Variable Layer Height

Sometimes I have prints that look better being printed at .025 layer height due to curved features. However, parts of the model could be printed at a higher layer height. So what I’m suggesting is to allow in Preform a way to specify z height “zones”. Each zone has a user defined start and end z height, and can be any layer height for the given material. This would reduce the print time on areas that are less critical.

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Great idea!

For an example, see http://manual.slic3r.org/expert-mode/variable-layer-height . It results in vastly improved print quality at much faster print times, because you only slow down to improve resolution in the layers that really need it, leaving ‘boring’ parts of the model to print quickly.

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I do love this idea too, however it has been suggested many times before here, here and here to link just a few.

The overall consensus was that it is a great idea, but not going to be implemented any time soon.

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Thanks for the info. I had not seen the previous recommendations.

It’s not a reason to stop asking, politely and regularly :wink: i think this is a feature that a lot of people want and that every single user will benefit from.

Obviously if it were easy we’d have it already, I’m sure Formlabs wants it too. I guess it causes a reliability issue, or maybe a precision issue as the part may not cure evenly throughout the print and thus have dimensional inaccuracies.

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Our software roadmap is always changing, and additional threads are a good proxy for user demand :slight_smile: We have this partially incorporated in that support structures print more coarsely than the rest of the object. We’re looking into a few workflows, one of which would be a user configurable feature, and another that would make automatic judgements based on the delta between X/Y outlines on consecutive layers.

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That sounds great. Can’t wait to see the results.

Yes, yes, yes. “Key framed” layer heights would be great, there is already a slider, now just add the keyframe functionality so we can change the layer height at different portions of the print. Just today I had a print that would have benefited from this feature. Only the first 5-10mm of the print need to be high resolution, the rest could have been printed at 0.1 and been fine.

Hi everyone! Does anyone know if there’s been any updates regarding this? :slight_smile:

See the Preform release notes page, and look at 3.7.1 & 3.8.0

Ah, I guess I didn’t see it because I’m on Form2 and using Surgical Guide resin