Video Tech Tips for 3D Printing Page 1

Many times, when nearing the end of a workday you may find yourself having to stay late to start a new build on your machine. Or you may be working from home and must travel to the office just to send a print job over. If only there was a way to set the machine and have it print immediately once you send a job to it. With Stratasys FDM machines, you can do just that!

Proper printer maintenance is key for the optimal performance and longevity of your 3D printer, so today I want to discuss a quick and easy way to take care of your new Stratasys J55. We’re going to run through the Routine Cleaning Wizard, which should be utilized after each build.

During the product development lifecycle, an industrial designer will create multiple versions of a product in various finishes, textures and colors. Using the new .3MF file format, we can apply a texture in a CAD program, such as SOLIDWORKS, and save the file in a format that retains that texture and can be used for 3D printing.

Have you ever sat and stared at your printer while it hums away making your part and thought to yourself “What if I could print my part at different resolutions based on the level of detail in a certain area of the part?” Well, good news, this is now a reality. If you didn’t think that, then I hope you are asking yourself “why didn’t I think of that?” Now, with the most recent update to GrabCAD Print, select Stratasys FDM machines have the option to utilize a new feature called Adaptive Slice.

In this Video Tech Tip, we go over some easy ways to add strength to your FDM parts in GrabCAD Print. GrabCAD allows users to effectively add strength to certain areas without using excess materials.

So you need threads within your plastic 3D printed part and you are questioning the holding strength of printed or threads, and you should. There are few applications where a 3D printed threaded hole for a piece of conventional hardware will do the trick. It is okay, we don’t need to sugar coat it, 3D printing can do some downright amazing things, but 3D printed threads are not high on the list. How about under sizing the hole and reaming it and tapping a threaded hole? Great question and a great solution in some situations. Depending on how fine the thread pitch is, the end condition of the hole, your available tap sizes and expected pulling force – cut threads might not, well…cut it. Chances are, what you need is a threaded insert.

Working remotely is more common than it used to be. Many companies have implanted this policy throughout a couple of years and designers, engineers and manufacturers are some of the positions that have transitioned into this way of working. In this 3D printing Tech Tip, we go over GrabCAD Workbench and how to use it to coordinate and monitor your printing jobs remotely.

Raw 3D printing material symbolizes infinite possibilities unlocked by the user’s creativity; however, if the raw material is mistreated and improperly handled, that potential vanishes. Making sure to take proper care of raw materials and store them in their intended conditions is the best way to ensure high quality prints. In times of extended shutdowns, or simply long hiatuses between prints, it’s imperative to store material properly.

Stratasys’ PolyJet 3D printing technology can produce some amazingly detailed parts that can mimic a wide range of rigid and flexible materials – even full-color and transparent parts. With some simple post-printing steps it is easy to obtain a stunning high gloss finish on even the matte surfaces of PolyJet parts. In a previous overview, we showed you how to clear coat complex shaped parts to obtain a gloss surface without any sanding or polishing. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create high gloss, even optically clear finishes, on parts the old fashioned way, with some elbow grease.

When creating multiple iterations of a part, it can be helpful to apply a label for identification purposes. Using SOLIDWORKS, we can apply a label to our part with color and finish, then transfer those settings directly to our printer software for 3D printing on our Stratasys PolyJet machine.

When 3D printing, you can sometimes run into issues trying to work with extremely thin features. Most of the time, good design practices can help to fix these issues. Two GrabCAD tools, the Thick and Thin Wall command and the Variable Width Fill command aid in resolving these issues more efficiently, leaving you with a sturdy, high-quality design.
In this video, Application Engineer Ricky Shannon demonstrates just how to utilize these built-in tools on a multi-bodied SOLIDWORKS part using a straight 3D CAD file.

When printing a transparent material using a Stratasys PolyJet 3D printer, any surface where support material touches the model will result in a matte surface that doesn’t transmit light which can stand in contrast with any glossy surfaces. The part can be post-processed to achieve a higher level of light transmission with an even and glossy surface. In this article, we look at a quick and relatively low-effort method for giving a part an even, smooth and transparent finish.