easing updated exports to 3d print slicers

kyle_altendorf

When you have a single part to export to a 3d printing slicer their support for reloading and reapplying the manufacturing details you have added in the slicer can be useful. But, even with just one part many things are lost. You must repaint seem locations, support allow/block, etc. When you have multiple plates with multiple parts each, it doesn't seem to be reliable in my experience so far (with BambuStudio). Parts don't even stay in the right places within a multi-part step file reload.

So, I'm interested in learning how to make it simpler to export an updated project from OnShape and load it into the slicer with minimal manual reapplication of the manufacturing details. Seems, support locations, brims, etc. I am a coder by trade so if the only solution is some use of lib3mf, so be it. If there are things OnShape can already do to help out, even better. I'm hoping someone else here has some familiarity with this workflow and can educate me on where the boundaries must exist.

I already have an assembly of print plates that I use to export my parts from a project. I have a part representing the print bed and assemble as many as I need. I then assemble my actual parts onto those build plates. Apply patterns for repeated parts, etc etc. I'm not needing any more auto-layout at this point. I then select the parts from a plate in the OnShape assembly, export, and import back into the slicer.

For brims, I wrote up a featurescript and while I am able to generate and control the geometry (at least at a preliminary level) I am concerned I won't be able to overcome the limitations around not knowing exactly what the slicer is going to do for the first layer of the model so as to get a very small and controlled gap relative to it. I have at times used parts to control volumes for support blocking or making a portion of the part solid inside. This is useful but given the uncertainty of reloading from disk, I would expect to often still have to reconvert those volumes to not-printable in the slicer and apply the modifiers I want for them.

Looking down the lib3mf path, I would imagine having to add some data to properties on the parts and hoping that would make it out in some exported format. Code using lib3mf could then load the exported model, find those properties, and hopefully create the 3mf data they request.

Of course, if OnShape just added a slicer themselves... :]

Thanks for your interest.

Cheers,
-kyle

jelte_steur814

I'm not a coder (except for Featurescript), but have pondered ways of enabling faster iterations from Onshape to Slicer (Prusa in my case).

on Printables.com they now have the button shown below:
I'd love to have that as a tab in onshape. I'm guessing it might enable a 'reload from disk' as an 'update' workflow where previously recognized faces etc would be remembered, so paint-on seems etc would have a chance of remaining.

I do think that if a face changes identity, you'll always have to re-paint. and in your case, where the instancing is done in onshape, rather than the slicer, you'd have to do that for each instance.
So instancing in the slicer may still be a better option to go for.