OK if I had the power to change ONE thing it would be the massive new RAFT size. H A T E IT! If it was not so big I could have put 1 more part in my build last night.
GIVE ME A CHOICE. ADD A MINIMIZE raft option!! Let ME decide if I think I need the raft so big.
I can get my parts off the build table. I don’t need the indents to pop the part off.
If Formlabs is going to force me to make this massive raft every time, have a buy 3 bottles get one free deal. That is how much extra material I am gobbling as WASTE that I throw OUT for this massive raft crap.
I hear you, Bill! It takes some time for requests to filter though — and there are often a number of things afoot in the decisions that we make on the software side, but your thoughts are duly noted!
One consideration—you can actually manually position your models with overlapping bases if you’d like to squeeze another print on (and of course, the parts themselves don’t collide.)
I think his issue wasn’t squeezing the parts inside the build volume, but required resin volume. I.e. if it wasn’t for the huge raft, he could’ve printed another part with the same amount of resin.
Was this a part you previously printed in an older version of PreForm? If so, how much resin did it take then vs. with the new version and the large raft?
The new supports are very efficient with material usage when you compare new vs. old with identical orientation and similar touch point density. If you have a case where new PreForm uses more resin than old PreForm for an identically supported and oriented part, it would be very interesting for us to see it.
To be clear… the previous version of PreForm from about a month ago with the old style supports had the raft less than 1/8" away from the supports. A nice tight circumference to whatever wonky shape the supports form to make my items.
The raft circumference from the supports is now FOUR times as wide, almost 1/2" in a 5 x 5 build space. Math is not what I best but is that 10%?
That massive raft consumes valuable space in the build area and gobbles material that is going to be TRASH! What is there to LIKE about this? NOTHING!
If you like the big raft have at it. You can set the world record.
What do I want? The new style supports with a minimize raft option. I will risk it. If a print fails because I chose the minimize raft option (Which it WON"T because it worked on the previous PreForm version) I will easily take that chance. Part old, part new. Good enough.