Hi guys.
We do a lot of repeated print jobs at my work - printing the same parts in the same layout, often filling the entire print area. This creates the problem of quickly wearing “hot spots” into the resin tank where things like the base and support structure cloud the tank in the areas they are located. If there was a quick way to rotated the entire print job 90 degrees each time we reprint the job, it would reduce the “hot spots” and improve our tank life. This would be great to be able to do on the printer itself (not preform) as it would save us making/uploading a new print file each time.
Currently in PreForm if you try to rotate all the parts in a print job, it just rotates each part individually on the spot - not helpful at all.
Cheers
Go back to your modeler- create a single STL with all the parts in their print orientations in a single model.
Just define a volume in the modeling space that matches the volume of the Form2 so you can automatically arrange arrays of copies of parts- prior to import in preform.
Once you import that into preform it should treat the whole assemblage as a single model and rotate them all in unison. You might have to edit the supports- but you only have to do this once if you save the file as a preform file. Rotate the model grouping 90 degrees and save it again labled as a 90 deg rotation. then rotate it another 90 and save it as 180 deg. etc.
This might make the support raft into a single piece that may be problematic… in which case you can still just hand rotate each individual model- and then save the file separately as a labeled orientation.
you can then open each one as needed to send it to the printer. Once you have sent all 4 versions to the printer, they should remain in the queue and you can thenceforth simply select the orientation you want each time from the printer’s memory.
The Form 2 does not see models. It sees the print code formatted and exported by Preform, ergo it is not likely to have the capacity to effect translations, or rotations on the printer itself.
I’ve thought about this. I might have to try it that way.
The current print job I have for example has 78 parts. With that many parts it’s a lot easier to let PreForm work out the best layout etc. I worry that as one STL it won’t generate support well with that many parts and editing support will be too time consuming and not repeatable for parts that are the same.
you can import ONE part… orient it and generate supports. Edit the supports.
Save the file labeled orientation zero.
then Rotate the model 90 deg… and save that as orientation 90-
do it again for the additional 2 orientations.
THEN open each of the files and use the duplicate command and it will copy the entire thing, edited supports and all. Fine tune the position of the second copy, and select both copies and duplicate- it will place two more copies the same distance apart and matching orientations.
refine their positions if needed to form a line across one side of the print bed… select all and duplicate-
in this way- you can very quickly end up with a whole row of parts- then duplicate the whole row into two rows, then both rows into 4 all the way across the bed.
Do this to all four initially oriented parts- its a little time consuming, but its just something you do once- becasue you save each collection of parts as a separate file- and after sending each to print- they should all be in the printer’s memory- pre-sliced and ready to go… the only reason to reopen the preform files and resend to the printer would be to nuance orientation, or change the resin parameters.
That’s petty much the method I’m using currently. Being able to rotate the whole print job isn’t a big ask though and it would save a lot of time and hassle. This work-around does the job, but that shouldn’t mean it’s good enough for formlabs to not implement a 90 degree rotate feature in the future.