Anyone ever seen this? I’ve tried resetting to defaults, resaving STL file, etc. SO MANY variations and nothing works. YES, I tried unchecking internal supports. These are just two pictures showing the extreme difference. Seriously, I’ve been trying options for 9+ hrs. Nothing.
History:
I’ve printed similar files for about 3 years using Form 3L and no real issues, EVER. Last print was about 2 weeks ago. No issues. Normal support structure with some adjustments to touch point size etc. Created support structure as expected and printed fine.
Made a few minor changes to the native SWx file, saved, and opened in Preform. BUT WHOA…
Its like the software is “patterning” the supports or some kind fo weird array. You can see in pic 1 that file from a couple weeks ago has standard supports with a few setting edits and creates a 200+ml file as expected.
but in pic 2, you can see the software is now creating this extremely dense support structure (not more touchpoints, but some weird array of the underlying supports) more than 5 times the size in terms of volume.
Ive never seen this before. Any help is appreciated. I have reinstalled preform, resaved the stl with various settings, i have tried opening the stl in other software and it opens fine. Very weird.
The only thing that “worked” is i tried 50% scale model and it created a “normal” support structure, but that was just trying things because of this issue, i CANT print a 50% model, I need 1:1 for testing.
I have had this problem in the last 2 rigid 10k prints I’ve done. One of my prints went from 700ml used to 2,700ml!! That’s literally $600 of extra and unneeded support structure. I have 2 prints that warped and are not usable even with all those extra supports. Really unfortunate problem to have with such expensive material. I have already started a support ticket for it as well.
Any chance disabling the “internal supports” helped?
Can you provide information what PreForm version are you using currently and what version used previously without any problems?
It will help us narrow down the possible changes that could result in something like this.
Yes, I tried so many diffrent options yesterday. Methodically selecting/deselecting etc. Nothing worked. Same issue everytime.
I opened a ticket first thing this morning.
Several things happened, log files, file sharing etc. One suggestion whch I hadnt done yet was to go back to older version software that last worked. That failed, Auto Generate support crashed the software, like completely closed it, multiple times with various STL file save as etc.
But that was interesting because it showed a different result. So I decided to crack open my old laptop for traveling and it had an even older version. and BAM, it works again.
so…
Preform 3.40.2 - EXTREME supports, no resolution yet, ticket still open
Prefrom 3.40.0 - crashed the software at 97% of auto generate process
Prefrom 3.39.2 - success!!
I’m going to now move back to my current computer and get 3.39.2 installed and try it there.
I have a functioning workaround but with an older version software, so i wont have any of the current updates, but at least a print is going. Hopefully preform finds a solution with current software.
Great results from preform 3.33.3(700ml and print looks great and not warped). Poor results with version 3.40.2 and the version that came directly prior to it(2700ml of resin and warping).
I just tried in version 3.40.2 disabling internal supports and the new volume is 1424ml, so still double the amount that is required and prints beautifully in 3.33.3. This part also requires internal supports and preform shows that the model needs more support like this.
Hi folks - I work on the Product team here at Formlabs. I’m sorry you’re seeing these issues.
We have identified the problem and are planning a patch release early next week. In the meanwhile, please continue to use PreForm 3.39.2 for your printing. You can find the download links here.
Please feel free to reply to this thread if you see issues in that version.
We just started seeing these EXTREME supports this past Thursday and Friday.
We are currently using Preform 3.40.2.419
We’ll try and load the old version and see if that fixes things
From my experiences in the Fuse… “once it is working NEVER update”…or at least give it a year prior. Unfortunately we have found beta testing has been very lacking on the Formlabs team and we the users have tended to be their beta testers… this coming from someone who runs software development and teams I have found this frustrating n mind blowing.
You would figure prior to release, these firmware updates would have been ran on every machine with every material type at least once…but I can only assume they are only testing in the “simulation” environment.
