FullControl GCode Designer on 3D Printing Today #372

[Andy Gleadall]

Hi Andy and Whitney,

Thanks for doing a feature about my software on the show. I think you did a great job explaining it. 

Andy, the software is still preliminary, and not very user friendly yet so please be patient if it infuriates you! I'm not sure how useable it is for people that aren't directly supported by me yet since almost everyone using it is one of my collaborators. Your podcast is the first media source I contacted about it. And two weeks ago, I created an Instagram account to demonstrate some of the potential of the software for mathematical art (http://instagram.com/fullcontrolgcode). 

The attached image is of a nonplanar part. The nonplanar layers mean the top of the candle holder is all printed in one smooth pass with no layer stepping or retraction/unretraction. It might be a good object for you to print initially. Rather than creating an entirely new design in FullControl GCode Designer, you can edit some parameters to adjust the print path of this design. I'd be happy to send that file. And to anyone else interested. 

FYI, all data about the whole design and manufacturing procedure for the part in the image below (including parametric variation capabilities) requires less than 1KB of simple text data for FullControl to create the GCode. 

You can see a video of the nonplanar printing for this part at https://www.instagram.com/p/CLuyVsBFSDl/?igshid=13mo1beoera79

Realistically, FullControl is beat for parametric calibration and similar things. I'd love to help people test its potential for their needs. The software is completely free and released open-source. 

Thanks again, 

Andy

 

[TobyCWood]

I would love to try the file. We did a followup in the next episode and hope to do more.

[Kurt at VR-FX]

Andy - the 3DP in the news item at the start - sounds AWESOME - but, at 0.014mm layer heights - and at that huge volume - its gotta be SUPER SLOW!

Would love to see your standard posting of the Ep. - so we can see the link to the news items - as well as the TOTW link.

Thanks dude!          -Kurt

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[Andy Gleadall]

Great. Can you send me some recent GCode that worked for your preferred printer? I'll set up FullControl with start/end GCode settings and the wavey vase design preloaded. Feel free to email andy.g...@gmail.com if attaching files is problematic.

I'm excited and slightly scared to hear what you say in the follow-up ep! 

[Kurt at VR-FX]

Hey Andy - I listened to the podcast this morning - and I had to complete Laugh Out Loud - when I heard your Shout Out and mention my name. Its always so awesome when you do that. But, this time - it was even more hysterical  - as it seems you thought I was busting your chops about going on the TC. Truth is - that vase you printed was SO Awesome looking - I just figured it would be even More thrilling to see it printed REALLY Big. And, yeah 16" tall is pretty darn cool. Of course - you know I like to push the limit of 3DP's - especially in regards to making something BIG! Thus the 9' Dragon.

However, VERY Interesting issue you ran into with the Silk filament. Glad it didn't cause really bad issues with the print job - especially as it took a Shocking 3 full days. Ouch!!! And, although I never played with a Pallette - I know full well some of the intricacies - as even as you mentioned about JetGuy - yeah - you need an extruder that MUST be Forceful and it can NOT Be missing steps - else the print is fully FUBAR!

As such - yeah - Great segment about the vase & TC issue - as well as EXTREMELY Interesting segment on FullControl - as I found that Really fascinating - especially considering some of my own ideas in the past - and that this SW looks like it could help me make my ideas come to fruition. Although - that being said - I just took a good look at my extruder on my D6 - and there's really only 1 side of the extruder that would allow the interesting idea of printing non-planar, with a bit more of an angle - as they other sides -- fairly blocked...

-K-

On 2/27/2021 9:30 AM, TobyCWood wrote:

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[Andy Gleadall]

Hi Andy/Kurt,

Let me know if you have any issues at all with FullControl, Kurt, it's really useful for me to see how other people think and what sort of things they might do if they could do any print path they wanted. 

Andy, I was thinking about your segment about multi-material parts on the tool changer. Multi-tool print paths are a pretty attractive option for FullControl. The images below show a print path preview for a part with two materials (print path coloured blue or purple). It's basically the same vase at the one I showed in my previous message (although planar layers). I've used two materials for each layer with alternating fins' materials. I've made the fins of one material (blue) protrude more in the middle section than the top/bottom. The opposite is true on the inside of the vase. It's still nice and neat to print because one tool will do one perimeter and then swap to the other tool. A neat trick when you define the whole print path is that you can do half-layers... by which I mean the layers of the two materials are offset in Z by half a layer height. This means the two print paths for the different materials can intersect/cross over without any issues of collision or related defects. 

This is just the first version of an adapted vase for two materials that I came up with, but you could give it a try, or I can do a different design easily. Gradually changing the offset/overlap between two materials' print paths is a great way to get super interesting effect. FYI, I have two E3D tool changers (one functioning and one being built). We've only just started using them but one cool thing we're doing is to use one tool to hold an endoscope and control it with GCode. 

Cheers,

Andy

[TobyCWood]

oops forgot.

[TobyCWood]

Wow!

[Kurt at VR-FX]

NP Andy - and thanks for posting it this morning!

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