Printing round objects print hexagonal

[Trevor Klass]

Printing with the Replicator 2 with PLA and while printing round objects they print with flat spots so they are not perfectly round.

Has anyone else run into this that can offer me some advice >/?

thanks 

[Dan Newman]

Increase the number of facets which your CAD package generates when exporting
a 3D model as an STL. An STL is just a collection of flat, planar polygons (and
a surface normal to indicate an inside vs. outside face). The fewer polygons
used, the flatter the circular approximates tend to be.

Dan

[Bryon Miller]

Sounds like the cable to your x motor is shorting out.  I have over 900 hours on my printer but do not have this problem.  I am paranoid that this thing will break down on me because I actually use it to make items I sell, so I try to have replacement parts on hand.  I just purchased this cable from Makerbot 10 minutes ago, it cost $20!  But since yours is broken and mine wasn't.  I just wanted to have a replacement on hand so I had to pay for it.  They'll probably replace yours since it might actually be defective.  I'm sure they'll make you go through a few troubleshooting steps first, but in the end they'll send a replacement if it's needed. 

[Dan Newman]

On 28 Oct 2013 , at 9:38 AM, Trevor Klass wrote:

A photo might help folks know what specifically you are referring to.
It could be the STL file itself (e.g., the facet count issue I alluded to).
It could be that the flats are happening just on a couple of spots in which
case it could be your stepper motor wiring or even a bad endstop wire: both
are known to fail and to sometimes only fail at certain extremes of travel.
Or it could be something else entirely such as backlash along the Y axis
travel.

Dan

[billyd]

This sounds like the problem. In some software they call this the normal angle tolerance, set in degrees. The smaller the number the closer to a perfect circle, but the larger the file and the longer it takes to slice. Usually 5° is small enough to get really nice results. This is ultimately the angle difference between two line segments making up a curve. The smaller the angle between them, the more lines you need to break up a given curve. STL files only have straight lines forming triangles. More triangles makes for smoother surfaces.

[Steve Johnstone]

+1 ref Dan & bill.... That's exactly what I would say it was.