Thursday, November 3, 2011

Ideas for Skeinforge - Multiple Zones

There's work being done for multiple materials, which is really quite interesting... here's an extension and/or generalization of that thought:

what's being done:
  volumes get tagged in OBJ file, or use multiple STL files to define separate regions... tagging in OBJ is better because you can have arbitrary tags, e.g. color per object, color per vertex, etc...

  tags that match settings in Skeinforge would override the SF value.  e.g. a tag: infill_30 would be 30% infill.  if infill was absent, don't do infil.

  alternatively it might be simpler to have multiple profiles, however, the reason that's a bad idea, is because SOME settings should be accessible as adjustments to SF settings, but some are material-stock specific.  e.g. infill is an preference variable, a situation variable.  I might want multiple infill% on the same model, e.g. on a big flat boxy area, I can handle a 20% infill, but on a vertical tower, I might want it at 80%... or maybe on that vertical tower I want NO SPARSE layers?.... that should all be my choice... and those things should be definable within the OBJ.

  Another region could be support.  maybe I want support material under a specific bridge, but don't want it anywhere else.  why not just make regions that are filled with no perimeter, and only support material? Would be just better if an object can be designated as support material (in which case each layer from ground up could be essentially like a shadow of all the layers above it not looking at the other regions, only the region designated as support.   setting: region=support only, has support, no support.

ok that's a few thoughts, but the main pleading here is, to anyone developing multiple region capabilities, make sure to keep it generalized.  we are moving toward a need for more control over the entirety of the model, like variable infill% etc.

thanks for listening.

2 comments:

  1. Reprap host handles this by using multiple logical extruders mapped to a single physical extruder. Each extruder has its own equivalent of skeinforge settings, and you load multiple STLs for supports and for "zones" of a print, and select which logical extruder to use for each. At least, that's how it worked the last time I used it (over a year ago).

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    Replies
    1. cool then! :) would be better if it was all self contained, I think...rather than separate files (using labels instead of files) but... hey, support for zones, is better than no support at all!

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