I have three feature requests for Preform, and one for the Form2 printer:
File names - A way to view file names of each part in Preform. If you drag and drop a folder full of stl files into Preform, each having one design change, sometimes it’s hard to know which part is which. This would also be useful if different quantities of parts are needed, for example part 1 needs qty 4 and part 2 needs qty 6. This would especially be useful when a different designer in the company sends me a set of parts that I am unfamiliar with.
Linear layout pattern option - when creating multiple copies of parts with the layout tool, with smaller parts in particular, it’d be nice to have a linear pattern option to space parts a set distance apart. Currently when creating multiple copies of a part, they look like they were peppered in the print space by a shotgun. Adding this annoyance with the lack of file names or being able to tell a part apart, it makes it hard to keep the parts organized.
Edit: I’ve added a few screen shots here to clarify.
When making multiples in the layout tool, 5 parts are randomly thrown around on a grid pattern - What I get:
After dragging the parts to a better layout, nice line of parts - What I want:
Part interference detection - if the platform is stuffed full with parts, sometimes it’s hard to tell if two parts are interfering. Worse, if the parts are laid out by visually inspecting that none are interfering, adding supports can sometime cause interference. I’ve had this happen a few times, where the parts were not interfering, but after supports were added, a support would go through a different part and connect to it’s intended part.
I made a screen shot of a layout I did with an interfering support. This is what I’d consider a stuffed platform. I spent some time tetris-ing the parts in there, making sure they didn’t interfere with each other. But then after adding supports, one was going through a part that I didn’t see until after I had printed the parts - see the red arrow.
Auto-sleep mode for the Form2 printer - If there isn’t an active job, have the printer/screen go to sleep after a user defined interval.