Been digging deeper a bit with Simplify3D and wanted to share what I’ve been learning. Its a lot of the basics, but its a good starting point. Feel free to add anything too.
Useful Hotkeys
If you’re like me and didn’t read the docs, the hotkeys are not readily apparent. However, these three hot keys will save you a bit of searching and are very helpful;
Move Model - Ctrl (command on mac) - left - click
Scale Model - Ctrl (command on mac) - right - click and drag up/down
Rotate Model - Alt (option on mac) - left - click and drag right or left
Supports
Simply add the support columns to where you think you’ll need them. You can also specify based upon overhang angles. Adding manual supports is probably the most useful function in Simplify3d. It can save you a lot of material and printing time. The automatic support generation isn’t inherently bad, its just that sometimes you have a better idea of where to put the supports than the software.
.FFF files for different materials
If you like to experiment with a lot of different materials you can easily create different .FFF setting files for them. Different brands of PLA require different settings, you’d be surprised by how much a difference a 5 degree temp increase makes for getting that first layer right.
If you want to get even more advanced, you can make take advantage of simplify3D’s ability to set different settings in one print with their object by object process settings. You can have a multi object print and have each object increase in temp by 5 degrees (or other variables) and see which setting prints the best. Its a good way to get the perfect settings for a new material quickly.
Different Settings in one print
This is a bit more of an advanced thing to do, but you can actually have different settings in one print. For example, you can have varying infill percentages by creating different processes at a certain layer height (more below). This is an interesting way to save printing time, filament, and reinforce potential vulnerable sections of your print.
To do this is you have to “start printing at height” and “stop printing at height” at the layer you want to switch settings. With multiple settings achieved, when you move to the prepare to print section, a new dialogue box will appear. Select both settings and then the continuous printing .
Fill Patterns
You can change the angles of the lines placed for the infill. The default pattern is -45, 45. You can do horizontal/vertical by 0,180, triangles by 0, 60, -60, so on and so forth. For properly solid models, you can make 200% extrusion width with a high infill. Unfortunately, the honeycomb pattern isn’t available yet with Simplify3D. Hopefully soon!
That’s about it as far as the basics goes! Feel free to share any other tips with Simplify3D you have here.
