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Danger in 3D printing over a lithium ion battery
So I bought a Lulzbot Mini a couple months ago and finally downloaded Ultimaker's version of Cura... Boy... have I been missing out...
One feature Ultimaker Cura implemented that I've been looking for is a "pause at z-height" feature ("post-processing tool"). I'm building prototypes of an electronics device, and creating two pieces that snap together looks a lot worse than printing a single piece. If I could pause my print, insert my electronics, and continue printing, my device would look a lot more professional (even if it took longer to make).
My one concern is the lithium ion battery. Right now I'm printing in TPU. With a heated bed of 40 degrees Celsius, and a heated extruder at 240 degrees Celsius, there seems to be a significant risk that the lithium ion battery reaches a temperature above 60 degrees Celsius (damaging the cell, causing a potential explosion). Granted, I am not sure what "60 degrees Celsius" actually means. It could mean only one part of the packaging needs to reach this temperature, or it could mean the entire LiPo's internal temperature would need to reach this. In either case, the numbers don't look good.
On the other hand, the heated bed surely doesn't need to remain heated beyond the first few layers? Additionally, I can create a "roof" for the LiIon battery that I can slip it under, providing some insulative TPU before the rest of the device. I think the print would happen safely like this, but obviously, an explosion would be really really bad. Like it would probably burn my house down, and I would be asleep when it happened.
Does anyone have any experience doing this?
Is there a way to turn off the heated bed mid-print? I guess I can insert a g-code line during the pause? Will this affect the remainder of the print you think?
Am I being paranoid? Can the extruder actually pass heat through a 1–2 mm of insulation and cause an explosion?
Anyone know how heat travels from the initial, liquid print material through the rest of the structure?
Any more advice or things I should consider before pursuing this?
A more specific pause type might be helpful, if anyone knows of any.

Is wrapping the battery into something heat dissipating an option? Usually putting a battery next to a heater is a big no-no. You don't want to be close when it goes wrong, neither does your house.

I'm not sure why you'd embed the battery like this either. It sounds like your construction will make it non-removable.

@Mast Because no electronics manufacturer does that.

One further drawback to this method of printed your part is that you are only able to produce the part when you have internal components on hand. If you design the part so that it can be printed without the internal components you can have parts created even without the internal components and perhaps improve speed of creation of additional "devices" by having a supply of this part that you just draw from.

True, but for one or two very nice prototypes it could be okay.

freeze the battery before printing, and print the layers next to the battery as fast+thick as possible. you can set temp in gcode or manually over-ride on the front panel.

I'm going to note that if you choose to go this route, look into how to put out battery fires. I believe water will just make it worse..

There is an option to directly insert extra commands at a specific Z height, no need to enter them manually.
That said, it is a bad idea to turn off the heated bed while printing, because this will often detach the object from the bed completely (that's kind of the point of having the heated bed in the first place: better adhesion while printing, and easier removal afterwards).
I wouldn't print over a battery to enclose it, not just because it is likely to damage the battery, but also to keep the battery exchangeable. Enclosing the rest of the design in a case is possible, but normally it is easier to print two separate parts that can be screwed together through a hole in the PCB.
So, experience: it's not worth it usually.

I would have to see your design to comment more but why not just change your model with the lid or top that can be either fused on later or attached in some other fashion?
It is possible to turn off the heated bed after a certain layer. It looks like there is a discussion here with the G-code: Can Cura Turn Off a Heated Bed Partway Into a Print?
I would personally avoid exposing the battery to the heat generated by the hotend or the build plate. Printers alone can burn your house down. Why combine it with the awesome power of a lithium ion battery?

The first sentence of your answer should be a comment on the original question (though the question itself already partially addresses it). You are linking to a discussion on turning the heated bed off, but we prefer to have self-contained answers. Could you summarize the main points of the linked discussion here?

If your heatbed is at 40°C, and it's not dangerous until 60°C, I wouldn't worry.
The heatbed is what heats up the printed object, not the print head.
It will obviously heat it up a tiny bit in a small local area when printing, but the heat dissipates rapidly, only affecting the temperature of the object very little.
If you're worried, try getting a laser thermometer, and monitor the surface temperature of the battery during a test print.
They're like $10, so it's not a big investment to try it out.
Alternately, maybe you can do a test print with a stand-in for the battery, and embed a temperature probe in the stand-in, and monitor the temperature real-time while printing.

Laser thermometer is a great idea.

I've personally had bad luck with laser thermometers. I'd also look at those Flir thermal cameras, at least recordings of. Get some idea how it works.

Could you elaborate on how you've had bad luck with laser thermometers? So far when I've used them, they've always worked as expected. They do require some area available to measure, can't measure something as small as a few millimeters, you need at least a few square centimeters, but a battery like this will have a surface area large enough to measure.

Although the bed may only reach 60°, the extrusion above the battery will be at closer to 200°C. Granted there will be a fairly low heat flux, but it will still cause ageing of the battery. At a minimum, some insulation or packing above the battery would seem like a sensible move. This could be printed material, and you could print over the top if you really want to seal the part.
Also remember that as LiPo cells age, they generate gas (this is designed to be trapped in the pouch) and swell. You should try and avoid any risk of puncture if this happens.

Well. First. If you ever think, hmm this might cause an explosion. DON'T DO IT. SERIOUSLY. Modify the design so you can insert the battery.
That said, most softwares will let you set a heater temp per layer. I have mine set through simplify 3d. I usually use this setting for the hot end, as I like to have the first layer hot. You will have bad results doing this with the bed as you will likely cause the print to expand or shrink enough to pop off. You are better not using the heated bed for the print than to turn it off. Look into rafts as well. That is how makerbot helps mitigate their heatless beds. A fan will also help..
AGAIN do not try anything that can possibly might blow something up. There are a lot of variables you do not know, such as how conductive the plastic is and how much will travel through the hotend to the battery. Or how off the specs are for this battery.

If you just Google-search videos of lithium batteries exploding, they don't go bang, they go fwoosh. Do the experiment outdoors in a non-flammable surface surrounded by non-flammable things and have a fire extinguisher on hand, and you should be okay. Some chance of damaging your printer. I am not OSHA and this is not safety advice.

Discharge the battery entirely, then there is no danger of ignition if the membrane breaks. The battery cells are usually protected by Kapton tape (LiPo) or maybe even metal (LiIon). Both will withstand the temperature of 240°C. The downside is that the cells are damaged after a deep discharge. You should discard the battery afterwards.
What I would expect when you do that:
A deeply discharged battery will bloat up because the solvents will gas out. This will also happen if you heat up the battery enough (>>60 degree). The gases themselves can be ignited again but are captured in our air sealed Kapton envelope :) Igniting these gases will be comparable to a short flash with a spray can.
The temperature is not enough to damage the envelope. The solvents will be also not very dangerous in that temperature range. In case of mechanical breakdown of the membrane nothing will happen anymore.
From Solvents and Additives:

Could you provide any references that you can link to which would back up your claim? Not only, as you say, would the LiPo  be (probably irrevocably) damaged, but I am also not sure that it would be terribly safe to heat up even a fully discharged LiPo .

Recharging a fully discharged LiPo is a pretty bad idea too. I've had some of them burst (not explode) after doing that.

Should be clear, why you write this?


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How do you program a 3D printer?
I'm thinking about building my own 3D printer/Laser Engraver/CNC. Since all use a standard Cartesian axis I wanted to be able to swap out tool heads depending on the purpose. I have everything thought out except the coding aspect of the project.
I currently own a 3D printer and am familiar with some of the coding aspects, gcode, stepper motor moment, axis zeroing, etc; but if I am to build a 3 axis system how do you go about coding it? Are there programs that automatically calibrate all the motors? Can I take existing 3D printer programs and adjust the stepper motor values and build plate area? or do I have to code a new printing program from scratch that can read gcode? For simplicity lets just talk about the printing aspect of the build as I realize that CNC's and laser engravers work on different vector systems. Thanks :)

3D printer is like a plotter, so you can use it as laser engraver but for CNC usage you will need an stronger frame.

The foundation of any 3D printer is the controller and the firmware. Many devices are based on Arduino type controllers, with stepper motor driver boards either integrated or added as a plug-in component.
Some manufacturers will use in-house or outside resources and develop their own boards and firmware.
You can search for 3D printer controllers and get a pretty comprehensive list of the various devices available for purchase.  Smoothieboard is one device, Raspberry Pi and Arduino as noted above, and others.
There can be found varying "flavors" of firmware to load onto these controllers as well.
The field is exhaustive.
To address your focus regarding the printing aspect, that's one stepper motor per print head/nozzle (usually) and involves calibrating the amount of filament dispensed from the nozzle per unit steps, or more easily understood, amount of steps per unit of filament movement. My stepper motor for the extruder has a planetary gear and moves 100 mm of filament for about 5000 steps.
All of the parameters you've noted are integrated with the firmware. Motor calibration requires movement per step or steps per millimeter to be entered, unless you purchase a turnkey system with the values loaded.
You can adjust many of the parameters from the slicing software, but it's more practical to determine the calibration settings, enter that information into your slicer and proceed with model management.
Look into instructables for others' build projects to see what they've accomplished and the steps involved in such a build. This can give you a starting point for your efforts.

this is an extension to fred_dot_u answer.
As I am in the process of building my own printer, I decided to use RAMPS Arduino shield for electronics and Marlin firmware + Arduino  mega2560 as a logic controller.
As above are battle-tested, I don't need to discover wheel again, but rather focus on the mechanics.
The RAMPS mainboard will provide you with the ability to connect 5 steppers and 3 PWM regulated devices (that can be heat-bed, nozzle and fan or combination) and there is still possibility to connect more as a bunch of IO pins are ready to alocate.
MarlinFirmware is avalible on github, so you can download it and then provide all mechanical parameters that are needed to properly drive your printer -so that is:

Mainboard type
type coreXY, XZ ....
bed size (x,y)
gantry size (z)
steps / mm for steppers
thermal protection parameters
LCD display (if in use)

The main benefit of using Marlin for me is that printer configuration is extremely customizable.

Don't forget to set the correct motherboard type: // Please choose the name from boards.h that matches your setup
#ifndef MOTHERBOARD
#define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_RAMPS_14_EFB
#endif

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Printing a building from its laser scanned exterior point cloud
I have a very dense point cloud (billions of points) of the exterior of a building obtained by laser scanning it with a Leica head.
I successfully subsampled it down to around 500,000 and I'm trying to print the building by first creating a mesh.
I tried using CloudCompare, Meshlab and PDAL, using Poisson surface reconstruction.
However, the resulting mesh is full of holes, mainly in the roofs which have the lowest point density, and I cannot print it.
Is there any algorithm which could use the fact that the point cloud is precisely the exterior part of a geometric thing?

Yes there are similar algorithms, but (afaik) not as ready to use programms.
I wrote a bachelor thesis by my own, where i converted poind cloud datas of scanned surfaces into contour octrees. This based on the work of Laine (https://users.aalto.fi/~laines9/publications/laine2010i3d_paper.pdf) and the approach of using sparse voxel contour octrees, but instead of using polygons it used point clouds.
This way was intended to get fast, good approximated results for visualizing.
But there may be also other slower and more accurate algorithms.
Btw. this question is not good placed in the 3D printing forum, because it is a question about data conversion.

Oh and this algorithms with the sparse voxel octree approach can handle way more input data. My algorithm could handle multiple million points.

Filling out holes in a mesh created using large liar data points is a mess.
The actual way to do it in the industry is to manually fill all holes ( Yes I know it takes for ever to do and people get paid to do this )
Import the mesh into Autodesk 3Ds max and go about fixing the holes one at a time if you want it to be accurate or select all and use the cap function .
Hope this solves your problem .

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Black surface in Meshmixer
I was working on a model today and I need to make the black surface into a normal surface so that the ship's cockpit is solid. I am unable to select the black surface. I tried using the flip normals feature, but I was still unable to select it. Any advice on how to make it into a solid is greatly appreciated. Thanks. :)
Edit: Here's the link to the file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mbTdeeZqhNJx-WlXNqF8mD8QYDSI3Vh_/view?usp=sharing

Would you consider to attach the file to determine more precisely the failure mode? Even if you don't wish to attach the entire file, use plane cut and cut the plane just below the cockpit. This would maintain any IP considerations for your model.

Just added a google drive link.

Hi Brendan! Have you found and fixed the problem? If so, has the answer below led you to the solution? Please vote to accept the answer so this question is not bumped up once in a while and can be removed from the unanswered question list. You may even add your own solution and accept that after 48 hours! If you have not been able to address the problem please update your question.

With the model file available, I was able to use Edit, Generate Face Groups. This allows one to continue with Select, {set small cursor}, select reversed panels, Edit, Flip Normals.
The above steps resolve the cockpit windows, but meshmixer's Analysis, Inspector shows a sea-urchin-presentation of other flaws, including what appears to be zero thickness walls in some locations.

I can fix the walls using the make solid feature. I will give this a try and tell you how it goes.

Sometimes the cursor in select mode won't follow the mouse. Any ideas on how to fix this?

I've had that happen when the cursor size is excessive for the area being selected or sometimes when it's lag/delay due to the processing involved.

I'm not sure. I have the brush size set to 1 and I'm running meshmixer on an inspiron 15 7000 gaming, which has no problem running 2 games at one, so I don't think that the processing speed is an issue.

Opening the file in Meshmixer and then using the Analysis > Inspector tool creates a colorful note, showing LOTS of errors in this model:

A lot of the magenta errors, a few blue ones. Magenta means "this detail has a small surface area, we'd delete it". Blue means "Here's a hole in the surface, we'd stitch it". The black surface is pink as are some details we want to preserve, so let's change what is considered small: Pushing the Small Thresh to the left (0 mm) removes all the pink and leaves only blue and a few red spots. Like the windscreens, they are red now.

Red means "here are some non-manifold regions, we'd create a surface to fix this". After clicking on Auto Repair All it looks like this, having fixed a lot of these pins but definitely not all of them, as the MeshMixer engine runs against its limits trying to fix this sea urchin. But it is much better.

This is still a messed up model containing 416 non-closed shells (only 401 after repair), but now there is a surface at the windows, yet not a very good one. Another example of this model's many errors: the port intake consists of 17 times the same thing copy-pasted next to itself - and it has no lower surface, making this just an open surface and not a solid object

In my honest opinion, it would be more effective to fix this with Blender on a vertex level and stitching all the orphaned surfaces together. This model was most likely made for a video game and fixing up game models for 3D printing is at times pretty much recreating it from scratch.


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Change Slic3r settings for left handed coordinate system
I made my printer to have a left handed coordinate system (it homes to the back left corner of the heatbed), I did this because it happens to make working on the printer easier for me. This, however, causes the objects to be printed mirrored. In Slic3r I manually mirror objects every time I load a new objects. From time to time I forget doing this which is really annoying. I was wondering if there is a setting in Slic3r to automatically do this. Something like mirroring on import, or changing the axis in Slic3r itself.

So your Y min end stop is at the front of the printer when facing it and left for X min? I think you can fix your problem using the correct setup in your configuration of the firmware.

@0scar yes its in front

The direction of the end stop is set in the firmware of the printer. Even with different setup end stops, you should be able to get a correct coordinate system without mirroring axes in slicers. This would be the preferred method to fix your problem!
E.g. my Ultimaker 3 Extended homes the Z on Z max having the platform at the bottom of the machine, a calibrated offset determines the actual Z=0.
Not knowing which firmware you are using, in e.g. Marlin Firmware this is set by code lines in the file Configuration.h:
// Direction of endstops when homing; 1=MAX, -1=MIN
// :[-1,1]
#define X_HOME_DIR -1
#define Y_HOME_DIR -1
#define Z_HOME_DIR -1

Your end stop triggers at the maximum of the Y axis, so you need to configure it as a MAX end stop, i.e. use the Y_MAX pins by defining (search for the Endstop Settings section, note to also disable the YMIN endstop):
//#define USE_YMIN_PLUG // This disables the YMIN endstop
#define USE_YMAX_PLUG   // This enables the YMAX endstop

and change the homing direction (Y_HOME_DIR) to 1:
#define Y_HOME_DIR 1 // This tells the printer where the endstop is located: positive for YMAX direction

Otherwise when used at Y_MIN endstop and the homing direction set to -1, the axis is reversed as you experienced.

with "adjust the bed coordinates underneath" you mean #define Y_MIN_POS and #define Y_MAX_POS ?

its ok, I managed to mirror the axis, I set #define Y_HOME_DIR 1 and in addition: #define USE_YMAX_PLUG #if DISABLED(ENDSTOPPULLUPS)  #define ENDSTOPPULLUP_YMAX #define Y_MAX_ENDSTOP_INVERTING true and I inverted/removed all Y_MIN settings, which made everything work. ty


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PLA coating for water irrigation 3D printed parts
I was considering printing some pieces for my irrigation system, like tube connectors and such. I am aware that PLA is hydrophilic so I was wondering with what kind of product I could coat the pieces, non-toxicity is a requirement because it will water edible greens.
So, what kind of non-toxic product can I use to coat PLA to make it hydrophobic?

Amazon sells this food-grade epoxy material  https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01J16MYSE/  but you may find it difficult to coat the interior of your connectors evenly

clear coat acrylic (quality clear "spray paint") forms a durable water-tight surface on anything you spray it on.

Before worrying too much about the hydrophilic properties of PLA, it might be worthwhile to test a fitting.
First, print a fitting and see that the freshly made print is strong enough to carry the pressure of the water, and the compression force of hose clamp you may need to connect the stiff irrigation hose to the printed fitting.
Second, soak the printed fitting in water for month or two, perhaps at an elevated temperature to match the higher ground temperature in the summer.  You could put the part in a closed mason jar and leave it in the sun.  You might add a little salt and fertilizer to the water to simulate ground conditions.
After this aging process, you could test to see if it withstands the pressure of the domestic water system.
You might also measure the ground temperatures where you intend to use the fittings.  I find that PLA has no structural strength above about 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Centigrade), and the inability to resist slow plastic may start at an even lower temperature.  [For example, I print structural PLA parts with negative clearances and then dip them in 160 degree F water to soften them.]
If the printed fittings are strong enough but suffer from water absorption, I would either print them of ABS or coat them with an ABS coating.  To make the coating, dissolve ABS in acetone until it is the consistency of thick cream, dip your fitting in the mixture, and allow them to dry.  It will take longer than you think it should to dry, and the solution will take more ABS plastic than you might expect.
ABS is not generally considered to be "food safe", but this isn't a potable water system.  The FDA lists ABS as conditionally food safe, and I would be comfortable using it to irrigate my lawn and vegetables.

As I won´t use it in a lawn but for my pots, im using 5v pumps which don´t put much pressure on tubes, also if they are durable enough I can reprint them once in a while but still coating seems a good option to me.

PLA will biodegrade over time.  ABS would last longer, and stand up to higher temps.

Yeah but its toxic, and I don´t have the enclosure for printing at those temps. Plus I don´t have ABS.

There are probably enough toxins in the soil, that it wouldn't matter anyway.   There are toxicity issues in all filament.   You don't know what charming extras the manufacturer put in there.   You could also consider Nylon filament.

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How do I create a STL file from a 2 dimensional grid of data
Given a large set of data, I was able to create a 3D graph in Microsoft Excel.  How can I create a STL file similar to this graph to create a physical model of this graph?

Are you wanting to print the negative object (clear space below) or the part above?"
Do you have a sample of data that you used to generate it?

I want a print that looks like the graph.  I have the data used in creating the graph.

for that you can use openSCAD.
Data can be represented as a multi-array and we can iterate on it via for loop
// data structure is x,y,z where z is value
arrayOfData=[[0,10,4],[0,21,9],[0,13,8],[0,41,2],[1,0,4],[2,0,180],[7,0,90]];

for(a=[0:1:6])  translate([arrayOfData[a][0], arrayOfData[a][1],0])  cylinder(arrayOfData[a][2],2,.5,false);

And where you get the model it can be intersected with a cube to get the desired shape.

I think the trick is to ensure that your CAD tool creates a mesh connecting the desired data points (and not connecting where you don't want it to).  Can you eleaborate on this?

that all depends on the desired output. As per attached example, I can see a series of cones. Playing with the cylinder will allow to connect -disconnect points and finally generated object can be intersected with cube.

OpenSCAD has a surface function that does this, no need to re-implement!

As per OP I was thinking about graph - so no harm here @esoterik

I was able to solve this using the openSCAD using the surface command.
From the openSCAD documentation:
//surface.scad
surface(file = "surface.dat", center = true, convexity = 5);
%translate([0, 0,5])cube([10,10,10], center =true);

And creating a space separated data file:
#surface.dat
10 9 8 7 6 5 5 5 5 5
9 8 7 6 6 4 3 2 1 0
8 7 6 6 4 3 2 1 0 0
7 6 6 4 3 2 1 0 0 0
6 6 4 3 2 1 1 0 0 0
6 6 3 2 1 1 1 0 0 0
6 6 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
6 6 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Then a STL can be exported of the data in openSCAD.


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How long will my print take?
If I have a stl file is there a good way to estimate how long it will take to print on a given printer? I know there are a lot of things that go into print speed, such as the speed of the printer, the size of the print, etc. I was wondering if anyone knows of perhaps an application that you could enter your printer's specifications and the stl that you want to print, and it could calculate the print time?

Try to use your slicer to get the gcode, then you can realize that the software has a lot of information you can take in count; the programmers are genius.

All commonly used slicers (e.g., Cura, Slic3r, Simplify3D,...) give an estimation of the print time.

The duration of a print is affected by the print properties. Speed, nozzle diameter (or line width), layer height,  amount of perimeters, infill percentage, combing, support structures to name a few important parameters.
So, the only way to tell how long the printer will be printing a certain STL is by loading the STL file into a slicer and slice the model with those settings. The most common free slicers are Ultimaker Cura, Slic3r and payed slicer Simplify3D. Alternatively, when you already have G-code files and do not have the STL anymore or don't want to slice it again (e.g. because you cannot remember which settings you used), you could upload your G-code here and it will calculate it approximately for you (as it does not know the dynamics of the printer).
Note that these times are approximations of the real time it takes to print the object as it integrates the tool path and speed to get the time. Sometimes these calculations are off as the actual printer may behave differently than projected by the slicer. From experience I can tell that the Ultimaker Cura slicer predicts fairly accurate print times for the Ultimaker 3, so they have tuned their slicer software to their machines. For your own build or other brands this may result in different/inaccurate print time estimations.

I use Repetier software with the Cura slicer and the print time estimate tends to be about 10 % longer than the actual print.


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Auger Paste extruder
I've made a paste extruder(plunger type), in which a plunger will push the syringe to extrude. Plunger movement is controlled by a stepper motor. In that arrangement, for g-code generation I've used inside dia of syringe as the filament diameter and inside dia of needle as nozzle diameter and to calculate extruder steps per mm, I"ve used the lead of threaded rod which controls the movement of plunger.
But it had several issues like air bubbles and unable to print thick pastes.
Later I've seen this video on Youtube. In which he later changed to a Auger bit mechanism and I've seen WASP LDM already made a successful one.
I'm trying to make one of these. But in this mechanism how to calculate the steps per mm for Extruder?
Is it same as the lead of Auger bit??
What about the filament diameter in slic3r settings??
Anyone have any idea??
Thanks

To be precise we shall have all physical parameters of extruded material to calculate extrusion parameters.
In that case, my approach will be to use try and check approach, as that will give a systematic problem-solving.
To set the steps/mm, we will focus only on the measured length after extrusion.

let's set the extrusion length to 10 cm, extrude and check the extruded length.
if we measure a different value, then we can use a formula to fix that
newStepsPermm = currentStepsPermm*(requestedExtrusionLength / measuredLength )
That need to be repeated as long as we will get requested length and this is a standard calibration procedure.

The minimal layer thickness will be connected with the way how the pasta behaves (how it is sticky, water amount etc) - so for that there is a need for a patience.
My approach will be to create a sheet where I would store the ingredients ratio and a note about extruded material behavior.
To remove bubbles in the extruded material - the syringe shall be filled with caution and continuously to avoid material stacking as that produces air pockets.

Addon: To calibrate clay you can print a single line using manually prepared gcode. Amount of extruded material could be estimated by weighting conteiner/bottle or extruded material and that will give you an orientation of flow like gramms/mm or mm3/mm.
let's try this:

we have our steps//mm untouched
try to set printing speed for single line, so the clay will looks nice
if we have over/under extrusion - change feedrate by 5% up/down.
when the extrusion looks ok, then note all printed parameters

so if we end-up with printing speed 10mm/s and feedrate 140%, then we know that the steps/mm need to be multiplied by feedrate factor (1.4 in this case).

In short,  "always calibrate."   Good plan.

In case of a filament exturder I could tlll the printer to extrude certain mm of  filament, and by taking the length of extruded material i could calibrate e_steps. But hoe could I measure the length of clay??? The advantage of auger paste extruder is, it wont have air bubble problems. But I'm confused about the filament diameter calculations???

please see edit @Athul

How could I know if I am  under/over extruding. For filament extrusion I can Check this by measuring extrusion width for a single perimeter print and comparing it with the extrusion width in that I've given in slic3r. Also you've any idea about filament diameter setting?? If I couldn't find a staring point in that everything would mess up, inclusing extrusion

the main thing is that the process needs to be started and then observation will derive calculations, as there is to many unknown parameters. as you provided a valid comparison example - then  same approach need to be used with clay. Stabilise one factor, then next one and so on up to the point that you will be able set all things.


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Anet A8 bad/inconsistent extrusion after changing nozzle
I just changed my nozzle on my Anet A8 after it was fully used up. When I started printing with my new 0.4 mm nozzle (same as before) my extrusion was VERY bad and inconsistent, even so bad I couldn't continue printing because it would pull the first layer off.
If I compare it to my extrusion before the nozzle switch, it is really bad, even though I tightened everything as before. I am quite sure it doesn't have to do with adhesion to the heated bed since I use tape with PVA glue.
Any advice on how to remove this under extrusion so I can continue printing?
All the specs:

25 mm/s first layer print speed
200 °C nozzle
60 °C bed
PLA filament;
0.4 mm nozzle size

Let me know if there is anything else you need to know.

I usually buy them in packs of 5, do you have another to test? The cheap ones sometimes are not 0.4 mm or are very rough on the inside.

What kind of test you mean? I have gotten about 10 of these prints, all inconstant and not usable to continue printing.

another nozzle to test; screw another on?

Nope, I don't have any other nozzle to test at the moment. I did order some, but they won't be here until at least one month.

Did you readjust the bed level?

Yes, well, sort of. I am using an auto bed leveler and I changed the offset multiple times without much result.

What does "used up" mean for your original nozzle?  If it was still extruding OK, why did you change?

It got a lot of stringing with it, you can see why: https://imgur.com/a/DjvOT0W

To be sure it's from your nozzle / extrusion mecanism, you could check calibration by extruding (in the air) 100mm of filament, and check how much it really uses. If it uses 100mm (or so), then the problem comes from any other parts (bed, filament feeding...).
If this is really an extrusion problem, first you can check again your extrusion step motor gear. If it's ok, then you could put back your old nozzle to ensure the new one is the problem... If all is ok with the old one, then yous should have something in your new one, or it's not a .4mm ?

Your good extrusion look also a little bad , and the bad extrusion looks like a big feeding problem. for this you need:
Feeding.- try to tight the presure of the feeder thread, the one that press the filament on the extruder.
Bed Adhesion.- Use between 32° and 38°C if you are using masking tape, on higher temperatures the masking tape becomes to peel off if any border of the printing part is close to the edge of the tape.
Sand the masking tape surface and clean it to be free of dust (eliminate shiny surface) with this is enough to get a good adhesion; I recommend TUK and 3D brands, they are sticky. If you need more adhesion you can spray a little hair spray, just one pass.
Clogged Nozzle.- you need to clean it, on your kitchen stove heat the nozzle until melt the filament, then use some cooper wire (some phone wiring has it) to remove residues inside the nozzle. If posible you can buy a drill bit with 0.4mm diameter to ensure a complete cleaning.

With the 'feeder thread', do you mean the throat that guides the filament to the heat block? If so, I already tightened it the best I can when I reassembled it.

I will try to lower the bed temperature and sand it, I hope it helps. For the nozzle, I have tried a similar method with my old nozzle, but I would be very surprised if my new nozzle is already clogged. I might buy some cleaning filament just to try if it helps, because It was quite a hassle to remove the nozzle etc.

I would be very cautious with a drill bit, especially if your nozzle is the usual bronze (soft).  A 0.4mm bit will easily grind the opening wider than you want.

@HugoG No, the "feeder thread" is the one that is close to the motor which press the spring to compress or release the filament. I had the same problem due the spring has a low compression.

In the nozzle assembled properly?
As I assumed that there were no other changes during the nozzle exchange process, then there is a risk of a gap inside throat and nozzle that just builds up and blocks the extrusion.
Please see this answer for an assembly hints.

No, it is assebled properly, since if I push the filament through myself it goes through smoothly and the diameter is 0.42mm, so all is good in that departement.


text:
Speeding up the heating of the heated bed
Currently I am using a 12 volts, 20 amperes power supply (Model S-240-12)

The stepper motors and the extruder need 5 amp, and the heated bed build plate needs 11 amp.

Technically you only need to use a 12 Volts, 16 amperes power supply, but I understand that you use the one with 20 amp because pulse currents from extruders and stepper motors can be stressful to supplies loaded to the max, so for reliability and performance, it is better to use a supply rated for 25% more than you need
In the place where I buy the spare parts for my 3d printer they also sell 12 V power supplies capable of delivering 25 amp and 30 amp and they told me that if I use those ones you are going to be able to speed up the heating of the heated bed. Is that true? I understand that the heated bed is only going to take the 11 amp that it needs so is not going to make any difference to use power supplies capable of delivering more current

are you trying to print ABS materials? What temperature is required?

you could add a 2nd power supply that outputs a higher voltage, and use the old 12v to power a relay or switch a mosfet which controls the higher voltage.

Changing the PSU with one with a higher amperage will not make the bed heat up any faster unless the PSU is underrated for the amperage required and the voltage is dropping as a result of the load. This can be checked by measuring the output voltage with a multimeter (when the PSU is loaded e.g. by a heating heat bed). In this case, the PSU has a marginal higher Amperage than the printer consumes (even has some room for the over-voltage; under the assumption that it is a good working PSU). Increasing the voltage will decrease the heat up time. There is a screw next to the 12 V connectors that can change the output voltage of the PSU. Usually, it is safe to increase the voltage up to 14 V, but that depends on your whole setup (and 14 V is applied to the whole setup, increasing the current for all parts, including your printer controller board, this board must be rated for the 14 V).  Please do check the stability of the voltage during load.
Although it can be done, it is not something I used. What is an extra minute on a print of several hours?
You can do the math: say the heat bed has a resistance of 1.2 Ω. We only need two formulas:

$U=R\times I$ - potential Difference U is Resistance R times Current I
$P=U\times I=I^2\times R=\frac {U^2} R$. The power P of an item the potential difference times the current through the item.

at 12 V that will draw 10 Amps (12 V / 1.2 Ω) resulting in a 120 Watt bed: $P= 12^2 \text V \times 10^2 \text A= {10^2 \text A}\times {1.2\ \Omega}=\frac{12^2 \text V} {1.2\ \Omega} $),
at 14 V that same bed will draw 11.7 Amps (14 V / 1.2 Ω) resulting in a 163.3 Watt bed.

Use at your own risk!
What you could do to decrease time to heat the bed without changing the PSU or the voltage is to insulate the bottom of the heat bed with heat bed cotton sheets or cork (placemats from IKEA ;) ), put a sheet of cork onto the heat bed before printing and start heating the bed through the LCD panel of the printer or any attached printer controller programs over USB prior to printing.

Changing the PSU with one with a higher amperage will not make the bed heat up any faster.  - unless the PSU is underrated for the amperage required and the voltage is dropping as a result of that. This can be easily verified with a multimeter (measure the voltage coming out of the PSU with the bed on and with the bed off). Increasing the voltage has a number of other benefits (the hotend heats up faster too, and the stepper will have a higher top speed).

Unfortunately, I had to lower back the voltage on that kind of psu, as the voltage was not stable and temperature readings on thermistors were jumping up and down by 4 to 6 degrees. So this is something that you need to take into account.

A more powerful PSU only would solve the problem in two cases: Either your PSU is anemic and underpowered in the first place, or you want you'd separate the bed's power supply from the rest of the machine - by using a higher Voltage for the bed. This would however need you to regulate the heating by having the board control not the bed directly but, control a (Normally Open for safety!) MOSFET, which in turn throttles the power to the bed.
In that case, you can use the resistance R of the bed with whatever voltage your alternate PSU provides to get the power that is turned into heat from the bed using $P_\text{bed}=\frac{U_\text{bed}^2}{R_\text{bed}}$. Our MOSFET can regulate the power that is turned into heat in the bed as it is a Variable Resistance: The total potential differential stays the same, but the voltage available to the heated bed is governed by the resistance of the bed and the MOSFET's resistance. Since the two are in line, they have the same Current flowing through them:
$$U_\text{supply}=U_\text{bed}+U_\text{MOSFET}=I_\text{total}\times(R_\text{bed}+R_\text{MOSFET})$$
That results in what is commonly called a Voltage Divider: the voltage that is available for the bed comes from a derivate of that: $$U_\text{bed}=U_\text{supply}(\frac{R_\text{bed}}{R_\text{MOSFET}+R_\text{bed}})$$
Why the hazzle?
Often, a board also might have a potentiometer for each power exit, and these are generally nothing else but variable resistances - and give us the same effect as a MOSFET for controlling the voltage available to a bed. If available, turning the Bed-Potentiometer a tiny bit will provide just a little higher voltage to the bed and allow slightly faster heating.

May I recommend an alternative approach, which does not require any change of hardware?  The time required to heat the bed is not huge, so either via USB from your computer or from the front panel,  instruct your printer to heat the bed first, while you're setting everything else up (loading gcode files, changing filaments, or whatever).  This way tasks are completed in parallel.

I am using a preheat custom function in marlin which does the job +1

Insulation at the bottom works also, also putting a piece of cork on top during pre-heat and remove just before printing

The question at hand is whether getting a higher-rated PSU would speed up heating of the heated bed. This - while helpful - doesn't answer that.

I glued (high temperature silicone) an isolation (cork 5-8mm) on the bottom side of my heatbed. It avoids loosing heat thru the bottom side. Effect: minimal faster heatup and less energy consuming over the time of use.

The question at hand is whether getting a higher-rated PSU would speed up heating of the heated bed. This - while helpful - doesn't answer that.

this is a correct answer @TomvanderZanden as it focuses not only on the tiny area given by OP, but also provides an alternative way to the solution.

@profesor79 The question is "Would using a higher amperage power supply result in faster heat up times?". This answer doesn't also provide an alternative solution, it provides only an alternative solution. The question is very specific - the person asking the question wants to know whether upgrading the power supply makes sense - and this does not address this at all.

@TomvanderZanden the thing is that we can be closed to what it says, or be open to what it means.

i did the same think with kapton tape on the bottom.  it cut about 15 seconds off the heat up time.

Also a thing that helped to preheat faster: make sure no draft is cooling down bed. It sounds obvious but cold-end fan and window draft, even psu fan draft can contribute significantly to preheat time. Eliminating draft source changed bed preheat time from 10 down to 5 minutes in my case...

The question at hand is whether getting a higher-rated PSU would speed up heating of the heated bed. This - while helpful - doesn't answer that.

I hate to sound like the Toolman Tayler from that old TV show. "But, it comes down to More Power!"
Power is the ability to do work (move a mass certain distance) within certain amount of time.
Power =  mass x distance x Time.
It can also be expressed in electrical terms, as the ability to heat something within certain amount of time.
Power = Voltage x Current
Since most systems have a fixed voltage, it is still possible to increase power by increasing the current, since,
Voltage = Resistance x Current,
And Power = Voltage x Current,
So, Power =  (Resistance x Current) x Current.
So by switching a power supply with the same voltage, but higher current, it will provide additional power to the system. The larger current available would be able to flow through the heating elements, heating them up faster.
However the caveat will be the amount of heat dissipation in the system, the large surface of the bed, will carry away enough of the heat due to air convection, that it may not make much of a difference. Or perhaps the heating element may not handle the larger amount of current and burn out.
It would be worth testing it out, in my humble opinion. Hopefully without causing a fire somewhere. :-)

I'm sorry but this completely wrong, the current is the result of the voltage over a resistance, you cannot choose the current by choosing a power supply that has a higher output current... So, if you don't change the voltage (increase it) or change the resistance (decrease it by replacing the bed with a lower resistor heating element), the current will not change.

I am not quite sure, what you mean by that, if what you wrote was correct, there would be no need to provide optional power supplies with higher wattage. And yet, there they are available many 24 VDC power supplies with 300 Watts, 500, 750, 1000 Watts, etc... Their specific purpose is to provide higher current, and satisfy higher loads.

Indeed, there are different PSU's with different output powers, the higher the power the higher the current the PSU can deliver, but, if you do not change something about the bed (either the voltage or the resistance) a higher rated PSU will not give the bed more current. Current is not something you choose, it is something you get from applying a voltage over a resistor, it is basic electronics.

Actually... the main problem is not the PSU... it's the board. The board acts as a throttle to any electricity flowing through it. It can only take a very distinct combination or risk burning out. You can only circumvent that by using a separate switch.

as for the physics: calculate the other side please: The bed has a Resistance R and is rated for Voltage U. $U/R=I$, It's rated power is given for a standard $P=U I$ setup, but actually calculated using $P=\frac U R U = \frac {U^2} R$. The Resistance of the bed is a fixed value but Voltage can be easily modified - as in adding an extra resistance or removing it. THAT is what a potentiometer is: a throttle for the Voltage.

That's true! The current is and can be throttle using a potentiometer. The Power (Wattage) available is the limiting factor.

NO! Potentiometers are nothing but a variable value resistor. The result is a Voltage divider: You do change, without adding any load to the potentiometer, U, not I. If your PSU is anemic, then yes, a higher rated PSU works, but if you only provide a constant 12 Volt, then 144 divided by the resistance of the whole setup is what the PSU's Current supply is.

By reducing the resistance (using a higher power heating element), it will increase the current consumption. If the power supply can't supply enough current, you can't increase the temperature. That's why you need a higher wattage PSU.

But ONLY if that is your limiting factor (underpowered PSU). Usually, it's the heating element itself.

Using a Ender 6 as example, they come with a 24 VDC board/system. So the voltage is fixed, the PSU is a chinese brand, 15 A, 300 Watt PSU.


text:
Zonestar Extruder motor does not work - what can I check?
While this may seem like terribly noobish question, I'm sure one day someone will have same problem.
I own a ZONESTAR P802QSU (Bowden extruder) and all of sudden my extruder motor stopped working. What I did:

I check whether or not motor is moving freely - I can rotate it without any problems manually.
I checked out cable and plugs - everything seems OK.
I checked whether motor is working after plugging it into another slot in motherboard - motor works fine.
I checked if another motor works after plugging it into same slot on mainboard - and it does not.

It would seem that there is something wrong with E0-mot driver module, or with socket. I'm however totally at loss about what can I do with any of those. I do not have any electronic equipment except multimeter, and voltage on motor seems fine(11.3V between red and black, I guess V+ and ground). It sometimes seemed to get lower, but I'm almost sure it is my trembling hands.
After some googling, I started checking A4988 stepper driver with my multimeter. VDD was ~5V and VMOT around 12V, so it seems to work at least in this way.
What can I do, to see what is broken? Visually nothing looks like it burned out, but I'm fully aware it may not be visible.

what is the nozzle temperature when you are checking the motor? there is a build protection to avoid cold extrusion

This is a valid point. I performed similar troubleshooting on an extruder motor with similar results until the thermal protection aspect was pointed out to me. Perform your tests again with the nozzle at operational temperature before you replace parts.

I co drukujesz juz?

Tak drukuję/ Yes, I'm prinitng again after chaning stepper driver to spare one - but I'm almost sure it is the case. It's in midle of really long printing right now, so I can't check it. I gave you upvote, and will check it tomorrow before accepting.

As this is not an obvious case, most printers' firmware has a cold extrusion prevention. That is usually set at 170C, so the nozzle need to be over 170 to allow stepper to move.
I experienced that when I was assembling my TT and doing a cold run, to validate all mechanical movements and clearance.
In Marlin firmware, the extruder stepper is switched off after extrusion, so we can freely move it, but not other motors and that could give us a thought that something is bad with the driver.

It actually works like that in Zonestar P802QSU as well. I guess it was the case!

Good investigation there!  You are almost certainly correct that a driver chip has gone blooey.  Personally I doubt it's worth the effort to locate and repair, rather than buying a new, trustworthy board.
I recommend this approach because one blown chip may well have caused (or been caused by) unrecognized damage elsewhere, which might then lead to future failures.


text:
What are various types of supports required in slicing the CAD model?
Also, a visualization of the various types of supports required in slicing the CAD model is a plus.
I'm just getting started with Rapid prototyping and I had no idea about that. Is there any type of support we can select in the software settings or will it always get generated automatically?

I do not understand your question. What do you mean by that a type of support is "required"? Supports are normally automatically generated by the slicer.

I'm sorry. I'm just getting started with Rapid prototyping and I had no idea about that. Is there any type of support we can select in the software settings or will it always get generated automatically?

If you just want to see the different types of support pattern, you can just use the preview mode of the slicer. For example in Cura select one of the patterns and switch to layer view. Now you can see what would be printed layer by layer. Is that what you are asking for?

Support structure generation depends on the type of slicer you use to convert your model (STL model file) into printable code (G-code) for the 3D printer. Different options and solutions exist to add support depending on the slicer software applications. Alternatively, you could add your own supports to your models in 3D CAD programs.
Without giving an opinion on the slicer applications, the most commonly used slicers are Cura and Slic3r (both free) and Simplifi3d (paid license). Please choose your software and do some more investigations on setting up these applications for slicing and address your question with a more specific question.

Alternately, for simple models requiring simple support (like a single overhang), some prefer to design in a sacrificial support element to their model.


text:
How to heat up a Printrbot's hotend using an SD card
My Printrbot simple metal's extruder is jammed and I need to heat it up to unjam it. Unfortunately, the printer does't want to connect to my laptop regardless of the program I'm using (Repetier-Host or Cura 15).
Is there a way to use a micro SD card to heat up the printer hotend but not print anything?

Sure there is. As you use Cura, you can grab any G-code file (you already have) and use it to set hotend temperature (delete the actual printing part from the file) to get something like this:
;FLAVOR:Marlin
;TIME:102
;Filament used: 0.0573674m
;Layer height: 0.2
;Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 3.3.1
; M190 S60 ;-> this sets the bed temperature so we can comment it out
; the next line sets the hotend to 200 degrees Celsius
M104 S200

As every line that starts with a semi-colon is a comment and is ignored by the printer, M104 S200, would be the only line you need in the printout file.
If you're interested in knowing more - look here: G-codes on reprap wiki

I will try that when I get some free time. Might not be for just over a week, though. Gotta prep for finals. Edit: Just wanted to say thanks for the quick response. :)

@0scar - ...or rather an answer (don't forget that Brendan posted his own answer). Good point though, and the same applies to his answer to this question, How to make walls thicker using meshmixer or meshlab. However, the OP is probably still under a lot of stress w.r.t. final exams.:-)

@greenonline There was no answer when I posted :) But indeed, final actual solutions are very welcome!

I heated it up and was able to extract some plastic that had gotten jammed in the hot ends opening.
I heated up the hotend by commenting out all the other lines of code in Cura's start and end G-code tabs (must have missed some because the printer moved. I would just unplug the printer when it stopped moving). I used an SD card but it would probably work with USB too. I tried to force the filament in to force the jam out of the hotend, but that did nothing.
I took apart the extruder assembly and discovered that a section of filament that was too wide got stuck in the hotend's entrance. I pulled the filament out using me multitool and put the extruder back together. Hope this helps others with a similar problem.

Nice that you answered your own question, and certainly glad that you fixed the problem. (Hope your finals went well as well) But this is not really an answer, it is more a comment. If the other answer helped you to solve this please accept it, if not please elaborate your answer and describe what you actually did to warm it up if different from the other answer (e.g. blow torch or heated on the stove, etc.).

As @0scar says, please describe how you managed to extract the plastic? Did you do it manually (tweezers, drill bit?), and how did you have to heat the hotend? Did you have to remove the hotend and heat it separately (if so, how and why?) or did you heat it whilst on the printer (and how?)? Did you manage to get the SD card to work, or your USB cable? If so, how did you get either the SD card or USB to work, and what G-codes did you use? A nicely detailed answer could quite possibly help someone else with the same issue, as well as garner more votes. Thanks in advance.

+1 - Thank you Brendan for updating your answer.  Hopefully others will see your updated answer and remove their down votes. I'm glad that your exams when well too! Good Luck! :-)

Don't forget to mark some of your questions as accepted, using the green tick icon next to the voting buttons, if indeed they have been answered :-)


text:
How to execute firmware command from gcode
I wrote a command in Marlin firmware which changes Neopixel color based on extruder temperature.
In my start G-code for I set the color to white. How to execute my above command from the end G-code so that the the color changes per request?

As your color is based on the temp reading, as far as I know, there is no G-code to read a temperature and push that value to another command.
The way you can do it is:

Static color change - use same method as you are setting to white
Intercept firmware temperature reading function and push that value to led module


text:
Dual PSU with one switch fuse
My home built printer has been having issues running properly. The x/y/z motors will run freely with standard non build position commands but when they are suppose to start a raft layer and they freeze up and don't respond properly. When I put my hands on my x/y motors they're cold as if no power is getting through, yet they ran just a moment before. I currently have a variable PSU which allows from 0-48v power output. I started turning the supply up and as I reached about 34v I noticed the motors started to run properly but my board did not regulate the power and instead started pushing the power through all of the ouptuts activating the second empty extruder and causing the heat on my extruders to rise to an extreme 300°C vaporizing my PLA. Ever since this incident my board continues to attempt to push power through all outputs regardless of the power output settings (ie if I set the output on my PSU to 11v, the motherboard still activates all motors and heaters) I am curious if I were to use 2 24v PSUs in parallel (or a series) if that would allow my motors to get the power they need without putting strain on my motherboard.

In case it isn't obvious yet, you need a new motherboard. 2) What does the "switch fuse" in the title of your question have to do with it? 3) It would be better to ask about your problem ("why do my motors not run without 34V") than about the proposed solution (which you do not seem to understand yourself either, given that you haven't decided between series or parallel) 4) Please include sufficient details! What (exact) power supply did you use before? What was its current rating? What is the part number for the motors? Which main board and motor drivers are you using?

@TomvanderZanden's comment is right.  You have probably damaged your motherboard and/or driver boards by applying 34 volts.  You should never exceed rated voltages.
It might help to study stepper motor driver circuits a bit.  Stepper drivers usually act as current sources, not as voltage sources.  They typically have a high-frequency switch that applies pulses of voltage so that the current through the inductance of the motor matches the current needs for the desired step position.  Motors generate torque from the strength of the magnetic fields, with is linearly related to the current through the coil.  The voltage drives the current, but the current cannot change instantaneously in an inductive circuit.  Unless the motors have an uncommonly high coil resistance, two to five average volts will be enough to provide the maximum current.
The motors are pretty insensitive to the voltage applied, as long as the current meets the specifications.  The motor driver chips are sensitive to the applied voltage.  They are sensitive because the internal switches and logic can only withstand certain voltages, and they are sensitive because the circuits assume that the current won't change too quickly.  If the current gets so high that the magnetic material in motor saturates, the inductance suddenly becomes much lower, and the current can spike to very high levels.  This current spike can destroy drivers.
Heaters also have a voltage spec.  The heaters I've seen are specified for 12 or 24 volts.  To avoid burning out, a heater must have a low enough thermal resistance to the object being heated that the inner heater temperature is not so high that the heating element is damaged.  Powering a 12v heater from 34 volts would cause the current to increase by a factor of 34/12 = 2.83.  The power would be that ratio squared because both the current and the voltage are higher.  The heaters, whenever they were on, would be generating 8.02 times the power.  This might not result in the good behavior of the heater control systems, and could damage the FETs which are driving the heaters.
As for changing the power supply, before doing that I would want to check that the power supply was not supplying the needed voltage and current.
When you've replaced the motherboard and drivers, and configured the drivers for the required operating current, attach a voltmeter to the power supply.  Turn on all the heaters, power up the otors, and watch the supply voltage.  If it remains true (say, within 15%), the power supply isn't the problem.  If the voltage dips, or pulses, or does anything other than staying stable, I would consider a higher current (not higher voltage) supply.  Connecting two supplies in series causes problems with the ground reference of one of the supplies.  Connecting two supplies in parallel, unless they are designed for that use, often isn't any better than a single supply because they will not necessarily share the load well.
Good luck!  I look forward to further questions.


text:
Stuck getting ANet A8 Printer to build layers
I have excitedly decided to get my feet wet in the 3D printing world, and being that budget is fairly small got myself an ANet A8 3D printer. I have it all assembled and am able to 'print' however I don't really have any luck getting a successful print to actually occur.
At the moment I am printing with PLA (start easy(er) is my logic) and had a few issues with getting the print to adhere to the print bed so found a plastic-like print surface that seems to adhere fairly well but I am still having issues :(.
When the first layers are being deposited onto the bed (extruded at 215, to a bed temperature of 60) they appear to adhere fairly well to the surface, and the layers start to be built up. However, after a random period of time, the layers lost adhesion to the print bed and start to move around the bed which stuffs up all the prints.
in terms of the extruder, the range for the PLA is 190 - 215. I tried lower tempertures but it did not really work in terms of properly melting the filiment unless it was around the 215 range.
To give you an example of how the prints come out, i have attached two images (front and back) of a set of prints. I stopped these printing as they lost grip on the bed.
Bottom Layer (on the bed)

Top Layer

Thanks heaps for helping a newbie out. I had tried changing speeds (faster and slower), changing temperatures and so on but i have no real idea what i am doing and was hoping someone far more knowledgable than me could give me some idea on where i may be going wrong and how to fix the issue.

My Cura profile;
[profile]
layer_height = 0.2
wall_thickness = 1.6
retraction_enable = True
solid_layer_thickness = 1.6
fill_density = 20
nozzle_size = 0.4
print_speed = 30
print_temperature = 215
print_temperature2 = 0
print_temperature3 = 0
print_temperature4 = 0
print_bed_temperature = 60
support = None
platform_adhesion = None
support_dual_extrusion = Both
wipe_tower = False
wipe_tower_volume = 15
ooze_shield = False
filament_diameter = 1.75
filament_diameter2 = 0
filament_diameter3 = 0
filament_diameter4 = 0
filament_flow = 100
retraction_speed = 45
retraction_amount = 4.5
retraction_dual_amount = 16.5
retraction_min_travel = 1.5
retraction_combing = True
retraction_minimal_extrusion = 0.02
retraction_hop = 0.0
bottom_thickness = 0.2
layer0_width_factor = 100
object_sink = 0.0
overlap_dual = 0.15
travel_speed = 50
bottom_layer_speed = 20
infill_speed = 0
inset0_speed = 0.0
insetx_speed = 0.0
cool_min_layer_time = 5
fan_enabled = True
skirt_line_count = 1
skirt_gap = 3.0
skirt_minimal_length = 150.0
fan_full_height = 0.5
fan_speed = 30
fan_speed_max = 70
cool_min_feedrate = 10
cool_head_lift = False
solid_top = True
solid_bottom = True
fill_overlap = 15
support_type = Lines
support_angle = 60
support_fill_rate = 10
support_xy_distance = 1.2
support_z_distance = 0.45
spiralize = False
simple_mode = False
brim_line_count = 4
raft_margin = 5
raft_line_spacing = 1.0
raft_base_thickness = 0.3
raft_base_linewidth = 0.7
raft_interface_thickness = 0.2
raft_interface_linewidth = 0.2
raft_airgap = 0.22
raft_surface_layers = 2
fix_horrible_union_all_type_a = True
fix_horrible_union_all_type_b = False
fix_horrible_use_open_bits = False
fix_horrible_extensive_stitching = False
plugin_config = (lp1
    .
object_center_x = -1
object_center_y = -1

Next to re-leveling your bed you may want to prepare your bed better so that it keeps hold of your print better. Please read about bed preparation if you use tape, I never use tape and print directly onto the aluminium bed or glass using PVA based glue spray.

I use a PEI bed not tape or stickers. The bed seems fairly good for the most part, and adhesion is way better than alternatives I have tried. Did wonder about printing directly to the aluminium bed.

Your nozzle is way too far from the bed for the first layer. You should adjust the bed leveling screws to bring the nozzle closer to the bed, to the point where a piece of paper just barely fits between the nozzle and the bed. You should closely watch the first layer as it is being put down, the plastic should get squished slightly and there should be no gaps between adjacent lines.


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Adding extra Z-offset to bed for PETG in Slic3r
Having printed exclusively in PLA for the past year, I'm now looking at trying out PETG in order to print a set of spare parts for my new Prusa i3 mk3.
I have bought a roll of PETG from Rigid.ink and their recommendation is to leave an extra 0.2mm gap between the nozzle and bed.
Can I achieve this extra Z offset in gcode using Slic3r PE, or would I need to do it using Live Z Adjust on the printer? How would I go about doing this if so?
Or is there some other way of doing it, so whenever I select my PETG filament profile in Slic3r, the extra Z-offset gets added?

An extra gap of 0.2 mm on top of your existing gap seems rather illogical as the filament is not squished at the build plate anymore. Furthermore 0.2 mm plus something you already have will soon result in a gap over 75% of your nozzle diameter (including your first layer; note that 75% is considered to be the max for good adhesion). The filament will then drop down to the plate... Possible effects/results can be seen in this recent question.
Having printed about 8 kg's of PETG, I have never had to add an additional gap. I have printed on various machines; Prusa clone, Ultimaker 3E and self build CoreXY. I use a 0.2 to 0.25 mm first layer thickness (for a 0.4 mm nozzle) while printing on glass or directly onto the aluminium bed using a PVA based spray glue (3DLAC). Beds are always leveled with the nozzle to bed distance of a sheet A4 printing paper. I have zero adhesion problems.
I would recommend you to try print as you would normally do and, when that does not work, increase the first layer in your slicer slightly. Printing temperature/speed towers is also recommended to find the best settings for your brand of PETG.
Now to address your specific question how to change the offset in your slicer; an additional offset can be added into your start code script by adding a move to a certain height and redefining the zero Z level. This should be typically done after auto leveling of the bed (if used). So before the first layer is being printed you could add:
; start code contains homing, pre-heating, auto-leveling, nozzle priming, etc.
G1 Z0.2 F500 ; Go to the level of 0.2 mm + your paper thickness
G92 Z0       ; This redefines the zero Z level

You can create custom startcode profiles in Slic3r (requires setting the Printer Settings) and store them with a specific name so you can have different printer profiles.

I came here to solve an issue during an MMU2S tool change from PLA to TPU where TPU like some other flex materials needs a slightly higher Z offset. Due to TPU's higher elasticity, with a typical (PLA) Z offset TPU can compress at the nozzle when first loading and seal the nozzle creating enough pressure to render the extruder ineffective leading typically to an extruder jam - not fun with flex materials. In any case, a small Z offset change significantly reduces the chance of this and Slicer at the time of writing this doesn't seem to support Custom g code per filament specifically. Thanks!


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Generating mold from stl file of the 3D drawing of the object
I want to know how to make a mold of a 3D design in .stl format.
Suppose I have a 3D partin .stl format (for e.g. a cylinder) and I want to make/design a mold for this object (i.e. the structure through which I could make the cylinder). Is there any way to do so? Are there any tools to do so?
My requirement is as follows: I have an .stl file of a design and need to develop the CAD files for its mold. I will then need to 3D print these molds. I would require to add a hole to pour in liquid (resin based) raw material which hardens with time.

What kind of mold you are looking for? for plastic extrusion or resine molding?

Adding a hole is trivial assuming you own a drill :-)

An off-the wall thought: if it were possible to modify a printer to use wax or other low-temperature melting point material,  then print the item, pack in sand, and use lost-wax method of casting.

You can also bring the model and a big box into slic3r, align and orient them (enclose the model in the box), and do a subtract modifier, leaving a hollow where the two intersected. You probably want to do this twice, for a top mould and a botom mould. I've done this, but I don't see any instructions online for it. :(
EDIT: Unfortunately, this would be very tedious. It's much easier to use meshmixer or another publicly available program to subtract one stl from another.
In Slic3r, using another stl as a modifier has no effect unless you are also printing that second stl (normally from another head). So you would have to manually remove all the gcode for the second head. Sorry for the bad advice.

Nice answer, maybe you could write the instructions here and post some screenshots to accompany the text, would be a nice reference.

I can beef this up with instructions and screenshots tomorrow. :)

Yes. This looks a simple yet effective solution. Pls. give detailed steps to do the mold making in slic3r starting from how to make a box in it. (I have the model defined in stl format). Basically I have the stl file of the model. I need to generate a mold for it and do 3D printing of the mold. Thanks.

@ArvindGupta Please update your question to describe what you are pouring into the mould, just a simple mould may not be sufficient as you may need to add holes to pour your material in, or need riser holes for de-aeration. I doubt whether that is possible with this solution.

I agree with the Meshmixer suggestion:  "Boolean difference" is relatively quick.

OK. So as I understand,  I need to create stl of two solid blocks, sandwich the stl of the object in between and do the boolean subtraction. Is that right? If so, can anyone give step by step instructions as to how to do so pls?  Importantly, how to create a stl of a block in meshmixer and how to do boolean subtraction in it? Do I have to do the boolean operation separately two times or can I do it once only keeping both blocks side by side surrounding the job?  Also, how to add a drill for injecting the liquid raw material? Maybe by doing a subtractive addition with a cylinder?

@Arvind Gupta Indeed, you need another cylinder subtracted to gain access to the cavity

@ArvindGupta  in brief: position both items as desired.  Un-select everything.  First select the object you "want" , then the intersection object. The order matters.  Then hit "Boolean difference"   There are a couple very good YouTube vids showing how to do this.

Thanks Carl. I have 2 more queries pls. Is there any other free tool apart from meshmixer in which I can do this (meshmixer is hanging my PC). Also, how to create the starting solid blocks and the cylinder in the same? I am completely new in CAD drawings (basically an EC engg :) ). Thanks in advance.

In addition to the answer of Davo (which describes a surprising feature of the slicer software I was unaware of), a more generic description would involve the use of a 3D solid model CAD program. You should be aware that a model in STL format is not a solid model, it is a surface model. In order to make a mold you would have to import the STL model into a CAD program (there are a few free ones available like Fusion 360 or FreeCAD or maybe many more that will work also) and make a solid body from the surface model. Next thing is to create a large rectangular block and subtract the positive model from the block. Now a negative lives inside this block so you will need to conveniently cut the block through your negative to create 2 mold parts. Be sure that you divide the block so that you can take out the casting from the mold parts and also add an entry to pour in the liquid casting material and add risers (holes) to de-aerate the cavity. Furthermore, for alignment, you could add pins and holes to the mold parts.

meshmixer has a "Make solid" function.

While trying to find a soloution to this problem I came across this forum post, which led me to "Parametric two-part mold generator for OpenSCAD" on Thingiverse.

A set of parametric OpenSCAD scripts that generate ready-to-print two-part molds from arbitrary STL models.
These scripts can be used to generate either square (with or without
  rounded corners) or circular two-part molds and are fully
  parameterized to make it easy to adapt for your application.

Here's an example from Thingiverse.

You can find a download, install instructions or source code for OpenSCAD here.


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Linking an Arduino Mega with RAMPS and an Arduino Uno with CNC Shield to control more stepper motors using Marlin firmware
I've been looking for this for a while, and it looks like no one has tried it before.
Does anyone know if there is a way to link an Arduino Mega with RAMPS as master, with an Arduino Uno with a CNC Shield as slave, and get it to work on Marlin firmware?
Why do I want to do this? I'm planning to build a DIY heavy duty 3d printer that will use a lot more stepper motors than the typical prusa style machines, and I want to use Arduino to control it instead of custom CNC/stepper/3d printer controller boards.
Thank you!
Regards.

Depending on how many drivers/steppers you want to add you may not need the Uno, you can add additional stepper boards or a CNC shield to a RAMPS already, see http://reprap.org/wiki/Adding_more_extruders

so points to that case:

how are you going to sync master/slave?
adding more steppers to master (even only for pushing control to slave) will limit speed in the whole system (this is mainly one of the reasons why we shall go to 32-bit platforms to print faster).

As marlin will give you a good grasp to convert g-code into steppers movement, then if you are willing to double or triple steppers number per axis, you can grab dir and step signal and forward it to other steppers drivers without the mess of syncing movement in time and board. If you are going to add a special tooling - then you shall add your mods to firmware as well.


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Help installing my Anet A8 printer to my computer
I am a complete noob when it comes to the 3d printing world. I just finished assembling my printer and I plug it into my computer with the included usb cable and nothing happens. My computer does recognize the printer being plugged in but it just says "unrecognized device in com 4". Nothing else past that. Somebody please help me with the following steps that need to be taken to get my CPU talking with my printer.

Did you install the CH340 driver? It is on the SD card supplied with the printer.

I did not see that. I did look on the card but didn't see a driver, but I will check as soon as I get off of work. Thanks a bunch for trying to help. So once I install the driver, is there anything I need to know from there. I have an autolevel sensor, so is that when I run "Ardruino", I'm sure that's not spelled right. That's how I knew I had a problem because as it was trying to upload, an error message kept coming up saying unable to synce

Is the printer delivered with the sensor working? Otherwise you may need to flash new firmware, I recommend flashing to Marlin anyways as the stock firmware has no thermal runaway control (provided you are able to flash new firmware).

It was shipped with the autolevel sensor so I would assume that it is already, but I'm referencing a youtube video on setting that up. So I wouldn't think that approaching it as if it didn't have the firmware already wouldn't damage anything by writing over it.

Your question addresses (USB) computer connection, so that will be addressed in this answer. For connection to the printer, you need 2 things (apart from the apparent things as computer, printer and cable):

A working CH340 driver installed on the computer for USB communication with the board,
a piece of software to talk to the computer at a bit transfer rate the printer understands.

The cheap Arduino based boards rely on the CH340 chip for USB communication. You should check whether you have correctly installed this driver. These drivers are erroneous and prone to cause problems. Sometime re-installation works, once did work for me.
The SD card supplied by Anet contains a folder (on my SD card: .\A8\A8资料\Software\CH340G Drive) with the installer file of the driver. Once installed properly, you should be able to connect various applications to the A8, provided you use the correct baud rate of 115200.
All this said, are you asking the correct question? Why do you need to connect to a computer, as you can print just fine by putting sliced .stl files (.gcode files) onto the SD card (when inserted in the computer using the adapter) and reinsert the card again in the printer to select the file using the menu buttons of the printer. Printing from SD card is considered safer then printing via the computer over USB as the print will stop when the PC is shut down or crashes.

as there is com4 attached that means the usb2serial driver is installed.

I'm sorry @profesor79 I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to pretty much anything you responded with :). Could you dumb that down a tad. Even tho I don't understand, I get a feeling that it might be helpful. Are you saying that because it is recognized as COM4 that it means that the driver is already installed?

@0scar you definitely make a good point, it's just that I'm trying to get my auto level sensor calibrated and the video I'm watching to get it properly working required me to get Skynet3D or Marlin uploaded to the printer. And I would just like everything to work as it should. Even though I'm glad you reminded me that to print all I need to do is download to SD card and transfer card to printer. That is definitely the method I'll use to print in case of crashes, just as you said. Thanks for the advice and help.

Try using the provided SD card and SD adapter with Cura to give the printer gcode. If your computer isn't communicating properly with your printer, you can just download Cura 14 (it comes on the SD card) and upload the configuration file (also on the SD card). You can then plug the SD card into your main board and access it via the LCD screen.

I believe I did that much already, but I didn't put the sd card into the board. But before I do that, I need to install the CH340 driver like "Oscar" advised right? And thank you for your help btw. This is going to be corny but I really am touched that I'm getting this much help from this forum. You guys are some stand up guys and I really appreciate it.

@JoshR. No, you can print by copying files to SD card, and transfering the SD card to the printer. No need to use USB at all, and no need for drivers. Drivers and software for USB are a non-trivial thing to setup

@SeanHoulihane. Yeah I'm aware that I can do that but I really want to get my Printer communicating with my CPU. I found a really good video with a guy that explains very clearly and shows his process on his desktop. He's uploading Skynet3D to it tho, in the video. Is that obsolete now and maybe that's why I'm having a problem? I open Arduino and make sure the right board is selected, btw my card does not say V.1 is says V.1-5. but this is the message I get when I try to upload Skynet3D

@JoshR.It sounds like you need a lot of help with this one, at the level that won't work too well on a Q&A site. We still don't know if you're talking gcode, or arduino firmware download.

Sketch uses 114,230 bytes (87%) of program storage space. Maximum is 131,072 bytes.
Global variables use 4,470 bytes of dynamic memory.
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xd6
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6f
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x80
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xbf
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 5 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xae
.....and so forth all the way to attempt 10.

I am in over my head I'll be the first to admit so please excuse my lack of correct terminology. So far all I've done is assembled the printer, installed the driver that was included in the included SD card, and now I'm trying to download Skynet3D, only because that's the program the video maker was using, and that requires me to go the Arduino program. That's when I run into the upload problem that gives me the error messages above this comment I.e. "attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6f avrdude..... And what started all this was so I could be able to install my autolevel sensor.

Most of the latest Windows 10 systems with high speed USB (USB3.0) fail to recognize USB to Serial connector (which is here: CH430).
Try with a decent self powered USB 2.0 hub that has been seen to fix a majority of USB 3.0 port issues, or try by disabling driver signature enforcement on Win10.


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Large 3D printer 10'x10'x4' - Need G-code to tell when it stops extruding and to stop machine
We use Simplify and have a large 10’x10’x4’ printer. We need G-code that when the extrusion stops the machine will stop and raise 10 mm as to not to burn the print, so we know where the extrusion stopped.
We are using beads instead of filament, which work great. We have a mechanical pusher of beads that once it stops spinning, we need a G-code to recognize it is not spinning anymore and to stop the printer at that point and to lift up 10 mm. Printer might go 3-4 days sometimes a week with no problems and all of a sudden no extrusion and machine keeps thinking its printing. We have to start all over.
Any suggestions?

The control should be like normal extruder, the machine starts printing once the temperature reach 175°C (safety extruder temp) so, if your printer is moving with no printout is due your extruder is not working or is clogged. For moving up after printing use G91 G1 Z10 Instead waiting the extruder waits to send a command to say "I'm stopped" also use G92 E0 and G1 E-3.000 F1800 to make a retraction while the Z goes to safety position. I'm planning to use a pellet extruder instead filament, so this way will be easy.

Thank You. We got the one problem fixed and now realize we are going to have to put in a new controller and servo motors instead of the traditional steppers that came with it. Turns out the hardware that came with the ErectorBot is very low end and not as billed. Does anyone know where to get reliable inexpensive controllers and servos..?

From eBay? China? Ali-express? Are you sure you need servo motors, and not new steppers? See reprap forum: steppers for a list of good steppers. The most commonly used stepper motors in Reprap–based 3D printers are the Kysan 1124090/42BYGH4803, Rattm 17HS8401, and Wantai 42BYGHW609.

G-code is likely not the solution to your problem. G-code are simple commands that are executed by the printer (e.g. "heat up the hotend to this temperature" or "move the extruder to this position") but there is no G-code for "detect whether the pusher is still running" (and besides, how could the printer possibly detect whether the pusher is running without hardware to do so?
You'll likely want to configure your pusher to somehow act as a filament runout sensor. This is a feature in Marlin (smoothieware has something similar) that allows you to pause the print by making an input on one of the control board's pins. You'll need to build hardware that detects the motion of the pusher, and if the motion is interrupted, pulls the FIL_RUNOUT_PIN low (in the case of Marlin). You can then configure what should happen next (e.g. raising the head and stopping the print) using FILAMENT_RUNOUT_SCRIPT (again, only if you're using Marlin).

Thank You. We figured that out and realized we are going to have to put in a new controller and servo motors instead of the traditional steppers that came with it. Turns out the hardware that came with the ErectorBot is very low end and not as billed. Does anyone know where to get reliable inexpensive controllers and servos?

@JoeM. Recommendations like that we don't do at the Stack. We do suggest and recommend solutions, but not products.


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Trouble uploading Skynet3D to my Anet A8 via Arduino program
I'm in distress here fellow people. I'm a noob to 3d printers and want to become an expert. Everybody has to start at the bottom right? Like the title says I'm trying to upload Skynet to my printer and for the board, I'm selecting V.1 even though my arduino board says V.1-5. And for port I'm selecting COM3, which is information I found in device manager, and the file I'm selecting to upload is SkynetV.1.?alfa.ino. After all of that is selected I click upload and I get the following error messages:
Sketch uses 114,230 bytes (87%) of program storage space. Maximum is 131,072 bytes.
Global variables use 4,470 bytes of dynamic memory.
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xd6
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6f
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x80
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xbf
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 5 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xae
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 6 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xd6
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 7 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x02
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 8 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x21
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 9 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xcc
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 10 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xd6

Please help me.

have you tried anything from this list: http://www.instructables.com/id/A-solution-to-avrdude-stk500getsync-not-in-syn/ ?

Please read: https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/4603/anet-a6-firmware and go for Marlin (although it is the A6, it also applies to the A8)

Could you edit your question to include a screenshot of the device manager, in particular COM3? Are you sure that you have the correct drivers installed? Or if you have fixed your problem, could you post the solution? Thanks in advance.

Skynet3D was a very old fork from Marlin firmware, all functionality (more specifically for the odd LCD screens used by Anet) have been merged into Marlin firmware. Just get the latest version of Marlin. The current and final release of branch 1.1.x is 1.1.9 further development will be done in 2.0.x. Version 1.1.9 works perfectly fine for the Anet A8.

These error messages are displayed when you have either selected the wrong COM port or wrong Arduino board or have faulty or no drivers installed.


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Raw material for 3D printed injection mold
If I have to make an injection mold (for resin based raw material) using 3D printing, what raw material should I choose – PLA,  ABS, HIPS etc.

My gut instinct is that it doesn't matter what material you choose, and that any 3D printable material would be equally unsuitable for this.

@arvind-gupta None, injection mold is based on Metal Dies. Some polycarbonates may help but they aren't printables.

P20 mold steel is one standard. Hardened parts are required for long life, depending on the service and material (some materials are quite abrasive).
You can get a small number of relatively poor quality shots out of epoxy if it is properly supported by a metal box. Your best bet if you want to include 3D printing in the equation is probably to use epoxy or lost plastic casting from a 3D-printed master. Aside from the requirements of core and cavity with sufficient strength, there are requirements for vents, cooling tubes (bubblers and such like) ejector pins and slides that complicate most real molds. Productivity demands a high heat transfer rate, for very small quantities of expensive parts, thermal design may be less important.
Temperatures and pressures are very high in injection injection molding- high enough to melt the materials you mention, and the pressures are in the 10K PSI range, so a 4" x 4" projected cavity will have a pressure in the 80 ton region.
If you have sintered and filled metal 3D parts they may be suitable, but from the prices I've seen you'd be better off to use conventional machining. Finish is also very important if you want the part to come out of the mold, with hours of semi-manual polishing not uncommon. If you don't have fine surface finish you will need extreme draft angles.
The requirements can be considerably relaxed if you are molding soft parts such as the PVC or TPE overmolds on cables. The pressure is less and the finish less important because the plastic is soft, but the temperatures are still quite high. This is sort of a sub-category of injection molding and specialized machines are used.

Answers above are correct that no plastic mold will work for actual injection molding. Injection molding by definition requires pressure, pressure that would explode a plastic mold. If on the other hand you really just want to print a mold that you can pour epoxy into to get a shape, then you just need to consider a couple factors.

How hot things are going to get since epoxy is exothermic and the thicker the cross section the hotter it'll get.
How to keep the epoxy from sticking.

For issue 1 I would pick the material that's available to you with the highest glass transition temperature so it doesn't melt or deform.
For issue 2 I would use mold release compound before you pour in the epoxy and probably pick the plastic with the lowest surface energy.


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Software for adding supports to 3D printed miniatures in STL file
My main application for my 3D printer (Zortrax M200 Plus) is making 28 mm scale miniatures for role-playing games. Basically people and animals at 1:60 scale, which means that things like arms, legs, or weapons are only a few millimeters thick. If I use the automatically generated supports of the Z-Suite software, the supports end up being thicker than the model parts, and are impossible to remove.
I had a bit more luck creating support structures with Meshmixer, but am not totally happy with those. So I am looking for other software to edit .STL files to add supports automatically, preferably with an option to edit those support structures easily afterwards. Any ideas?
Note that Zortrax printers only work with proprietary Z-Suite software, so the software that adds the support also needs to be able to export the model with the supports into an STL file, not just gcode.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is a blatant shopping question. Any and all slicer could be listed and discussed her in pro and con, so... not a stack question.

I see that you've already tried Meshmixer and didn't find it helpful, but I wanted to call out an article and accompanying video that I recently found which helped me understand Meshmixer's support generation feature a bit better. It isn't magic, but it is pretty flexible and you can customize them. Plus, you can export them either as a separate file (to be imported via Slic3r's Load Part for example), or as part of the primary object STL file (though you loose the ability to set different print settings for the supports). Much of my printer's time is also devoted to 28mm figurines and I've had varied success with them. There are some models whose detail is too fine and which require too much support to be worth it considering the cleanup - I have a bucket-of-shame that's full of them. I just ordered an upgrade for my printer to allow me to print with multiple filament and I'll be seeing if soluble support material is helpful for those small details. Barring that, I've found that some prints do better with Meshmixer's supports while others do better with simplify3d supports, while others still do better with slic3r supports.
Summarizing the article on custom Meshmixer supports:

Open your model in Meshmixer
From the top menu select View – Show Printer Bed
Select Edit – Transform and move the model to the middle of the print bed

This step is important because Meshmixer won’t generate any supports outside of the print area

If you want to print the model on a different scale, scale the model now, again by using the Edit – Transform. It’s better to scale
  the model now, because an additional change of scale later in slicer
  would also affect the generated supports, resulting in either too thin
  and weak supports or too thick and hard to remove supports.

Change the Scale X (Scale Y and Scale Z) to the desired value (1 = 100%, 1.5 = 150% etc.)

Select Analysis – Overhangs

You can now adjust the Angle Thresh and see a live preview of areas of the model that should be supported

Click on Generate Support to see a preview of the support structure

Every time you make changes to the support settings you’ll have to click on Remove Support and Generate Support to refresh the view

(The video in the article goes into greater detail on the settings available in step 6.)

Adding and removing supports manually

You can create a new support by left-clicking and dragging from an overhang to the ground or from an existing support to the ground
Hold down the Shift key to ignore intersections of the support strut or any other warning and force Meshmixer to generate the new
  support (use wisely)
You can also click on an existing support to generate a new strut going down to the build plate
CTRL + Left click on an existing support to remove it

When you’re happy with the support structure you can export the model and the support structure together as STL by simply clicking
  Done and clicking on the Export button in the left menu
Alternatively, you can select Convert to Solid to create a separate mesh from the support structure. This will let you set different
  settings in Slic3r for the supports and for the model itself

After choosing Convert to Solid choose Edit – Separate shells
Export both the model and the supports as individual STL files
In Slic3r first load the STL with the model
Double-click on the model and choose Load part…, select the supports STL file
When the STL loads, you can overwrite some of the settings by clicking on the green plus icon

I don't think you'll find automated software to create supports "the way I want them to look."  So...
It might be worth investigating the "Advanced Properties" of Cura to see how thin, and thinly spaced, you can set its support walls to be.  I know there are settings for reducing the thickness at the top of the support, as well as some sort of "top gap" setting, for just the kind of problem you're dealing with.

the question title is missleading (my edit waits in the queue) that shall be: Software for exporting generated print supports to .stl file

@profesor79 That title is even more misleading cause of the use of exporting, but I'm not native to English either. "How/software to add supports to STL file" would describe this question better IMHO.

If you're looking for an extremely powerful software with manual supports, I would recommend getting Simplify 3D. Simplify 3D allows you to manually add and edit support material in the slicer. The only drawback is that it cost 150 USD, but it will do what you need done.

@tobold Yes, 3D simplify generate the supports automatically or you can add it only on the places that you have looked overhangs, also can be defined as small as needed and easily to remove. This software don't edit your STL file, just creates the supports to generate de Gcode for your printer.

I had good experience with the support interfaces from CURA. But reduce the thickness of the support interface to be just enough, that a smooth support interface top can be printed and set the top distance so that the model itself can be printed smooth and you can remove the interface easy enough. (I got good results with a thickness of 2-4 layers and a distance of 1-2 layers.
Important: the real filament thickness should be set in CURA very precisely, else it could lead to hard to remove interface or a not smooth bottom of the model.

To the best of my knowledge, .STL files exported with Cura don't contain the support structures you created. As my printer doesn't take .gcode, I need the supports in the .STL file.

Materialise Magics (STL fixer) is what I have heard works very well. In the process now of trying to get the boss to buy a seat for use with models being made on a Carbon DLS printer.
http://www.materialise.com/en/software/magics
(keep me posted with what you find out. I am currently in the same boat and exploring options while minimizing cost but also want good software and am willing to pay. makes sense, I know)
Edit - Netfabb has free software available.

It appears that this is used for metal laser sintering, knowing the challenges with metal prints (orientation, support and adhesion) as our company prints Titanium, Aluminium and Inconel, I wonder whether this tool would be of interest for the plastic FDM community. It looks as if it is able to produce nice supports. I doubt that this will be affordable for the hobbyist as the price is not listed.