Weird missing part of layer...

cobnut · 2016-10-28T10:40:00.000Z

Hi all, a very simple print is showing an odd error. It’s simply a rectangular plate, 3mm thick, with two holes near one shorter edge. It’s not a complex mesh, according to netfabb and makeprintable and any other checker I can throw at it, it’s got no errors. When printed, on the final top layer, the printer appears to simply “forget” to finish a couple of sections (see image - I haven’t used a photo 'cos it’s virtually impossible to see). This is a screenshot of the final layer in Simplify, which shows that the layer should be complete and even.

However, when printed, it misses the bits I’ve crudely highlighted in red. It’s just as though the printer has forgotten to go back and fill these missing parts in. It’s only on the last layer, all previously layers - including the previous solid layer beneath, were fully completed.

Any ideas?

Perry_1 · 2016-10-28T13:39:55.000Z

I have not seen this before. Can you post the STL so I can play with it?

wirlybird · 2016-10-28T13:53:12.000Z

Yea, I’d be happy to give it a try also.

cobnut · 2016-10-28T14:06:53.000Z

Sure, thanks guys. Posted. I have to admit there’s a substantial possibility I may have screwed up somewhere; I’ve just run it through netfabb again and this time it changed the file size. Anyway, if it’s not any trouble, I’d appreciate any help offered.

BTW, there’s no need to print at full size - I saw the same problem when printing at 60% of full so you could save some filament…
plate.stl (431 KB)

wirlybird · 2016-10-28T14:38:54.000Z

I’ll try this afternoon when I get home. What printer and material did you use?

cobnut · 2016-10-28T14:55:06.000Z

Hi @wirlybird this was PLA on my FF Pro. Please don’t go to any trouble, I’d like to try this new version myself but can’t until I finish a longish customer print…

Perry_1 · 2016-10-28T18:01:38.000Z

OK, I am not sure what is going on, but it:

1. Looks like a good model

2. Slices perfectly

3. Prints fine.

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I am guessing that your file is corrupted. Try resaving it. Or maybe your SD card has gotten corrupted. Perhaps reformat it.

The print is just not finishing on your printer.

I would be happy to look at your .gcode file for it.

wirlybird · 2016-10-28T21:31:02.000Z

No problem, I am watching Perry’s findings. I have ribs on the smoker so a little pre-occupied!!

wirlybird · 2016-10-31T13:18:35.000Z

Any luck on this? I was changing extruders on one machine and other prints running so didn’t get to try it.

jfield · 2016-10-31T14:14:09.000Z

I have S3D and I noticed on a print I was doing last night that those areas you highlighted are printed last on a layer. I had a couple of times in the past, where I saved the gcode to the SD card, and when I printed it, the printer stopped before the print was done. I noticed when I re-wrote the same gcode, that the file was larger. I was thinking that maybe I removed the SD card before Windows finished writing the gcode file to the card, even though S3D says the file was done. I think I might have looked at one of the gcode files in a text editor and seen that the file ended prematurely.m Do you still have the original gcode file?

cobnut · 2016-10-31T16:09:46.000Z

Not yet, been busy with customer prints. Probably won’t try it again until my PEI sheet arrives…