Polyfoam Infill

[Mitch]

Hi All,

Firstly, I would like to say thanks to those who are developing this program, the slicer and infill opportunities (among all the other options and flexabilities) are really fantastic.

So, to my questions:

1)  I have been trying to use the polyfoam infill (Windows 10, x64, version 2.3.1) and it seems the infill does not equally distribute. I have tries this with a simple cube modelled in the forge version, as well as STLs (from a 3D benchy to a simple cube or cylinder). The Benchy is a great example, as you will see the polyfoam only fill two quarters of the model (yes, one half, but when you scroll through the slices, the models are divided into quarters). This issue becomes more noticeable when increasing the percentage to say 50%, and on smaller percentages (like 10 - 15%) it fails to fill entire sections.

2) The second issue I encountered is somewhat related to the first, but in this instance. For example, I model a large cylinder (say 100mm diameter, by 200mm high) and upon using a polyfoam slice option of around 15 or 20%, I find that only half or so of the cylinder has infill, i.e., in the first 50 mm from the bottom, there is no infill, from 50 to 100mm there is a dense polyfoam infill, and the top 50mm is also empty.

3) When selecting polyfoam infill, there are supposed to be options for changing certain parameters (like when selecting CircleGrid, but I cannot see any of these options) - can someone please point to to where these may be as they do not appear when polyfoam is selected.?

Now, these issues I am having may just be user error, for which I apologise in advance if this is the case, but if it is not and you need further information, please let me know!

Thanks again,

Mitch

[sylefeb]

Hi Mitch,

Thanks for using IceSL and for the detailed report!

Regarding 3), this is definitely a UI bug, where the parameters of Polyfoam appear with 'CircleGrid' instead of Polyfoam itself. Will fix asap. Meanwhile you can change the parameters in CircleGrid and select Polyfoam afterwards, or set from script using e.g.:

set_setting_value('infill_type_0','Polyfoam')
set_setting_value('kgon_x_shrink_0',0.2)

Regarding 1+2) I just sliced a relatively large cube (100^3) and encountered no problem. The script I used is:

emit(cube(100))
set_setting_value('infill_percentage_0','30')
set_setting_value('infill_type_0','Polyfoam')
set_setting_value('kgon_x_shrink_0',0.2)

Does this work on your side?

I also tried 3dbenchy (see attached, sliced without perimeter) at 70% and no problem either.

Could you please try with the following script:

benchy_imp = load_centered_on_plate('3DBenchy.stl')
emit(benchy_imp)
set_setting_value('infill_type_0','Polyfoam')
set_setting_value('infill_percentage_0',70)
set_setting_value('kgon_x_shrink_0',1.0)

If that does not work, please send me a screenshot so that I can see the defect.

Thank you!

Best regards,

Sylvain

PS: Beware of the preview: it limits the number of slices shown at once based on reported GPU memory so it could be that you are only seeing part of the output.

[sylefeb]

(screenshot)

[Mitch]

Dear Sylvain,

Many thanks for your very quick reply!

Regarding my issue 3, I think you may be correct in that it was not displaying, as I am unable to reproduce the issue and the gcode generated appears to have all the layers (i didn't check line by line though.. :). (I am running a Dell Precision 5520 notebook with 32GB ram, and a NVIDIA Quadro M1200 4GB). So apologies for that - but if I came across it again I will take a screenshot immediately. 

Regarding Issue 2, please see the attached screenshot - I ran once of my tests though an NC viewer and could see that it indeed did leave out two quarters of the infill. I also attached a cylinder that shows partial infill and quarters! (came across this while trying to reproduce issue 3).

I tried your suggestion and came across similar issues - please see attached.

As I mentioned, it can also be likely that I am doing something completely wrong - so please let me know if you need further detail.

Best regards,

Mitch

P.S. can you PM me as I would like to use this software for my research also and maybe we can collaborate? 

[sylefeb]

Many thanks for the tests! This looks like a severe issue. I will try to reproduce it on some laptops we have with relatively similar specs.

If you have the opportunity, you could try to update NVidia/Intel graphics drivers (never hurts), and see whether the other shader based infills (such as CircleGrid or Voro2D) suffer from the same issues?

I'll come back to you soon!

Best,

Sylvain

[sylefeb]

=> I am able to reproduce the problem on a lapotop, so no need for further testing. Working on a fix asap!

Thanks -

Sylvain

[sylefeb]

The issue seems to be affecting the Intel HD card only. If I select the NVidia GPU it works properly (right click on icon => Launch with graphics processor => NVidia).

[Mitch]

Dear Sylvain,

Thanks again - and just to answer your other questions RE CircleGrid and Voro2d, there are no issues at all - currently on day 2 of a 4 day print with the Voro2D! And I have sliced shapes with the CircleGrid that shows no issues at all.

Best regards,

Mitch