Q: Does anybody know why it´s not possible to have the prints “untilted” when printing? In a lot of cases this would for sure generate less support structure. A straight tube f.ex standing on one end wouldn´t need any support at all I guess…
Orienting your part with no tilt is easy, just use the XYZ rotation boxes instead of auto orientation. Tip: you can use your mouse scroll wheel while hovering over the separate X,Y,Z values to speed things up a bit.
Depending on the origin of the model you will likely just have to ±90º until you get the orientation you are looking for.
As far as printing directly on the platform, I’m sure someone else will chime in. I know members of the forum print this way and FL prints most if not all of their sample prints directly on the platform. Personally I haven’t bothered (or haven’t had a reason to). Hope this helps.
Should have attended the webinar yesterday. I wondered the same thing myself and had several print failures trying to reduce skew to lessen supports and part height to save resin and time in printing. During the webinar it was clearly explained that the peel process that shifts the tank causes the cured resin to “break” away from the plastic tank and stick to the part. The more surface that contacts the tank, the more resistance to release thus sometimes breaking the supports and leaving the layer of cured resin stuck to the tank. Makes for a messy clean up and lots of lost resin. I also tried reducing the number of supports which reduced resin use and there were no red areas on the print geometry but I did not realize the importance of having enough supports for the peel to work properly. I have resigned myself to using the preform analyzed orientation unless there is a special reason to change it. I also allow the density of supports to remain at the defaults and have had much better printing success. Another good tip from the webinar was editing support locations. I noticed that Preform was placing supports on edges or critical areas of geometry. Using the support edit tool you can quickly move the points of contact to flat areas or areas away from critical geometry without causing red areas. Should red areas appear you can go back into editing and simply add a support or two in the red area and it generally makes for the happy and complete print job. Keep in mind that direct printing on the platform will cause your Z axis dimensions to be incorrect due to the compression the Form2 does in the building of the base to get good adhesion to the platform. The X and Y are unaffected but they state the Z can be compressed bby as much as 25%. Depends on the part and how critical dimensions are to you.
Is the recording posted anywhere yet? I didn’t have time yesterday but I might this weekend! Shame on me for not registering to get access to the recording.
Thanks! I hope this will be possible in the future. I´ve used several other 3D printers/methods in the past and I´ve never come across any that prevents printing models standing in their “natural” position. Heads up to FormLabs if they want to be competitive in the future. 
I believe the form is unique because of its inverted workspace. I have printed items without supports and had mixed results. Easiest way is go into orientation in Preform, select the “select base” option and click on the surface of the part you want attached to the platform. It does work and I have used it, but because of occasional failures I would rather spend a little more time and resin making a usable part than making mistakes that result in more resin and time lost than just doing it the way it is designed to work. I too have worked with other printers and all of them have their strengths and weaknesses, but the form makes a really nice, smooth, accurate part, which for my work, are the most important criteria. I do not know if the webinar is available to download, maybe tech support can tell you where to find it.
Hi folks - you can view the webinar recording here:
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