It's been really cold out here in the shop and I haven't spent as much time
with the printers. I did put together another CR 10 mini for the print farm. I
still love this machine. But I ended up spending more time on the computer and
there's three tricks in cura slicer that I want to show you guys. Especially
beginners out there who are just getting started. One relates to this hot end
model that I did on a previous video. Another relates to multiple processes
within Cura to do different infills. And the third one relates to when to use
a brim. So I'll show you all three of those on today's Filament Friday. This
episode of Filament Friday is brought to you by these patreon supporters. The
first trick I want to show you is this one. I had this model in a previous video.
I showed a cutaway view of the Ender 3 or CR-10 hot end. And many people asked me
where they could get that model or how did I cut it away? What software did I
use? I did it all on the slicer. Let me show you how I did it. So here's the
model and the coupling that I used. And the first thing I did in Curaa was to
rotate it 90 degrees so it would lay flat on the bed. I did the same thing
with a coupling so they're laying flat the way I want to cut them. And then what
you do is you just lower them onto the bed until you get to the slicing point
you want. Because anything below the bed is not gonna print. So I can put it at
any level I want just by adjusting the height and that's really how we're going
to cut this thing. And I can do the same thing with the coupling. Now with the
coupling there's a little problem. If you look at it, I got this piece that's kind
of hanging in the air and I don't want to use supports. So I can just turn it 60
degrees so everything's touching the bed and the
gap is at the top now. I should be able to slice these and get what I want.
So I sliced them and here's the layer view and you can see it starts at
halfway point and it works its way up. So now I have the slicing exactly where I
want it. I got my display model so you can do this pretty much in any slicer and
definitely here in Cura.
The next trick I want to show you, I'm going to use a Marvin here. I'm gonna use
uniform scaling up scale it to 200%. I want to print this with 100% fill at
the top, 100% fill at the bottom, but in the middle I don't care. I want it
less than that. So if I slice this thing at a 100% across-the-board, I
would get what I wanted but it's gonna take three hours in five minutes. Way too
long and you can see it is solid all the way through. I don't need it solid in the
middle. If I go 20% so I use less plastic and print it quicker you
see it's one hour and seven minutes. I'm not gonna get what I want. The middle
will be fine, the bottom won't and the top. Look at this, it's gonna break away.
That hook is not gonna work. So what I'm going to use is processes within Cura.
So what you do is select the model, come over to the side here and there's a
support blocker. That allows you put a block on the model so I'll put one
down here at the feet and I'm gonna put one up here at the top. These are the two
areas I want to make 100%. And then you scale those blocks just
like you would any object, so um I've got uniform scaling, you want to use
non-uniform scaling. So you can adjust the X and then the Y and then the Z to
cover the area that you want to be 100%, in my case. So then you
can move it and center it so I'm going to Center to Marvin in the X-direction.
It's sticking out the back so I need to move it back in the Y-direction. And I'm
actually gonna move this up as the block is below the bed so I got plenty of space.
I'm gonna move it up so the legs are completely covered. So everything
within that block is what I want to make 100%. Now I want to do the same thing at
the top. So I do the same steps. Make it bigger. Make it taller. And then center it
Center it above Marvin here and then I gotta raise it up so I make sure I get
that hook. And there we go. So now I've got the top on the bottom
defined. The middle, I really don't care. So I'm gonna leave the infill density over
here at 20%. Now I'm gonna go and select one of the blocks and then select "per
model settings" and there's a drop down here. It says "Don't support...". Click on it
and there's a "modify settings for overlap with other models". Click on that and I
should be able to change the settings. I click on it and then select settings
window pops up. Click on it and then I can type in infill and the infill menu
comes up. I select infill density. Close this and then now I can change the 20%
which the whole model is, to 100%. That means that bottom block
will now print at 100%. Now I need to do the same thing to the top.
Same thing, "modify settings for overlap". Select settings.
Infill. Select the infill density. And then change the 20% to 100%.
(Which appears to be harder than I thought).
So 100% top, 100% bottom, and the middle should print at
the 20% which is the infill density setting in the slicer. So I slice
it, and let's look at the layer view and make sure it did what I wanted. So here
it is on the bottom. It's all solid and then it makes the transition to 20%
as you can see, which is awesome. And in when it goes to the top. Its solid
again for my hook. So I get a nice solid hook at the top if I go all the way up.
See, perfect. Exactly what I wanted and it didn't take 3 hours to print. 1 hour
and 41 minutes. So I cut the print time in half by using
this. So this is very very handy. It's a great way to get what you want in your
print and save time. Here's a print I stopped at midway. A lot of stringing
going on. You can see the transition from 100% to the 20%.
Here's a final one I want to show you. This is really not so much about
supports, it's about using a brim with your supports. But this is a test model
for testing supports. If I clicked on supports everywhere and I show you the
layer view, then I'm gonna get supports everywhere including on top of the print
itself. The 3D prints base. Which I don't want, so if you're really new to 3D
printing, you can just click "touching the build plate" and slice it. And it's only
going to give you supports from the build plate. It's not going to touch the
model which is good. And I still get the supports under the arches so it'll
probably print fine. But what I really wanted to
show you is when you use supports, see my bottom base is nice and strong and
smooth. I want that on the glass bed but the supports have these little strings. Very
little support. These are gonna break away probably when it's printing and
that's not good. Because if they break away you just end up with a stringy mess.
And I don't want to mess with the base of my print. I want that on the glass bed
and here's the trick I really want to show you. Build plate adhesion. For
this I'm gonna select a Brim. I don't want a Raft because I don't want my
print to be off the bed. And Brim Width allows me to adjust the size of that
Brim. So what it's gonna do is when I slice it you'll see that it's gonna put
a Brim outside the base of the print and it's gonna go underneath those supports.
And give those supports a nice solid base to stick to so the Brim here is the
circular pattern on the outside around my base. Which is still going to touch
the bed. So I'm gonna get a nice smooth base because it's on the glass and then
the brim will break out from there and support the supports. So this is a great
way to prevent the supports from falling over or getting a bunch of stringing. And
you'll get a much better result and here's the result I got. The print is on
the Left I flipped it over and here's the bottom view. You can see that supports
are sticking to that Brim. So now I just need to break away the supports, cut away
the Brim and I've got the print that I want.
Those are just three of the tricks I use in Cura all the time. I hope they
helped you, especially the beginners out there, because I love helping people get
started with 3D printing. If you like what I'm doing here maybe check out some
of the other videos that are popping up. If you want to help support the channel
patron is one way or just buy through the affiliate links in the description
below. It all helps a lot. And if nothing else click on that CHEP logo and
subscribe. That's it for this week. I'll see you next time right here at Filament
Friday.