Summary:
Some resin print times are fairly accurate before clicking the “refresh” button next to the Print Time button, and some resin print times are fairly accurate after clicking the “refresh” button. Print times for those resins are extremely inaccurate in the opposite situation (clicking or not clicking the refresh button).
Problem Description:
I would really like to get reasonably accurate print time estimates from PreForm. Just this last week I experienced a huge frustration where I was preparing for a project demo, and I specifically printed with Durable Resin because PreForm said it would take 12 hours and 48 minutes, which would give me about 8 hours of buffer time to wash, cure, and test the part before the demo.
If it were an hour off, that wouldn’t be a big deal. But the print took nearly two times longer! It took about 22 hours instead of 12 ish hours!
That was quite upsetting, and also makes planning the working day difficult if I’m trying to choose which print job to perform based on what will be available to test out during the workday.
Data provided
The data below shows that:
-
Durable v2 Resin’s estimated print time prior to hitting the refresh button next to the “Print Time” in PreForm is reasonably close to the actual print time, whereas it is frustratingly incorrect after hitting the refresh button.
-
Grey Pro v1 resin’s estimated print time after hitting the refresh button is reasonably close to the actual print time, whereas it is significantly incorrect prior to hitting the refresh button.
| PreForm v3.23.1 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 micron layer thickness on all parts | |||||
| Layers | Volume | Resin | Estimated Print Time | Print Time After clicking refresh | Actual Print Time according to Formlabs Dashboard |
| 864 | 45 ml | Durable v2 | 10h 15 min | 3h 44 min | 9 h 0 min |
| 1406 | 163.07 ml | Durable v2 | 22 h 45 min | 12 h 48 min | 21 h 39 min |
| 458 | 70.06 ml | Grey Pro v1 | 7h 45 min | 3 h 33 min | 4h 39 min |
| 418 | 106.94 ml | Grey Pro v1 | 8 h 15 min | 3 h 24 min | 4h 34 min |
Please let me know if this data was helpful, and if you would like me to continue adding data points. If this is sufficient as-is, then I will only add data points when I use resins not already listed above.
