Re: How do I remove surface faceting?

[KM Design]

Hi Erik,

The surface resolution is determined when you export your part as an STL from Solidworks. The slicer (Makerware or ReplicatorG) doesn't actually change the resolution of your model.

Kevin

On Tuesday, 26 February 2013 12:25:22 UTC-8, Erik Louis wrote:

I'm trying to print a part with a large curved surface but it is coming out with lots of vertical facets in the surface (see attached picture). The part was designed in Solidworks and has a smooth radius so I'm assuming it's something in the ReplicatorG or Skeinforge settings that is creating the facets (I'm printing on a Replicator 2 if that matters). I've tried poking around in the Skeinforge profiles a bit but can't seem to find what I need to create a smooth surface. Can anyone offer me some help on what I need to do? Thanks.

[Eighty]

I don't know SolidWorks, but the settings are in there somewhere.  In AutoCad, you have to dial up the "facet resolution" prior to exporting.

[Infinityplusplus]

When you do a save as in solidworks and select .stl, an options button is also on that menu. Go into it and you can turn up the resolution.

[Fastrack]

SolidWorks

When you pick STL in Save As.  Click Options...  This is what I've been using and I can not see ANY vertical facets, make sure you save it as a Binary STL as well.  And set the units to millimetres if you haven't already

Ben

[Joseph Chiu]

See the comment at http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/1550-how-to-prep-and-upload-a-3d-model-with-solidworks-for-3d-printing-with-shapeways.html

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[Erik Louis]

That looks like just what I need but I don't have an 'options' button. Is there some other setting I could have wrong thats causing this? I'm using Solidworks 2007 FYI and the help file also talks about the options button but I can't figure out why I don't have it.

[Jason Aspinall]

Seems your installation of Solidworks 2007 is broken.

Here's all the information you need on altering the export settings for STL file format:  http://wiki.daap.uc.edu/groups/infocenter/wiki/0f3c1/

[AKron]

I'm going to be the odd guy out and say the Replicator firmware is
doing that. My SW stl output is set to "fine", and I still get those
facets. Somewhere I read the Arduino can't keep up with all the arc
calculations, so you're getting polygons instead. I have no idea where
that post is now.

[Wingcommander whpthomas]

Also, if you print in white it will hide the facets better than black will.

[Eighty]

It also helps if you print in the dark.  Helps minimize the facets as well :-)