Warping! Others have hit on a lot of this, so I’ll try to be brief.

• warping is due to the plastic shrinking as it cools. This builds tension in the lower layers of the print
• bigger prints are naturally more warp prone
• part shape and aspect ratio also plays a role. Parts with big aspect ratios (eg much wider or longer than the other axis) are more warp prone. Parts with sharp transitions are also more likely to warp
• different filaments are more warp prone than others. PLA is least prone, followed by PETG. ASA/ABD are the most warp prone I’ve printed so far
• fiddling with temps and speeds can help
• make sure you have good bed adhesion (clean bed, good first layer, etc)
• having good bed adhesion will only take you so far. I’ve had prints pull my magnetic bed plate up
• you can try printing a draft shield around your part (think a skirt as tall as your part)
• IMO eclosures are the way to go for warp prone parts. You’ll need to be somewhat careful about chamber temps getting too high (this can cause nozzle clogs for PLA/PETG) or not getting high enough (ASA/ABS will still warp in a cool chamber). My enclosure has a removable lid that I pop for PLA/PETG and has insulation/bedfans/a filter for ASA/ABS

Dish soap is better than alcohol, especially if you’re cleaning the bed in a sink with lots of water to rinse all the accumulated oils off.

There’s also all the mess of slicer and printer settings. It would be interesting to give someone a collection of parts with different nozzle sizes, extrusion widths, pressure advance settings, temp settings, print speeds/accelerations, etc

Interesting project! I will have to give it a look.

sourcing the materials can be a bit of a challenge

Any more details here? I’m guessing the necessary material for electrolytic and what not? Do you know about the boring adjacent stuff like measuring (eg how accurate do the measurements need to be, how precise, etc), disposal, etc?

Not sure, but I would suspect that AI output would likely be very similar to procedural generation output in that it will need some massaging before it can be used as a final asset.

Procedural generation of content in games is by no means a new thing. Even if the end state isn’t completely procedurally generated, odds are a version of the asset was initially and a human touched it up as necessary. When you’re talking about large asset sets (open world and/or large maps, tons of textures, lots of weapons, etc) odds are they weren’t all 100% hand made. Could you imagine making the topology map and placing things like trees in something like RDR2?

That’s not to say all this automation is necessary a good thing. It almost feels like we’re slowly chugging through a second industrial revolution, but this time for white collar workers. I know that I tell myself that I would rather spend my time solving problems vs doing “menial” work and have written a ton of automation to remove menial work from my job. I do wonder if problem solving will become at least somewhat menial in the future.

Check the post title ;)

Great read, with some amusing asides.

Shots fired!

I had no idea this was even going on, so that’s a potential plus.

Stratasys filed the two lawsuits against Bambu Lab in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, in August 2024. The company claims that Bambu Lab’s X1C, X1E, P1S, P1P, A1, and A1 mini 3D printers violate ten of its patents. These patents cover common 3D printing features, including purge towers, heated build plates, tool head force detection, and networking capabilities.

I had heard that Stratasys was a bit of a patent troll, but some of those claims are news to me.