| Lithophane Print Settings
Once printed you can experiment with different backlights, for the Blaze look we use a bright warm LED lamp(normally 2500-2700k), the contrast can also be improved if you have a secondary white/cool LED. Checkout out our guide on colour temperatures here. How the end result looks all depends on the plastic you use and the type of backlight. Recommended Print Settings: A brim is also vital as it helps hold the lithophane in place (15-18 brim outlines should be enough). In S3D there’s an option for multiple brim layers(it’s actually called “Skirt layers”), setting this to 2 gives you a strong brim that peels off easily when the print is complete. Cura Print Speeds:- Infill Speed: 45mm/s These speeds are just a guideline, your printer speeds may be slightly different. Simplify3D Print Speeds:- Default Printing Speed: 45mm/s These speeds are just a guideline, your printer speeds may be slightly different. Optional settings if possible on your Printer/Slicer. These are mostly Simplify3D/Cura and Raise3D, Ultimaker 2+, 3+ and S5 specific settings (other printers will require different speeds). In S3D use the “Starting Script” section in “Scripts” to add the required acceleration and jerk values, in Cura make sure the Acceleration and Jerk Control settings are enabled(see below pics). A note on slicing in Simplify3D:It’s easiest to slice our lithophanes in Cura(or Slic3rPE) as there’s an extra step in Simplify3D due to the way the lithophanes are created(this by design to allow additional editing/printing options for more advanced users). If you want to use Simplify3D you just need to do the following: The added bonus of doing this is you can re-crop the lithophane into the frame if you wish, or easily resize or remove the frame altogether. You can also print the frame in one material/colour and the lithophane in another using this method(if your printer supports dual extruders). If you don’t do the above in S3D there may be a tiny gap between the frame and the lithophane when you actually slice the model. If you have problems slicing/printing or just want a known good lithophane slicer profile, we have some below for download. Cura 4.0+ ProfilesSimplify3D ProfilesYou may need to adjust some or all of the above settings to match your own printer/setup, but they’re an excellent starting point. *1% might not seem like much, but it can really change the behaviour of your slicing engine(Cura, S3D etc). It’s really only useful when printing the lithophanes that have frames as part of the 3D model. The wall settings we recommend cover the lithophane itself and it’s rare that there’s any actual infill in those, it’s all just walls/shells. But the frames can be big and take up a lot of print time. Changing the infill to 99% can save you an hour or more over the length of a 16-17 hour print(not always, but quite often). This is in Cura mostly, although we’ve seen similar results in Simplify3D and Slic3r PE. |
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