Hi All,
Jay here and I thought I'd get things started here in the 3D Printing chat. I hope this will become a helpful resource for everybody and make the journey to beautiful terrain layouts a much more stress-free one!
As you hopefully are all aware, our digital file terrain packs include a 3D Printing Guide which provides some hints and tips for hassle-free printing of TST. However, inevitably there will be issues for some of you because, well - that's 3D printing. It often has us pulling our hair out because try as we might, our prints aren't working out for what could be a huge number of reasons.
As of time of writing, about 75% of our recent digital file Kickstarter backers have downloaded their files and it seems most of you have hit the ground running printing our terrain without issue. However, there have been a handful of people reach out to us with issues and we have been happy to try and help. I just thought it might be timely to remind everyone of the following as these seem to be some common issues/questions that continue to pop up;
- We recommend Cura version 4.8! We can wholeheartedly vouch for this particular version of Cura, it continues to produce excellent results on our workhorse Creality Ender 3s and CR-6 SEs using the generic 'Standard' print profile of a .2mm layer height. There should be no need to play with any of the settings found within this profile apart from perhaps changing the nozzle and/or bed temperature to suit your printer, and maybe opting for a skirt or brim depending on which you like to use.
- You DO NOT need supports to print our terrain. We understand that some of you took one look at our hexes and thought we'd gone mad by suggesting you print them without supports, but trust us, your printer can bridge the OpenLOCK gaps perfectly fine! If you're finding your printer won't bridge this span, it may have something to do with your print speed (see point 1 above - the default 'standard' Cura 4.8 profile should rectify any issues). Also just remember that if you mistakenly have supports enabled, you're going to have a nightmare trying to remove the PLA from within the OpenLOCK channels. We've had a few users that are new to 3D printing who reported this issue, so just a reminder for the fresher faces to the hobby out there.
- Print a temperature tower! Dialling in your printer to the optimum temperature will do wonders for the quality of prints you can achieve. You can download one here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2493504
That's all for now, we'll add more in this chat as it comes to mind. I encourage others to share their findings, hints and tips and equally, if you're running into issues, post about it here so that Jeff and I, or one of the many experienced printers that we're fortunate enough to have had back our project, can try and help. All I ask is that you take the time to list your printer, PLA, slicer/settings and photos/as much info about the problem as possible.
May your bed remain level and your nozzle go unclogged!
Jay
Was a file ever emailed out or was the file in the zip ever updated/replaced? About to print this for the first time and noticed the same concerning arch. (I recently purchased and DL'd the zip in the past month)