I run the “Slice View” up through any problem areas. Once you start to visualize the layers, the reasons for red areas become readily apparent. If “islands” show up in the slice view, those features will absolutely fail and will make a mess of your part and the tank. The “islands” need to be supported by building supports (ideally Preform can do this, but it doesn’t get them all) or reorienting the part.
If this part fit inside the build envelope, I could lay it down flat (and risk delamination issues during the peel cycle) and then I would only have the fingers in the sidewall to worry about. The second picture shows the first slice through the finger if the part is lying flat. This long thin diving board of freshly cured resin will be too weak to survive the peel process, and will make a mess if we try to build it like it is shown.
Ideally, the software would show “islands” in flashing red with a pop-up approval required before proceeding. Whispy fingers could be orange, and areas that it doesn’t like shown in yellow. I’ve seen surfaces that are really well supported show up in light red, suggesting that there is room to refine the algorithm.
One feature that might be nice would be to show the slice view with the areas supported by the layer below in green, and the portions of a layer that are overhanging by more than a certain amount (dependent upon layer thickness) highlighted in a warning color (yellow or orange) and guaranteed to fail spots highlighted in red.
Just a thought (or two).
Happy printing everybody!
