Hello, I hope this wasn’t covered already but my issue is I get lines in my printed parts. I’m not certain if my .STL file generated by Solidworks is to blame or it is a printer setting. Any feedback on the issue would be appreciated.
What you’re seeing is normal—layer lines are a result of the 3D printing process since parts are printed layer by layer. They tend to be more visible at the top of the print where the angle is shallower, kind of like the “slices” in a topographical map.
There are a couple of ways you can reduce the visibility of these lines, you can try using a smaller layer height in PreForm, which will give you finer layers, but will take longer to print. Another option is to re-orient the part. The more vertical a face is (closer to 90 degrees from the build platform), the less visible the layers will be. Surfaces that are closer to being parallel with the platform will show more layers.
You can check out this PreForm guide on part orientation for more tips on how to get the best surface quality.
That is NOT normal of SLA unless the model has those lines in it or the pritner’s layer thickness is set too high.
If you look at the images from your company you’ll see that they are only slightly noticeable when zoomed in. customer_v2
I would agree this is not normal considering my layer thickness is set to .1mm and these lines are spaced ~1mm. Also, these lines are not a part of the model.
Any other suggestions out there? Perhaps the way I am generating my .stl?
You can check if your export to STL has these lines by bringing it into another 3D program like Blender etc., but you should see those kind of lines even in PreForm.
The images you linked actually do show the same stair-stepping effect, but it’s more subtle because the surfaces in the pictures were printed nearly vertically. If you look closely at the top of the curves in the 100 microns image, you’ll notice the same effect happening there, just at a smaller scale.
In @ecraftsmen1’s case, the effect looks more pronounced because the entire plane is flat and oriented in a way that makes the layers more visible. The layer thickness is set to 0.1mm, but the only time the surface will appear as 0.1mm is if it is completely vertical. This stair-stepping is normal when a surface is printed at a shallow angle. By re-orienting the model so that the plane is more vertical, the issue can be minimized significantly. Please excuse the crude drawing, but each green bar is the same vertical height and represents a layer printed. On the left, that bottom/top surface is similar to what @ecraftsmen1 is seeing with his part. If it was oriented more vertically, that stepping effect is less visible. 45 degrees is a good balance so the other perpendicular surfaces don’t start seeing the same effect. This concept is not exclusive to SLA printing. If you use some FDM slicers like Bambu Slicer or PrusaSlicer, the visualization tab will allow you to simulate the same effect.
Does that make more sense? Let us know if you have any other questions or need further advice on part orientation.