New base design in Preform 2.14.0 wastes resin

[bristlebane]

The new base design in 2.14.0. seem like they are designed to waste of resin. The raised wall height doesn’t not scale with the base thickness and creates a lot of wasted material, especial if you have multiple small parts.

I run a small studio and I am quite caution about resin use. At 15 cents per ml just for standard resin, every bit counts. Even in the older version of preform I found the base thickness to be excessive and a waste of material. I have run my prints with the minimum base thickness of 1.0mm and height above base of 3.5mm. Not only does this save on resin, it saves on print time as well. With over 100 prints, none have failed under those settings.

The file I am printing now measured out at 13.27ml under the older version of Preform, and now with 2.14.0 it is measuring at 19.37ml. Changing the base thickness and height above base to the minimums has a negligible effect on the resin use, it only lowers by 0.7ml. I’m an not sure if the measurement difference is due to a new method of resin calculation or the the new bases, I am guessing the later. What it looks like on the surface is under 2.14 this specific model cost me and extra dollar in wasted material. Factored over multiple prints it is a huge loss. Formlabs please fix this.

[rodrigo_antonio]

Também concordo com você e desnecessário essa base de suporte já que os pinos o suporte já e muito grosso para mim que trabalha com joias fica muito desproporcional.

[Frew]

The differences in resin you’re seeing are quite a bit more significant than we’d expect. Are you able to upload your .form file or a picture of your part? That would be a big help in working to identify what’s accounting for such a significant difference.

[bristlebane]

Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately the files I printed are under NDA and I cannot share them. I can say there were 10 small components, ranging from 3cm³ at the largest, down to 1cm³. Because they parts are delicate I had them on their own individual base islands for ease of removal from supports. Here are some photos comparing an old base vs the new, new base on the right. Judging from the comparative thickness between to my old prints and the new ones, it looks like the resin went into the new higher walls around the base.