Netfabb 2017 Portable Torrent
Hilke Mcnally
You can't. A netfabb repair sends your model off to a cloud based server (an autodesk server as Netfabb is their software). They do the repair and send it back. It has nothing to do with your computers processing power.
Neophyil gave correct (simplified) explanation.. for more than that, a lot of data transfer analysis would be necessary (and probably some insight into netfabb code).
Imagine this scenario: you send file to netfabb, but whole job isn't actually done there. Quite possible netfabb sends chunks of (your) data back to you and instructs your PC what to do with that chunk of data. When that is done, your PC sends the result back to netfabb... and process repeats until full job is done. Yes, CPU time is precious even for Autodesk.
There exist (scientific) projects where everyone can participate by making PC (CPU actually) available for solving heavy calculations. After starting such application, you're asked how many (of available) cores you're willing to share and after that you start receiving chunks of data which is needed to be processed on your PC. Once it's finished, result is automatically sent back to server and you receive new packet of data.
Back to netfabb... maybe it can utilize only two cores...? I don't know the answer. Maybe you can ask on some netfabb specific forum and get more info there.
The basic idea is that slicers used to output gcode that talked about extruder speed and x/y/z coordinates separately - it was stuff like "Start the extruder at speed A. Move to position B at feedrate C. Move to position D at feedrate C. Stop the extruder." over and over in the gcode.
With the dimension plug-in, those two separate commands merged into one single gcode command - this was "5D" since each line of gcode told the firmware how far to move in X, Y, Z and E (extruder) as well as saying how fast (time) the move/extrusion should be. The problem with this was that the E part of that command referred to extrusion length out of the nozzle and, for a given specific volume of plastic, that length can vary based on nozzle size, flow rate, temperature, plastic formula and 97 other things.
With volumetric 5D (SF40), that troublesome E component changed to specify the length of raw filament into the extruder drive. Because the slicer (SF) knows the volume of threads it's outputting (h * w * l) and now knows the diameter of your filament (from the Dimension tab), it can very exactly calculate how much filament needs to go into the extruder to draw the correct shape/size line in the the correct amount of time.
So.. Volumetric 5D slicers like SF40+ are frickin' awesome, since there's no more screwing around with calibration cubes to get the flow rate to match the feed rate. You want to print at a different layer height? Just change the layer height and you're done. Want different thread widths? No problem - just change w/t and SF figures out the right flow rate. It's really quite nice.
You don't need to use the 'slices' section at all. The layer thickness is determined by the profile you select. There are two different ones to select, "Machine settings" and "Build Style". The Machine Settings profile determines your print speed, layer thickness, etc. The Build Style sets the strategy for doing jumps, in-fill, skins, etc. For the time being just stick with the built-in profiles as they work well. I've never bothered with anything less than "ultra quality" myself as it works perfect for me and I actually have not had luck with lower quality ones. You can edit / create new profiles later, but chances are you will never need any other ones than what are there already.
4. Select your print quality (that's the build style) and under 'extruder' select the machine settings profile. Make sure you're profile match up for the standard profiles (i.e. if you use the Ultra profile in one then use the Ultra profile for the other... They're designed to go together). Usually you don't want support... stick with simple no support stuff for now.
Netfabb is expensive.... but it does produce _very_ good results. It's also pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it, and the ability to slice up large objects within the GUI is very handy. My only major gripe with it is that it doesn't support Linux. That and the retraction still doesn't work right. Also, the directions in that post for the 4.9.2 release notes are fine, that's what I used without problem. The built-in profiles work great in either normal or volumetric mode. NF spent a lot of time tweaking them. However, with Volumetric it's much easier to get your own profiles to work without extensive trial-and-error.
Tried again with a raft. As I recalled hearing that with RepRaps rafts were the way to go for avoiding curling. And halfway though the box the raft was drifting across the build platform with a blob attached.
I had similar problems with the lower quality settings in NetFabb, the first layer just doesn't stick well because the head starts too high off the tape.. With ultra it does 0.08mm layer so you shouldn't have that problem because it pushes the first layer nicely into the tape. The alternative is to turn your Z leadscrew a fraction of a turn by hand on the first layer to make sure that it's nice and close to the plastic.
I had similar problems with ReplicatorG and Cura as well, but after adjusting my z end-stop it's perfect every time for me in any application. I've heard that Daid manages to get good results with a thick first layer but I find that I have to have the first layer pressed right into the tape for it to stick.
I did try to adjust the Z leadscrew on my third failed netfabb experiement, unlike cura the ultimaker really didn't like it. (after that it decided it didn't like the 0,0,0 position and made a new one)
No, it shouldn't be doing that. I haven't been able to get myself to get back into Netfabb since the latest update, there's too much weirdness in the latest version :/ It's too bad as it used to be my primary slicer and I love the interface with all the editing/positioning/etcetc features (not the printing interface though, that blows, always used printrun instead), not to mention the speed.
This is the link you want I think. _for_RepRap. I don't think calibration is applicable anymore though. Also check this Ultimaker forum a post on the last update when volumetric printing was introduced. Netfabb also has a forum where you should be able to ask questions as well.
Its not even available on Windows 7, only Win 10. We are talking about the right click 'fix through netfabb option' the File>Repair Stl option is available still though. It was mentioned on Github, although I cant remember if it was on the release notes for a much older version or if it was mentioned in one of the raised issues. It was awhile a go.
LOL. I had never used File->Repair STL file. I had clicked on it once, but having it work effectively outside the Slicer desktop, then save to an OBJ file made it less useful. I just tested it against a model with 4 errors. When I loaded the repaired OBJ, it showed as having 5 errors.... that's a problem.
Repair your model automatically or selectively.
You can modify the model on a per polygon basis
Separate composite models into discrete parts
Cut the model using either the x, y or Z planes or combination thereof.
Mirror/reflect the model on any plane,
import and export in a dozen or so different formats,
and of course generate slice if you want to go directly to a 3D printer.
Thanks for clarifying Duann, in what version of netfabb are these features included? Custom supports in general seems to be only a premium version. Is the one specific for formlabs available in the standard version?
Hi Isaac,
We put some of the functionality from Premium in the Formlabs workspace in Standard as a special treat for Form2 users because we are big fans of the machine.
We also have a discount code for 25% off Standard and Premium in the Autodesk store if you use FORMLABS25 as a promo code in the checkout valid till the end of the year.
Thanks for the reply @Duann . I bought Netfabb Private a long time ago. Apart from the workspace addition, can you clarify if there are any improvements as far as performance when splitting, hollowing, repairing models?
From cursory use of the trial I found it was more or less the same (that is to say very slow and single threaded) from my version of like 4 years ago.