Cube 3 vs. Cube Pro Trio?

[Thomas]

Ok, I'm taking the plunge and it looks like 3D Systems are the cutting edge.

Does anyone know if there's any advantage to the Cube Pro Trio other than the extra color and larger size?

First glimmer of hands on reviews of the Cube 3 are good, but slow shipping. No delay for the Cube Pro Trio, but no reviews I can find.

I use 3DS Max. How does the printer know what color is what? Different objects? Different colors on different faces of objects? How does that work?

If faster and better, and if the Cube world can read the Autodesk world's colors in a semi automatic way, and if there's not some mystery reason why there's such a shortage of info on that $4,300 printer, I'm gonna buy it.

Thanks guys

[Peter Gregory]

I would do a little more research.
I purchased a Cubex Trio a couple of years back.
The Cubex Trio is basically the same as the Cube Pro.
The Cube Pro has a different enclosure.
As the product ships, it is impossible to get good prints.
It's taken years and thousands of dollars to get it to print properly.

The cartridge system seems like a good idea, until you start adding up the costs.
You get about 300g of filament for $100. You can get 3rd party filament at 1000g for $35.
You get the same storage benifits of a cartridge system by putting the bulk filament in a bag.
You can't see how much filament is left.
The cartridges jam frequently. You either open them up and fix them or lose $100.
You will end up hating the cartridge system.

I'm my opinion, you need a heated bed to get good prints.
The Cube Pro in enclosed, but it still has a plastic non-heated bed.
The heated bed makes a huge difference in the 3d printer experience.

The slicer that comes with Cubex systems leaves much to be desired.
I run KISSlicer instead of the Cubex printer driver. It works so much better.
The Cubex Trio has a flaw that allows you to use 3rd party filament and 3rd party slicers.
They have plugged those flaws in the new Cube Pro.
I don't believe there is any option except to use their software and filament now.

The Cubex Pro hardware is basically a Cubex Trio with a different enclosure.
The hardware is very good. The software will disappoint.

[Thomas]

Thanks Peter,

Well, that's an argument for getting the cheap one. Something far better will be available in a year regardless. 

The attraction is it's reputed to be more reliable, if it's not reliable, pffft.

I'm in, one way or another. I bought the HP Paintjet in the 80's, the first color printer for the masses, and decided on the spot I'd rather make my living as a computer artist, not an Electrical Engineer. I've printed on everything with everything, billions have seen my computer art, and this is the first time since the Paintjet I'm excited about it.

I went ahead and ordered the little one, November it arrives. I figured I'd use it for a while and then sell it off and get another, but am wondering if it should be the pro trio. I do this for a living, so it's tax deductible. At this point, it's a cubify printer of some kind.

Do you have any recommendations To me, it's a way of getting 3DMax models printed I can solve feeding problems etc. like the next guy, but I'm not interested is spending my time on that. I don't have the printer so I don't know about the toolpath software and how it decides colors, but their other software is pretty sparse and I'll spend as little time as possible with it. The Invent one seems useless to me.

My 2-D stuff is 99% of my living over the decades, but I did do some 3D models, I  can make any shape,  for instance...

That was before it was built and it looks precisely like that, (except for changes in the blueprints during construction. Not a right angle in the place and every I'beam and bar joist is precise. The sign out front is my design, and it was built too.

Thanks for your wise advice,

Rick

[Thomas]

Does anyone know how the Cubify multicolor printers decide which color to use? Is it objects, faces of objects? In other words, this tennis ball has the indented faces with a different material, can it see that, or is it only objects?

(Yeah I know, some horizontal surfaces that'll have to be changed for a plastic dribbling printer, (one review of the Cube Pro is it has much better abilities to span gaps.)

Most of it is different objects, but the white of the tennis ball is a material assigned to just those faces. I could slice it with a sphere and make two objects inside each other etc. but sure handy to just apply materials to faces.

Thanks in advance, this sure is going to be fun...

 

[Peter Gregory]

I remember how excited I was when I bought the Cubex Trio.

I had ambitions of printing very complex mechanical moving parts in one print with supports and having it work right off the printer. 

The best advice I can give you is you have to learn the limitations of the printer.

I can't make very fine gears, the resolution is not there.

However, it is a big step up from working with wood.

Think of the Cubex as a dot matrix printer, not a laser printer.

You can get good results from it, but not REALLY good results.

Others on the forums have gotten really spectacular prints, but have spent countless hours getting the settings just right for the print.

The next print may need different settings.  You have to get a feel for what the printer is capable of doing.

Here is how it does multiple colors:

You have the ability to "hide" parts of your design when you export the design into a STL file before printing.

So, you hide the yellow tennis ball and save the base without it (the exported shell does't have to be a complete object).  That is one shell.

Then, you hide the base and show just the tennis ball and save it.  That is a second shell.

You can assign different materials (colors) to each shell when you load them into the printer driver.

You can combine multiple shells in one location to merge the shells together back into one part with multiple colors.

I've not had good luck with multiple color prints on my Cubex Trio.

It is really slow.  The first head will heat up, purge, print it's part, home, second print head heats up, purges, prints it's part.  

This process repeats for each thin layer until it finishes.

The colors had a tendency to bleed into each other.

The hot end tends to "ooze" a bit and drags filament into parts it should not go.

I haven't tried multi-color one in over a year, and the Slicer software (KISSlicer) I use has improved much since then.

I may try again if I design a part that needs multiple colors.

The newer Cubex printers only work with the software that comes with it.

The older version I have has a security flaw that allows third party software and filament.

You will have lots of fun designing and printing.

[Thomas]

I expect to be gluing parts together, and of course assembling them. But as an artist, you have to have multiple colors.  

Well, maybe the new Trio will handle things a little better. If they will let me change the order, I think I will. A lot of money for something that will start being obsolete in a year, but this is fun, it's tax deductible and I'll make money out of it.

I guess, to get the white in the tennis ball, I'd do something like this....

Stick a sphere inside, precisely where it is slightly larger than the white part and Boolean it. Then stick the white sphere perfectly inside after doing the same thing to it, so it only prints the thin wall for speed, (and bouncing ability?) A thin wall white sphere with the yellow part just outside it.

Anyone stick a time capsule secret message or whatever inside things like this printing? Where it would be sealed up?

Anyone wants this tennis ball, I'd be happy to upload it with all that done, or just the solid one. The original file is 3dSMax but 3ds or whatever.

[Rodney Wells]

I have been reading this thread.   Its very interesting looking back on where I was 2 years ago.   Peter is correct. Very correct. 

Here is my 2 cents worth.   I own three of the 3D Systems  machines   A Repman3.2, 3D Touch and a CubeX. Theses days I get great prints that would rival the big 40,000 dollar machines I have seen a trade shows. Its about so many factors. A big part is KISSlicer keep that in mind.  

 Given all the work that goes into keeping them going as Petter said,I will probably buy another one again. I would love to get my hands on a Cube Pro.

 I have tweaked and modified and  broken them more time than i can remember.  Maybe its just the devil you know as opposed to the devil you don't.   

 So here is the thing, When you have owned a 3D print there is no going back to a life with out one, especially if you are a creative person. It would be debilitating.

Being able to manufacture any thing your imagination can conjure up is  awesome. It never get boring. there is always the wow factor.

That's the bigger picture.   

 Good luck. I hope you get as much enjoyment for your machines as we all do. 

[Thomas]

Yeah, I'm switching to the Cube Pro Trio tomorrow morning, if they'll let me. It's fun and business. The sealed environment has to help with the quality, even if it doesn't have that heated bed. From the look of things on this forum, you'll be able to add it eventually.

My experience with this kind of stuff, is at some point you have to buy it to find out. But I have to think the driver has improved for the toolpath part.

At any rate, at a certain point of complexity, reliability is what matters. They invented the integrated circuit because of reliability not cost of production  etc. At a certain point, you can't make that many solder connections without a problem. I suspect you can't start again if something clogs or whatever. If I'm going to print some ornate complex thing, I don't want to have to start again repeatedly. A lot of that can be solved by printing it in parts and gluing it together, but only up to a point, and I have plenty of puzzles to solve in my in-box.

***A couple stupid questions.

1. How thin is too thin for the wall of the tennis ball? 1mm? 0.5mm? 2mm?

2. How steep of an angle can it bridge a gap with? 45deg? 30deg? etc. in other words, in the case of the tennis trophy, how far up do I need to put the pedestal? (Yeah the text will need to change.)

Thanks

[Thomas]

I'm gonna buy both. The Pro Trio wouldn't get here any faster, and I could always dump the little one for a few hundred bucks off. This way I can delay the big investment until I'm better informed etc.

But to print something complicated, it needs to be thin layers and separate pieces you glue together when ever possible. Bound to be parts the little printer will do a fine job on, why not have it sit there and make them until it wears out.

November 3 I'm told. And no, I'm not going to print that rook.

I'll give a consumer reports review of each, print time quality, etc.

[Thomas]

Here's the first print, and why not two colors. It's a test of how horizontal a shape the printer will print. The tests are at 20deg, 45deg and 70deg. They are 0.5mm, 1mm and 2mm. Any suggestions on what the correct test range should be? Seems there should be a standard test like this (but done better) for the various printers and layer thickness and materials etc. I suspect the top of a dome will tolerate more of an angle, because of the compressive support etc. but this zeroes it in...

I kinda like the exploded part, but it'll probably be printed in several parts and glued together.

[Thomas]

Well, I get my little Cube3 Monday, finally. I'll upload a video of it printing and what it printed and send the link. 

I have a stupid question. 

How some everything I've ever seen printed by one of these things is a simple little rinky dink think no one would spend $0.25 on in a drug store? Big CubeX printer, and everything printed is about an inch tall. Can't be the abilities in general of those doing it, there's some rather impressive electrical engineering going on here, and I am one. 

And as an artist, you have to have different colors for the contrast, how come no one ever glues a couple different color things together or better yet, have them snap together? If making complex 3D models is not the cup of tea with your typical 3D printer enthusiast, (and why not?), they could do that. MIght be preferable to multiple color printers in some situations, 

I'm in, don't get me wrong, but as an old man, a businessman, someone is selling snake oil. Even the glory demo for the CubeX, a 3D printed basketball, Cubify shows up at the trade show with a one color basketball saying the two color one was too precious. Excuse me? The company that makes them can't set one to print a 2 color basketball for the big trade show, however long it takes to do? 

Anyone ever see anything printed on one of these printers that's complicated? I

Thanks guys

[Peter Gregory]

Well, they may not be multi-color, but I have printed some fun projects.

A camera shutter speed tester.  It measures the curtain travel time for analog cameras.

A word clock that spells out the time with LED lighted words:

Another is a tic-tac-toe game:

Here's a video of the game in action:

http://youtu.be/OA8gYSwJNqs

I'm currently working on a touch-screen flip clock based on this mechanism:  http://youtu.be/CdTVEH3EVwo

[Thomas]

There you go, a practical use. Something you can't just go buy for 25 cents like a plastic cup. Been years (decades?) since I did any electronics, interesting to see that folks still use those push in breadboard things. Yeah, the box to put the stuff in was always an issue, cutting the holes, mounting the stuff inside, and so on and never quite what you want.