So last night I was loving the manual supports. They worked like a charm. Then another update and tonight they suck. Very frustrating.
Here whats going on. Last night I could add a support and it went right where it previewed and the touch point preview was the size it was supposed to be. Tonight it previews large and then when you click to add it, it like to relocate itself but at the correct size - but this tend to mean the touchpoint isn’t making contact. Also, rather than cast a support straight down from the bottom of the touchpoint like last night, tonight its wasn’t to get all fancy and divert to the next highest point of the model. This means that rather than getting a post directly below the touchpoint the supports want to build off of a detail I don’t want it to build off off. And in addition to that it often previews a touchpoint, but then when you click top place, it instead add a large cylinder with no touch point and a huge point of detail obliterating contact/intersection. Whats going on with this thing. You had it and then you changed it for the worse.
One last note: while I appreciate the manual edit mode hiding the object you are not currently editing, the wild camera swing is unnecessary and very frustrating. A user is usually browsing, rotating and slice scrubbing looking for problem spot that need additional support. When they find such a spot going into support edit mode shouldn’t change the view because now you have to recenter and find the problem area all over again.
Thanks.
PS. still waiting on being able to import a .form file into the current project.
I am so stoked about manual supports, what a major major improvement!!!
I also totally agree with Billy that I’ll be looking all over then come across an area that needs a support then click to ad and boom the camera flies around and I have to start my search from scratch. I don’t know why it was set to do that but I definitely would also prefer that it not!
Thanks for letting us know, we’re looking into your issues now. We’re working hard to improve support generation and real world feedback is extremely valuable to us.
P.S. You can expect importing a .form file into the current project in the next release.
Awesome news, Shane. The must admit the Preform software is pretty slick. Once these few additional features and settings get dialed in, you guys will have a real winner.
Reading this reminds me… The pop-out-in-out-in thing for the view angles is very annoying, can the controls be placed on a tab so one it is pulled out they stay until pushed back in?
So the .form merge is GREAT!!! exactly what preform needed. Thank you.
However I am still having issues with the new support editing;
1.The preview touchpoint is needs to use the current touch point size.
The added touch points need to recognize when they are intersecting existing support material and use it, rather than sending a huge cross tower of support material.
Occasionally I get a wonderfully convenient double-ended touch point as an internal support when manually placing, however most of the time I get a cylindrical post, with no touch points that casts straight down. Not only are these posts not help full most of the time, they often shoot down through features of my model - ie. not respecting the volume of my intended print.
Speaking of those handy double ended touch points, when placing internal support manually it would be great if after clicking the upper touch point, I could (perhaps hold shift while doing it and selecting the bottom point as well. Right now, I have no control over where the software chooses to place the lower touch point, if I can even get it to choose one (see cylinder problem above).
I am also still getting many touch points in the pre-gen that aren’t actually making contact, or not making good contact. This is primarily and issue with the smallest touch point setting. Right now I am having to delete these and manually replace them. This then causes excess support post material (see #2 above)
After pre-gen of support for some part I am getting the red shading indicating insufficient support on areas of the model that have all the support. Meanwhile I will have a remaining portion of the model hanging out in space, with no generated supports, and no red indication showing lack of support. (is this indication torsional stress on the touchpoint because of the unsupported side of the model?) Right now I manually place supports on the unsupported side and the red indications go away on the supported side.
Still would love it if the wild camera swings between the support editing mode and the normal setting mode would NOT happen.
When generating duplicates of supported parts, often the duplicates will have the triangular gap that assists with build platform removal, when the parent part does not. Right now I delete the original and place a duplicate of one of the duplicates.
I think there are a few other issues that I’m forgetting, but this list should keep you guys busy for a while. Let me know if you need screen caps of the post issue.
This is a great list, Billy — and we’re keeping an eye on the latest software requests. I can’t give you a specific timeline of when these issues may be resolved, but thanks for keeping us on our toes.
With some of the bugs that you’re reporting, it’d be useful to have some screenshots to look at as a reference as well. At any rate, keep them coming!