Project Logs

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• [T] Auto material calibration

  kelvinA • 02/06/2023 at 15:30 • 0 comments

  https://www.fabbaloo.com/news/say-goodbye-to-tedious-3d-printer-calibration-with-automated-filament-calibration

  This idea could be used for the #SecSavr Suspense [gd0105] and its scanner sensors. It likely would only be for settings that can be detected and corrected by only printing a single layer though, so exposure times might be doable but probably not overhang settings.

• [T] Lego compatible supports

  kelvinA • 07/17/2022 at 00:03 • 0 comments

  This is an idea intended for the #SecSavr Suspense [gd0105].

  Why have a seemingly useless lattice structure of support material for prints when, with a bit of dissolvable material, they can be lego compatible blocks? This will cut down on support that goes into the bin, make it easier to break away the supports around the model and increase lego brick bin quantities on the side or potentially sold on ebay, recouperating some resin costs.

• [A] Splitting enSketchen [gd0096]

  kelvinA • 05/20/2022 at 07:22 • 0 comments

  [Tag A = Announcement]

  https://hackaday.io/project/184196-ensketchen-gd0096/log/206342-a-subproject-for-gd0045-cad-functionality

• [T] Licencing

  kelvinA • 05/18/2022 at 19:30 • 2 comments

  I have just watched 

  and the intial takeaway I had was at time 29:54 where he talked about licencing. He's putting everything under a Creative Commons Attribution license where he asks for his logo to be visible if a company sells it. I've been thinking about licensing pathways for the overall SecSavr project and a big part of it was the potential slicer I'd need to develop. I've got logos of my own and it makes sense to use them, and I also want to follow in MatterControl's footsteps, so that's 2 : 0 for [Permissive licenses] VS GPL v3.

• [R] Voxelizer 3

  kelvinA • 04/17/2022 at 07:17 • 0 comments

  Right, so Voxelizer 2 hasn't seen an experimental build since 2019, but there is a more recent version for a printer specific slicer. Let's say it's... interesting.

  What I liked (+) and disliked (-):

  • [+] The installation was fast. 
  • [-] When I select the printer and then the single nozzle option, it shows the nozzle size but doesn't allow me to change it.  

  • [+] Build platform is a button that allows the user to select a part when there's nothing on it.

  • [-] No window scaling options like Craftware Pro
  • [++] How the UI looks, like the use of the highlight colour for things like the dashed line at the bottom of the window.
    • 
      

  • [+] Cutting planes so that it's easier to cut off parts of the model I don't want printed

  • [++] The look of the topmost layer in the GCODE preview.

  • [-] However, very other line in the GCODE preview is the exact same colour so it all just looks like a blob.
    • This is infill only:

    • I'm assuming it looks "3d pixelated" on the edges because of the fact that this application uses "Voxels". It's most likely just normal lines though.

  • [-] I have no idea why someone would need to thicken every wall of a print file, but the output looks unsettling.

  • [+], [--] There's a GCODE simulation feature, but the simulation looks absolutely grime-erite and unlikely to be what the part would look like when printed.

  • [---] There's seemingly no undo buttons. 
  • [-] Going back to "Scene" removes the imported model.
  • [+++] The white outline of the part on hover, the animated box that displays the files name and the icon focused context menu on right click, with animations.
    • 
      

  • [+] Middle click cycles between the ortholinear views.

  There are also a few more features that I haven't tried yet:

  • Object refinement

    • I tried the pattern one:

      • It looks like Minecraft's Far Lands

• Split installer into separate project

  kelvinA • 04/12/2022 at 15:16 • 0 comments

  #Custom Desktop Installer [gd0104] 

• Quick wireframes

  kelvinA • 04/10/2022 at 16:37 • 0 comments

  These are verily hastily created wireframes in PowerPoint, as I thought that even the bare minimum in image technology would be easier to understand than text from the previous log entry. It still has given me many insights, and I have an unexpectedly significant amount of stuff to say on the matter. Truly no progress is too small to make into a project log entry.

  Desktop / Tablet
  

  So the "menu title" part also has things like "All parts selected" or "3 parts selected" and buttons to change what parts are selected. There probably should be a button next to that to go back one level. The menu_title square doesn't have a visible edge. For defaults, I'm thinking of buttons into settings like "infill" will have a visible edge and settings inside that menu would not, such as infill percentage.

  The background of the bottom pane would also have a dynamic background, somewhat inspired by the Nexus devices and the animated gcode from the old Craftware software. I'd like it if I didn't have to reslice the model just to look at all the different infils available, so for that menu, the background would be based on what selected parts infill setting was. There would also be a button to the right that hid the menu so that the user could see the expected generated infill better. This dynamic background should be user adjustable. For example, a user may want to see the infill background at the very topmost menu screen.

  Obviously, some users may want the menu on the side of the screen and not the bottom. That is the reason I'm not updating to Windows 11 atm. Many users are moving towards ultra-widescreen. The first wireframe is geared towards users that like centered interfaces and the window (notice how I didn't say screen) has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and lower (lower = more square).

  I'm also thinking of the thumb placement for tablet users. I'd like to keep as much of the functionality and clickable UI elements in the lower corners. Thus, being able to overscroll so that the top item is all the way at the bottom is a planned feature.

  Mobile

  I don't want any UI elements too close to the bottom of the phone, as I've learned from using the Realme Q3 Pro with its ultra low fingerprint sensor is an undesirable idea. To make better use of space, the first card is removed and the menu's title is at the bottom. Overscroll will be in this menu too. 

  The movement/menu toggle is for a menu that is used to control zoom / pan / rotate, as well as a mouse cursor that can be moved to a location a user wants to zoom into, as well as moving the rotate origin. This feature is activated similar to Microsoft's keyboard feature that allows a user to move the cursor around. 

  The circle is the user's orb cursor and locks to the closest thing in view. Then, when the user takes their thumb off the trackpad area, the view rotates for a better look of the corner.
  

  Conclusion
  

  This quick exercise in making wireframes has made me realise that there's a lot more mockups I'd need to create. 

• UX/Feature Research

  kelvinA • 04/10/2022 at 15:36 • 0 comments

  I've just seen this video here:

  I watched it, wondering how Sol^2's experience could facilitate or improve on these features. 

  Align to build plate

  To get closer to an intervention-free approach to slicing, similar to traditional 2D printing, I would like to make sure that 

  • parts can align wherever there's space
  • parts are sorted among multiple build plates
  • parts are sorted based on what material they are being printed with (single extruder)

  Per model settings

  I'm thinking of having some kind of "custom selection" feature, as seen in Fusion 360, where a user can choose what specific files are selected. By default, there would be something that says "All parts selected" when changing settings. Under that, there could be a button to change what is selected, choosing between a custom selection set and just selecting parts. Ideally, you'd be able to save a new custom selection for the latter. 

  Perhaps there would be a heirarchy system for the custom selection sets so that it's 
  

  • All parts selected / Main part settings / etc
    • selection set
      • selection set
        • etc

  Speaking of custom selections, I believe that custom visible settings would be useful. There could be the classic Beginner / Intermediate / Expert kind, as seen in Slic3r, some kind of one where the subcategories  Most Used / Less Used / Seldom Used set, or Skin / Infill / Supports / Etc. This idea comes from the fact that there are a few Cura "experimental" features that have been there for a while now. A user may feel that it makes more sense to have a fresh new menu setup like:

  • Quick settings
    • Skin width
    • Infill
    • Adaptive Layer Height
  • Detailed settings
    • [expert settings menu tree]

  I'm making a wireframe now, but currently, imagine it's a merge of Google widget/cards and the XBox 360 menu in the bottom 1/3 of the screen. There's square cards that can either be one or multiple settings, a button to another menu tree, or both. Things like the colour / background, edge type, etc should be adjustable so that I can use the same functionality to create different UI experiences.

  Height range modifier
  

  This is what gave me the idea to merge projects together, which I mentioned in the previous log. 

  Variable layer height
  

  I like the analogue, paint-like control. An additional feature I'd add is the ability to average out, or specify a selection to have, the same layer height.

• Merging gd0096 into project

  kelvinA • 04/10/2022 at 15:28 • 0 comments

  I think it would make more sense to do something similar to MatterControl and have CAD functionality inside the slicer. This would make it easier to do specific things like aligning "change at layer" or modifier meshes to locations of the imported part. This also removes the expectation that the CAD functionality would grow to the state of FreeCAD or Fusion360 where there are features adjacent to 3D modelling for 3D printing, such as 2D drawings and... uh... well I'm sure there's many features I don't even know about that wouldn't be applicable for additive/subtractive manufacturing. 

  Additionally, merging the projects means that model features / files that are only designed to aid in CAM will not have to be exported and imported from program to program.

• [R] Ease Of Use

  kelvinA • 04/08/2022 at 14:21 • 0 comments

  The comments on this article here is a useful read for what could be done to make 3D printers easier to use. I'd like to imagine what could be done on the slicer side of things. The most notable points are the debug process of the printer itself and the time consuming process of CAD. I know of the latter all too well, and had started a research project to discover if, and how, this could be improved. At the moment, gd0096 and gd0045 (this project) are planned to be seperate software packages, but I do see the potential of having gd0096 as a feature inside gd0045, similar to MatterControl or Craftware Pro.

  Some of the ideas I have
  

  • Essentially a Gamertar for printing, like a "Make-atar" or something. A digital collection of if-statements. 
    • Things like 
      • looking at a phone case from thingiverse and the software going "well that's obviously not in the desired printing orientation. Let me just rotate it 90 degrees.
      • or a user voting 3 starts on the last print, saying that the corners were fat and all wavy, and the software going "Ok I'm thinking of changing your default speed, acceleration and jerk settings. It'll be x% slower but should produce better print quality. Want to make the changes?".
    • This would also determine what soft/hard/error warnings show up (explained further below)
  • Troubleshooters, like seen in Windows
  • Perhaps a somewhat lengthy Out Of The Box Experience
    • One that can sort users by:
      • "Don't have a printer but either trying out the software to see what I'm getting into or want to watch virtual timelapses", 
      • "Got a printer / trying out this fancy new slicer for the first time" and 
      • "bro imma pro just gimme the list of settings to tweak or a profile import button"
    • It'll likely be something like Vivaldi's experience.
  • Putting the backups and plugins somewhere like Documents of 3D Objects library (Windows) so that non-tech savvy users have to fish around in appdata.
  • No branded filament profiles
    • This is just an annoyance I have in Cura.
    • The printers are all different, the filaments are all different, the filament profiles are usually somewhat dependent on the printer...
  • Heirarchy
    • Right now, I'm thinking of Printing Profile -> Filament Profile -> Specific Printer+Filament tweaks -> Per Print Changes
  • Warnings similar to a compiler.
    • I'd like to be able to click on a warning and the camera moves to it.
    • Warnings could be soft things like an overhang looking kinda steep but it should print ok, hard things like there being a sizable 90 degree overhang ledge sticking out, or extreme/error being "You're print has already failed" like some micromanagement surface area on the bed.
  • That cool Save To SD Card feature in Cura
    • But it goes for the empty SD or card that has almost nothing but .gcodes in it. 
      • Maybe Save To [SD card name] would be sufficient. 
      • Maybe even different icons for somewhere on pc, SD/USB and Octoprint
  • Some kind of quick tips or tutorial zone
    • similar in idea to going to monkeytype or typing.com to improve touch typing
  • Some kind of "Corner Correction" feature that deals with pressure advance, input shaper, ringing...
  • A "What printer should I buy/build" database could be pretty cool
    • it probably won't stay up to date though so I'll skip on that.

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