First print
Filling the bed
Since we prefer not to have too much leftover powder, please orient your parts to reduce the height and add other parts like panthers to fill in the extra space. Talk to a staff member if you have any questions.
Slicing your file
Open up your Preform slicer which should already be downloaded from having used the Form 3 printers
On the right hand side, click on the printer option
Select the printer drop down and scroll all the way to the bottom and select Virtual Printer Fuse 1
If a message about incompatible material settings pops up, select Use Nylon 12 V1
There are only two types of materials compatible with this printer, Nylon 11 and Nylon 12. We currently only have Nylon 12. Ensure that it is selected and hit Apply.
Insert STL files using File>Open or dragging and dropping
I am using the FSE panther model
I want to orient and duplicate this model so that I can fill one layer with panthers to the minimum height
With preform, you can follow the tabs on the right (notice it is less than the resin printers)
One-Click Print - I rarely use this option
Size - if you want to scale or know the dimensions of your part
Orientation - unless I have a required orientation that I want this to be in, I will come back to this
Layout - I will try this one first to see what nesting the computer can achieve and then move the models around if I don’t like it
If you want to lock your orientation, you can select it on the check box
I don’t know exactly how many panthers will fit in one layer so I will make a duplicate count of 5 and hit Create
Now I will select all of them (because the first one is unselected) by typing Ctrl+A or by clicking and dragging
Then I will click Pack Selected Models
To me it looks like they could be packed better but I don’t think all 6 can fit on one layer so I will delete two and click Pack Selected Models again
This looks better but I think I can fit one more in so I will add one more by selecting only one panther and changing Duplicate Count to 1 and clicking Create
Now I will manually move and orient the last panther using the arrows and using the orientation box to turn it 90 deg
Tip: you can use the right mouse button to rotate the view or the arrows on the side to get perfectly perpendicular views
We can see on the right that this will take 5h 15min to print and 5h to cool before the parts can be removed.
Once the print job is ready, put the file on a flashdrive and open it on a computer in the makerspace to send to the printer.