Hello there,
I’m trying to print the eiffeltower model part 2. After a failed print without using supports I though i’d print it with supports. However, when I generate the supports, and calculate printtime, I get the following error:
“Print Estimate failed - Could not unify polygons”
I thought… ‘too bad’… I’ll just print without calculating the printtime. Unfortunatly that doesn’t work either and I get the next error:
“Print aborted - Error while printing: Error while outlining models”
What am I doing wrong?
It seems many of you have printed the eiffeltower already… So it should work…
I could be wrong, but I think formlabs recommends printing that section almost vertical - I orientated at about 7 degrees from vertical and just created manual supports on the flat base and it printed fine. Not sure what’s going on with the error message though.
Pretty much the whole tower turns red then… Doesn’t matter if I slant it a little…
Strange enough, it can calculate the printtime then…
This is how mine looks:
No red, but I guess that’s because I’m not using preform supports.
Thanks, I guess I’ll give it that a try then…
This is what happend to my last one; without supports:
It was, however, half the size of the orginal!
This may seem counter - intuitive, but if you stand the object up on its narrow top (that is a vertical build, but the narrow top of the tower is on the build platform – then the supports can go outside of the tower tip to support some of the mid sections (they are getting wider), giving more support than only supporting the wide base. You still have a vertical build and better supports. I’ve never tried this print but I did have other tapered prints, and this sometimes works.
It seemed like a great idea Linda, However, I get the unifying polygons error again… It seems that it’s not allowed to print this part unless it has either no supports or is standing up straight… I just don’t know why that is…
We, of course, have printed this piece many times — and it actually can be printed straight up-and-down. It’s self-supporting after all. Nice design, Mr. Eiffel!
But @Alex_Vermeer, you’re right, you’re seeing another issue. Could you share the specific model w/ us, as well as the details of your system? Apologies if you’ve already done so.
Perhaps it was the rescaling part that screwed up the print then, @Sam_Jacoby. Maybe the smallest parts weren’t up to the strength of the peeling process.
I used this model from Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24068/#files
Using the 2 parts, not the full model!
I’ve got a Form1+, latest Prefrom software, running on Windows 8. (in case you need more, details, let me know :).
I’m printing the bottom part (full scale, without supports) as we speak and 1/4th through the print and looking fine. The only downside I find, printing without supports is taking it of the build platform with the spatula. Almost always damaging the base of the tower a little. Perhaps I’m doing something wrong, but thats why I prefer printing with supports…
Hopefully this information is usefull and you can point me in the right direction!
Thanks
Best regards,
Alex
EDIT:
actually it seems the bottom part is giving problems. One of the towers feet isn’t properly sticking to the build platform, but it doesn’t seem to be a big problem concerning the rest of the printing.
Unforunatly I spoke too soon!
It seems the self supporting part Mr. Eiffel designed only works when it’s standing on it’s 4 feet, gravity pulling towards it. Not the other way around :P.
I stopped the print, as this was what I saw:
