Having a problem?  Help us help you.

Perry_1 · 2017-01-16T16:26:48.000Z

So I try really hard to help people on this forum, because as a recipient of help when I was getting started, I try to share that help with others. But the number of posts asking for help that are one or two sentences long are making me a little cranky this morning. The number of helpful folks who are then throwing guesses out there to try to help the person honestly deserve admiration.
So if you are really looking for a solution to a problem with your print, printer, model or hub, I suggest the following: Would it be possible for you to provide us with more information? If you typed less words in asking for help than it takes for me to help you, you are not really being fair, are you? I want to help, but I don’t want that help to start with me asking “what printer” or “what is your software” etc.
Maybe others can provide other things they would like to know to add to this list.

What printer do you own? How is it configured? (Different printers have different means of handling things. Also, specifying the printer might help us figure out something that happens only or often on your type of printer, a known bug, etc. What else might help? Build plate, number of extruders, etc.)

What software are you using? (Giving you answers on how to handle this issue via software that does not have features your software has, will not be helpful to you. Also, different software uses different approaches to handle slicing and printing.)

Is this a new problem, or something that has been happening since you got the printer. (If you have been printing for awhile, and this just started, this tells keeps us from telling you things you already know, can look to what has changed, etc.)

How often does this happen? (If it happens on every print, then we know it is an issue with the printer, operator, or settings. If it only happens on a specific print, that leads us to looking at errors in the model, or things that might be specific to the model.)

How long have you had the printer? (It can point to wear or worn cables, etc. If it is a new printer, we can advise you on something you have not learned yet, or that you should return the printer while it is under warranty…)

Have you made any recent changes? (for example, if you always print with PLA, but switched to ABS, and the problem started, that helps us know that you might need some advice about different, new settings. If you just added some new add-on and the problem started, then we know to look there. If you just changed from Cura to S3D, let us know. If you just upgraded your firmware, or did so in trying to isolate the issue, tell us.)

What steps have you taken so far to resolve the issue? (yeah, if you thought it was the stepper motor cables, and you replaced them, but it did not solve the problem, let us know. This way, we do not have to offer that up as a solution, or we can tell you maybe you did it wrong, proceeded from a false assumption, or further mucked things up in that step?)

Can you post the model, or a screenshot of the model in the slicer? (Not always possible, but sure would help us to analyze the issue if we think the model is bad, there is some trick to printing a part of it, etc. )

Can you post a picture of what is happening? (Saying you have “blobs all over” just leaves us guessing. Post a picture. We might even be able to tell you some other things about your print settings to not only fix that issue, but to help with many of your print settings.)

Maybe even take the time to post a video? (Yeah, saying its grinding, crunching, or squeaking could mislead us. Let us hear it or see it. At the very least, take some time to describe what you mean by grinding, crunching, popping…)

wirlybird · 2017-01-16T16:39:49.000Z

YES! It is easy to just skip past a post that has a subject of “HELP!!” and a description of “Printer stopped printing”.

Enza3D · 2017-01-17T14:39:33.000Z

This really should be an implemented “template” for posting questions in regards to printer/print quality help. It’s similar to the formatting certain subreddits (like buildapc) require for a post.

You do end up spending a good deal of time just getting the needed information out of people, which could be addressed by just a properly formatted original post. Great job with this post, hopefully it gets enough traction for the community to follow it.

wirlybird · 2017-01-18T12:21:01.000Z

Wow, seems like since you posted this Perry_1 that the issue has gotten worse! I responded to two today but just ignored the rest!

Perry_1 · 2017-01-18T14:18:49.000Z

Well, at least you can always link them to this page!

Perry_1 · 2017-01-18T14:22:10.000Z

Yeah, I also see a lot of “what printer” or “what software” as the first response. So I wanted to explain why we would ask those questions. Maybe if people understood why we ask, they can understand to put that in the question.

Enza3D · 2017-01-18T14:25:32.000Z

It’s important info, and we can’t diagnose anything without it! This will be so helpful to link to.

Perry_1 · 2017-01-18T14:26:40.000Z

Talk Manufacturing | Hubs

3D Printing, CNC machining, Injection Molding and more

Good example of how not to get help. Its very frustrating when the questions we have to ask to help a person will require more typing than the person looking for help was willing to do.

Perry_1 · 2017-01-18T14:29:14.000Z

Here is another good example. Talk Manufacturing | Hubs

If this is a a new printer, and the problem is from day one, the answer is completely different than if this just started, and the user was printing without problems prior to the issue.

wirlybird · 2017-01-18T14:56:41.000Z

I agree! I am really willing to try to help, especially because you guys have helped me so much and I still always learn something new, but it does get a bit frustrating when the one seeking help seems to not want to put out any effort.

I know when you’re new to all of this you may not realize what to ask or what to provide but I think that is the exception.

wirlybird · 2017-01-18T16:59:21.000Z

Here is one. Maybe I could have been a bit more “understanding” but half the time when you have to play 20 questions you get rebuked for it.

Talk Manufacturing | Hubs

3D Printing, CNC machining, Injection Molding and more

cobnut · 2017-01-19T13:10:35.000Z

Without wishing to appear overly snobbish, @Perry_1 I suspect that if the people asking these questions understood why they need to be asked, they’d have enough sense to be able to answer the questions themselves (or at least find the answers already made all over the web).

On the other hand, being more charitable, sometimes people just need a lot of hand holding. It’s easy for me to understand why things like make/model of anything is essential to getting a useful answer because I’ve been doing this sort of thing online for (dammit) 30 odd years now; but if you’ve just bought a 3D printer, being completely in the dark is not necessarily your fault.

The problem with 3DHubs requiring information before a post is that it complicates the process for everyone (every post) where that information is irrelevant. That sort of info is only relevant if the question is for a specific printer/print/material so there would need to be some way to allow other posts to bypass the requirement. When you have a way to bypass that requirement, a decent percentage of the posts that shouldn’t bypass it, do, so you’re back to square one.

Perry_1 · 2017-01-19T13:47:37.000Z

WHOA! I certainly was not requesting there be a requirement before a post! That would be a bad idea …

Perry_1 · 2017-01-19T13:52:19.000Z

So none of this was meant to be snobbish. I am very dry and logical most of the time, so wanted to put something up that was to be helpful to those looking for advice. It wasn’t meant to put anyone down.

cobnut · 2017-01-19T14:03:12.000Z

@Perry_1 sorry, you misunderstood me (or I wasn’t clear), I was suggesting I was being snobbish for what I said, not you. Your comments were perfectly fine.