a little resistant on the paper.

[Chris333]

I just unplugged it for a few min. Re-did the file to:
.02
12
1.5
80
6

Started it up and got a memory error (first time for that) said replace the USB. So now I have bought 4 USB sticks and none are working. The only one that works is the one that came with the machine and everyone says that will only last about a month before it fails too.

So I put the file on the original USB and it failed on the first layer and re-set the machine 3 times in a row.    

3D printing is NOT fun.

EDIT: Just for fun    I re-level the plate and now it seems to be working. Even though it seemed perfectly level before I started.

[DKS]

ALL OF YOU, STOP THIS!

YES! CUT IT OUT!

I agree. This is getting to be too much. Because I don't even have a house to put one of this in yet!

[Chris333]

So it was running on a quick test file I threw together. I didn't want the print so I stopped it. Scraped off the plate and put in the original file. Press play and it has shut off 3 times again.

I didn't see in the manual, does this thing float!     3 hours down the drain with nothing.