Hi folks.
Maybe the time should be Time Very Estimation!
I’ve not had this printer long (Form 2) but everything I’ve put through so far has been at least 25%-50% longer than the ‘Time Remaining’ on the printer.
Does the Form 2 work in some kind of time dilation within the orange box?
But seriously, is there any way to make this indication more reliable?
Many thanks.
Add 25 to 50% to the time and it will be more accurate(at least 25% more). Nothing to do about it.
You could try contacting support and see if there is something with your machine
As of PreForm 2.20, the print-time estimates should be much closer. https://support.formlabs.com/s/article/PreForm-Release-Notes?language=en_US#2-20-0
Haha!. Perfect. 
Good to know, thank you.
I’ve noticed that the time guesstimates get worse with newer versions of Preform for my Form2.
By worse you mean less-accurate or longer? If you mean less accurate, I would love to see an example form file so we can get to the bottom of it.
Ben:
By worse, I mean longer than Preform’s original printing estimate. In the past I always added 30-minutes to the estimate to account for tank heating, etc. Now it seems to be on the order of 60-minutes I need to add to the estimate. I’ve included the last item I printed (prior to latest firmware and Preform releases), a screen shot of the dashboard, and Preform’s (release 3.x) estimate.Fan-LED-Holder-01.form (778.5 KB)
Same deal here. Prints ALWAYS take quite a bit longer than what is estimated in preform. Just ran a job last night that estimates at 7 hours, 45 minutes, Actual time, 9 hours 18 minutes… I’d attach it, but its larger than the forum will allow. I’ll gladly send it to whoever would want to look at it, nothing in it is proprietary.
This problem existed in Preform 2.20 and looks to still be an issue in 3.0, which is what I used for the last print. The mini rafts are nice. 
We’ll investigate. Thanks.
In the upcoming Preform 3.0.2 release, we’ve made some improvements in print time estimation.
We’re looking forward to hearing back from you all about the accuracy of Preform’s estimates in the new release.
I have not done a study yet, but print times are always much longer than the estimate. Even when excluding heat/fill time. I will get more concrete numbers in the future. Frustrating.
Hi Mark,
What version of Preform are you using? Have you tried the latest one available? You should see some improved accuracy in the print time estimation. Regardless, any data that you’ve measure about specific times with specific models would be very helpful - especially if you can share the .form file for the print so we can analyze it in depth.
I am using the latest version. I will get more concrete data in the future.
Just ran another print. Tried to upload but the .form file is too large which is surprising because it is a very simple print. And denied uploading a .zip file.
Used Draft with 0.75 support density & 0.7 mm support point size. Yes to internal, no to raft label, full raft. Estimated time was 55 minutes. I started timing after the 4:43 minutes of fill & heat. Actual time was 73 minutes. So off by 33%.
I checked the Remaining Time time every 10 minutes and compared that to what it should have been based on the 55 minute estimation. See the attached graph.
A colleague said he adds 20 to 25 minutes to the estimated print time, I was close to that (18 minutes). But from the graph you can see the divergence was increasing. Estimated versus Actual Print Time.pdf (83.3 KB)
might be only effective printing time is calculated, and not sweeping time which would rise accordingly to distance swiper arm has to travel with each swipe?
I’ve been keeping a log of prints, with timings, over the last couple of months, and using Preform 3.0.3 I’ve found that the difference between the timing prediction in Preform and the actual time taken has varied from 0-18%, with some prints taking less time than the prediction. There are three things to note here:
I’m almost done with another print. Black at 0.05 mm resolution with 0.8 support density & 0…6 mm support point size. Yest to internal, no to raft label, full raft. Estimated print time was 8:13. Looks like it will finish about 20 minutes early! Go figure.
billb I think you are correct about the almost empty cartridge. When the resin is low it appears the printer does a lot of Sensing Resin which can take up to a couple of minutes each time (at least the few times I witnessed it).
Hi, We just purchased a form3 2 weeks ago. The version of Preform app is 3.1.2 which I believe the latest one.
The Preform app does not even show the time estimation. There is an option under the edit as “calculate print time”. When I click on it, seems like it is calculating the time but eventually nothing shows up where saying print time. I only see how long after I upload the part to the machine. The problem about that is I would like to see if re-positioning of the part would reduce the print time etc… before I upload the part to the machine.
Any advice on this?
Thank you.
