Short guide to printing objects using 3D printers

Three-dimensional printing (3D printing) is the process of printing an object as it was designed with a 3D software, usually requires a previous slicing with a 3D printer software, this facilitate the printing of the object step by step. Many 3D printers use a solid resin filament is used as "ink" a header heat the filament and then printing use it to print the designed objecets. The 3D printer machines that this book works with are ade by Two Manufacturers: 1.- Ultimaker their models are: Ultimaker Original and Ultimaker Original+, Ultimaker 2, Ultimaker 2 to go, Ultimaker 2 extended, Ultimaker 2 extended +, Ultimaker 2+ Connect, Ultimaker S3. Ultimaker 3 series, Ultimaker 3 extended, Ultimaker S5, etc. 2.- Prusa Prusa filament printers: Original Prusa MINI+ Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ Original Prusa MK4 – newer flagship FDM printer, faster and more precise than MK3 series Original Prusa XL – large-format printer, can use multiple toolheads (multi-material printing) Prusa Resin (SLA/MSLA) printers Prusa Research lineup are MINI+ for beginners, MK series for reliable everyday printing, XL for large or multi-material professional builds, and SL1S SPEED for high-detail resin printing. This guide may be useful when printing objects from other manufactures such the models produced by Aleph Objects, Airwold 3D, AIO Robotics, 3D Maker, Sindoh, Voxeljet, Mcor, Materialise NV, Fusion3, FormLabs, EnvisionTEC, Creality, Carbon 3D, among others. 3D printers 3D printers follow instructions on a file that gives it the steps to print segment by segment an object until its completion. They use a solid material, usually a solid resin at room temperature, the filament is loaded into the printer header which heat the resin, liquifying it, the segments are printed and in a semiliquid segments added one at a time to the plate, the segments are the building blocks of the object, they are fused due effects of the gravity force while at the time they solidify when reach room temperature, at the time that the complete object is printed. The company Made In Space is developing 3D printers to be used in microgravity for 3D printing in planets with lower gravity or during interplanetary travel. 3D printing files can be stored in USB drives and then inserted in the printers USB slots. Newer printer versions can also work with files stored in computers or also use Bluetooth, wife and cloud services to access these files. User interface 3D printers can be used and controlled with a touch screen frontal panel and also with a traditional frontal LCD panel and a dial to select the printer options and the files stored in a USB drive. Other 3D printers can be controlled with a computer connected to them. They use an internal software to operate, most of the time the user interaction with the printers is to select the file to print and press start to begin the printer. Newer 3D printer versions recognize what was the last file added to the usb drive, the older version allow to select the file with a dial located in the front of the printer while reading the files also in the screen located in the front of the printer. The material used to create objects may vary, the current most use material is Polylactic acid (PLA), but other materials are also used. 3D printers liquify and then print the object while is solidified when returned to room temperature. 3D printers most used format is .stl, but they also work with the following formats: OBJ, X3D, 3MF, 3DS, OBJ, AMF, STEP, COLLADA, PLY, FBX, 3MF, IGES, among others. Materials One of the most common material used with 3D printers are resins of Polylactic acid (PLA) they come in a spool that is placed in one of the spoon holders of 3D printers to be used as a printer material. 3D printers may also work with the following materials: Polypropylene (PP) Polyvinyl acetate (PVA) Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) Polylactic acid (PLA) Tough PLA,[29] Copolyester (CPE) Nylon Polycarbonate (PC) Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU 95A) Breakaway Thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) Metals, Ceramics. Luminous PLA also can be used in some 3D printers, these are materials that absorb light energy and glow in the dark while release the absorbed energy. Many Ultimaker printers are not capable to print Luminous PLA. Other options Many 3D printer machines allow the use of more than one filament and colors, these options can be selected in Cura, the software will instruct the printer how to use the filaments. 3D printer use Use of Ultimaker 3D Printers In this guide you will learn the steps to use ULC cutting machines, the guide is accessible in the following page: Short guide to printing objects using 3D printers/Use of Ultimaker 3D Printers Software Cura (free software) Since 1970 many 3D printer manufacturers designed their own software, but their software was not designed to operate in other 3D printer machines. In 2012 David Braam created the first 3D printing free software, Cura. This software allow the slicing of 3D objects and add the instructions that the 3D printers require in order to print a complete object using small slices or segments that are fused into a complete object. It also allows make modifications in the object and also allows changes of the 3d printing process such are speed, temperature, among others. The company Ultimaker continued the developing of Cura since 2015, renaming it as Ultimaker Cura. The main function of 3d printing software is slicing the 3D object, this will allow to create each section of the object at once in an stablished order, the format used is .slt, the files generated can range from 10 MB to 1 GB. .SLT files can be saved into the USB drive. Once the .slt file is generated it can be printed in a 3D printer with just a file saved into a USB drive. The software also indicates the time required to printer a file with the model of printer selected. Other adjustments Other adjustments that can be done with 3D printing software are speed, size of the object, temperature, etc. The speed selected can affect the quality and the shape of the object printed. Objects that do not have a heavy base may require to add a flat base at the base to avoid that the head of the printer move the object while printing it. Users can modify this selecting printing settings option (it is located below the monitor option and above the model window), there choose the "build plate adhesion" and add an adhesion type, these could be: Skirt, Brim and Raft. When one of the pieces does not touch the surface of the printer place, support can be added, select the option generate support, support placement everywhere, this will increase the printing time a few more minutes, but it will allow the accurate and complete printing of all the segments of the object. Requirements Cura software use less than 1 GB of space and requires less than 500 MB RAM, it can be installed in many operative systems, including Linux, Windows and Mac OS. Creation of 3D objects Cura can be used to create 3D objects, but other software can also be used, among them can be named Blender (also free software), Autodesk 3Ds Max, Siemens NX, SolidWorks among others. They can generate 3D objects and also 3D texts. Use of free 3D object designs Other option for 3D printer users is to print objects designed for other users, they are available in many websites that have a list of 3D objects and the option to download the objects, some designers are benefited by donations given by the user of their objects. Prusa Slicer Is the prusa software to slice 3d models, making them ready to be printed in any of Prusa 3D printers, It can be downladed and installed, used online or used on USB flash drives. Using Artificial Intelligence to Generate 3D Models for 3D Printing Large Language Models (LLM? can be used to generate 3D models, some of them are Gemini and Chatgpt, the steps to do this are the following: 1.- Download and install blender in a PC or in a USB flash drive (portable) 2.- Go to the website of the AI intended to use, or install a LLM on your PC or phone. 3.- Ask the AI to make 3D object in a python script for blender. be specific telling the AI the 3D printer to use and the slicer to use. A Thingiverse address with a similar desired object can be given to the ai as reference. Click in the copy icon generated by the AI (or select and copy the script). 4.- Open blender, click on the scripting menu, this open the the Scripting workspace on the side of the 3D window, click on the +New button, then Paste the script on the script area (right click, paste). Click the Run buttom. 5.- Zoom into the object to see if al the parts are where they supposed to be. Rotate around the object and inside of the object keeping press the optic button of the mouse. If you do not see any error in the object, the work is done. If you see a error, report it back to the AI (AIs currently cannot see into blender window). 6.- AI will make an updated script, run it again. 7.- Once obtained the desired script, run the script with blender, export the object as 3MF, and slice it with the software. 8.- Print the object using the selected 3D printer. See also Short introduction to the use of sewing machines Short introduction to the use of cutting plotter machines Short guide to the use of laser cutting machines External links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_(software) References