Year: 2023

Tango Slicer Verdict – Worth it or Not?

Is this slicer program any good?

Hello everybody and welcome to another review. In today’s video, we’re going to go over an alternative slicer program which the makers at Voxeldance sent over to me to take a look at. In the end, I bought a license to get a better idea of the installation process, and I’m happy I did since it would have significantly affected this review. More on that later in video.

Voxeldance dance has two pieces of software, the first of which is “Voxeldance Additive” which is designed for more industrial use cases and the second which we’ll be going over today that is called “Tango”. Unlike Chitubox and Lychee slicer, this one has a vastly different focus in comparison and is a paid product which will become important in the final verdict.

The primary focus of this software is enabling the user to have as much flexibility as possible when generating support structures, NOT necessarily slicing of the files. When it comes to generating support structures, this software is by far the best I’ve tested and does come with some interesting features. You start by choosing a pre-made setting and can then begin generating supports with these pre-defined parameters or by modifying them yourself. In this case, I already know what tolerances worked best with my machine, therefore I modified these settings and auto generated them. By clicking on the Manual button, I was further able to modify them by adding or removing what I saw fit. One of the best features is the ability to change the visibility of the supports, which makes it much easier to manipulate their position on the model itself. Furthermore, You can easily add different types of supports to the model by selecting a group of areas and applying a specific support to those structures. At any time, these individual grouped settings can be changed and updated. A great hidden feature is the ability to have supports move around objects and control just how close they remain to the model. I wish this was standard in all slicers, but this is the first time I’ve seen it implemented for resin printing.

But I did say you were mostly limited to creating support structures, which is true if you’re using an older machine that isn’t compatible with the .goo extension or PRZ. The reason why I say this is that you’re very limited in file formats for export and unfortunately during my testing I was unable to find a proper method to convert these files. A common solution, which didn’t work in my case, was to use the open source “UVTools” application to convert the .goo file. So to ensure that it wasn’t something with that one machine, I began repeating this test with my Elegoo Saturn 2 and Mono X printer, with the same results. All 3 gave me errors when attempting to print with the converted files. So, although I tried converting these into different CTB formats 1 to 4, none of these were recognized by my machines. In the end, I was only able to export the file as an STL and then slice it in Chitubox.

This software does come with some additional features which include the ability to fix or modify the mesh itself and even build objects to a certain degree. While this software isn’t designed for 3D modeling, it does have some of its more basic functionalities with the ability to boolean objects as well as the creation of primitives. Models can be mirrored and re-meshed to produce a solid object with varying degrees of resolution, which is a great feature to have. Along with these more innovative applications comes some of the more standard ones such as scaling, hollowing, creation of drainage holes, duplicating and much more.

I personally consider an offline activation to be a requirement for a good user experience as well as added security. While looking at instructional videos by Voxeldance, it does seem to show an offline activation option, but they’ve since changed to a subscription model where this appears to have been removed. From the instructional videos I saw, they do seem to be reliant on a cell phone to complete the offline activation process, which could be a problem for companies focused on security. So even if you pay for a yearly license, you still have to re-connect to the internet at least once every 15 days to be able to use their software. On top of the connection requirements, there’s an additional export limit, which is dependent on the subscription type. There’s free alternatives that don’t have any of these export limits or online connectivity requirements. Due to security concerns, many businesses have dedicated machines which remain offline. This helps protect them in case a server is compromised, whether it be from the service provider or their own. It’s something that the company should become mindful of in the future.

Overall, the software was quite stable and I personally didn’t have any crashes. It’s important to follow their hardware specifications, since this software does require something that’s pretty powerful. While more complex supports did require more time, they still completed without any issues. The fact that I had the option to customize the keyboard shortcuts is big because it allows me to use one’s that I’m already more familiar with. Overall, the user interface was great to work with and fairly intuitive. While this might be slightly overwhelming for new user’s, more experienced one’s would probably enjoy the added control.

But is this software worth the money? Well, I love the amount of control I have over the support settings and the software itself. The fact that I can’t export into the proper format for my 3D printer or that it has to always be connected really does sour my experience. While I didn’t mind paying for the software, I should be able to set up my file up for printing. That’s the true test of a slicer program, and that’s why I can only give an 5 out of 10. The only reason why didn’t get a 0 is that I was able to export it out as an STL, and it really was innovative in how it approached supports. IF the company includes a much larger range of export formats as well as fixing the offline activation they could have easily gotten a much higher result and I really do hope they fix them in the future. If you’re still interested in getting access to this software, the folks at Voxeldance are currently running a 70% off sale on the personal yearly plan. Although they were willing to provide a giveaway after I reached 4000 to 5000 subscribers, we’ll see if that’s still the case after this video comes out.

Sla Printer – Print Flat Vs Angled

Index

So you’re just learning to 3D print, but some people are telling you to print flat, while others say to print on an angle. Today we’ll go over each of these and give you information you need to make your decision.

As discussed in the previous video, the orientation of the model plays a large role in both the type of supports that are needed and their number, but there are two main types to keep in mind. Some models can be placed flat on the build plate, while other’s must be printed at an angle. There are several main factors that will determine which technique is more appropriate to that specific model. These include the amount of surface area, size and shape.

 While the size and the surface area may be closely related, they do represent two different criteria. The amount of surface area is generally determined by the flat surface that will be placed on the build plate, along with whether the model can be hollowed out while preserving the desired physical properties. For this character, it has quite a bit of surface area and would have created a lot of suction forces to contend with, therefore it was oriented to reduce the amount of suction and was also hallowed out.

The size is the overall scale that the print will printed at, and this does affect the amount of surface area. For smaller sized prints, these often don’t include very thick portions and rarely need to be hollowed out as a result. Smaller prints, will generally have to deal with less overall suction forces, allowing these to be printed flat if the shape allows for this. This Happy Tooth design didn’t require any supports whatsoever because of the modelled shape along with flat base. Since it was printed at a smaller scale, the suction forces were limited and didn’t pose a problem.

The shape normally includes detailed elements, which can have overhanging areas that may need additional supports in order to print properly. Models, such as miniatures, will often contain multiple overhangs and islands that need additional supports. In those cases, it’s quite common to print these on an angle and lifted from the build the plate. Functional or mechanical parts may not require as many supports, if any, in order to print successfully. The functional 3D prints can often benefit from being printed flat, should the overall surface area be limited. For these wolverine blades, I created custom supports that would easily be sawed off later, while making sure to orient the model upwards to reduce the amount of suction forces. In this case, I was able to print the model flat with a limited number of additional supports.

A big factor, to also consider, is the print bed adhesion. This portion is quite often overlooked by new user’s but plays a crucial role when printing an object flat. Ensuring a properly levelled bed is crucial for any success and should be the first thing a user checks. Items such as flex build plates can often make this task more difficult because of the small amount of flexing that occurs along the surface every time the build plate lifts away from the FEP sheet. There’s generally two ways to mitigate those issues. The first is to adjust first layer exposure settings. Increasing the first layer exposure will increase the adhesion to the build plate surface and should be the first approach to take. The second is to sand the surface periodically with 250 to 350 grit sandpaper, making sure to maintain a flat surface. Prior to attaching a flex build plate, I always recommend that you take a look at what you intend to use that machine for. If you’re going to use the printer for miniatures, then a flex build plate is often beneficial. If you plan to use the machine in a setting where tolerances are of the upmost impotence or for a variety of projects, it might be better to leave the plat as is for now.

With a better understanding of how and when to print your models flat vs angled, you probably have questions about setting up your supports, so we’ll go over the basics in this video here.

Notes

  • Printed flat or angled
  • Two factors = Size + Surface
  • Smaller prints = Less suction forces + less surface area
  • Greater suction forces = Greater print bed adhesion
  • Flex build plate = Lower print bed adhesion (adjustment might have to be made)

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Installing Custom Vdm Brushes In Blender – A Quick And Easy Guide

How to install custom VDM brushes in Blender the quick and easy way.

Index

Instructions

In order to get the most out of the sculpting features while also increase productivity, it’s normally a good idea to begin using custom brushes. In order to install these tools, you’ll need to do the following.

After downloading the .zip file, extract it and place it in a location that will be easy to find. If you’re using one of my mine VDM kits, they’ll be both a PDF user guide along with the .blend file. Open up a new scene and go to File + Append. Locate the .blend file and click Append. Open the brush folder + select the brushes that you want to use in your file. Most creators will add a unique name that will make them stand out from the default one’s. In my PDF guide, I’ve included a Brush summary sheet along with Variations, so you can import only the one’s that you will need. In order to use a brush, the proper tool must be selected before clicking on one of the new one’s. Using the middle mouse, it’s now easy to scroll through the icon list once the images have finished loading. In order for the brush to work properly, the mesh will require enough resolution and will need to either have a multiresolution modifier applied, or be using the dyntopo at the correct resolution.

In the next guide, we’ll go over how to remove any unwanted brushes to clean up the interface.

Notes and Recommendations

  • Pixelated or rough looking results = normally means that the resolution isn’t great enough to achieve the desired level of detail. Try either increasing the brush size or increasing the mesh resolution
  • Increasing resolution = can be done using either Dyntopo or a Multiresolution Modifier
  • Dynopo = better for rough shape sculpting, but will need to be re-meshed afterwards if it is to be used for animation
  • Multiresolution = better suited for animation and additional details

SLA Printer – Advance Resin Support For Production Runs

Creating supports for products.

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Professional Support Design

If you’ve been 3D printing for a while now, you may want to look into creating your own supports native within your modelling software.

This type of workflow is great for instances where you’re working with similar products that have minor changes to them rather than individually unique items. Within a production setting, this workflow can become a powerful asset once you’ve passed the initial development stages. While it is true it can take a while in the beginning, often this makes for a more efficient workflow process for post-processing, and finishing work.

The easiest way to do this is to take information which was established from the automated supports, and carry these over to the 3D software. Before doing anything, you’ll need to ensure your 3D model is at the proper scale within the software, since this will make the values more accurate. The main information you’ll need for this is your layer printing height, initial bottom layer count, upper diameter for your connection point as well as the middle diameter for the pillars. I’ll be using Blender, which is a free open source software, but this information will apply to anything similar, whether it be for animation or CAD.

My custom keycap designs are a great example of this implementation, since they were all very similar and only contained slight modifications. For these models, I created a rectangle that was the total thickness of my initial bottom layers. Using my upper diameter information, I created supports which were this thickness, making sure to place these along the base of the model. It’s very important that, while doing this, to include gaps that will act as drainage holes. These gaps will help relieve any pressure build up that can be created due to the suction forces. Once printed, all of these supports could easily be removed with the use of a simple prying tool or sanded off until I reached the base of the key-caps. These were the final results that I ended up with, and they worked like a charm.

A larger scale example was the wolverine claws that I designed for a client. In this case, I created a base that would be easily to cut off after the print completed. This saved me a bunch of time in is my post-processing, since I only needed to really worry about the softening of the one edge of the model. Now although I did sand everything to ensure that they weren’t any layer lines, if this was for a rush project I still had the option of going straight to the painting process if I needed to. So, although it normally takes quite a few test prints to ensure that such supports will be successful, this is where utilizing some of the built-in slicer features can be helpful. In Chitubox and other slicers, often problem areas will be highlighted, so previewing the model first will give you a better idea of where to place such supports.

Another added benefit of doing this workflow, is that it can help influence the model design to help ensure that minimal supports are needed to begin with. My baby ghost design is another great example where this is the case. Compared to the original design, which would have required much more supports, the final versions require little to none as a result of how the mesh was modelled.

A lot of the finished products I make such as my collectors coins, necklaces and rings all use these techniques, and it greatly reduces the amount of time that I personally spend on post-processing. During a tight deadline, this means that I can normally finish a product within a couple of hours to within a day after the printing has completed. But what about the controversy of printing your models flat on the build plate? Well, we’ll go over that in an upcoming video.

Important Notes

  • Ensure proper scale
  • Layer printing height x initial bottom layers
  • Pillar upper diameter (min support thickness)
  • Pillar middle diameter (max thickness for supports reinforcements)
  • Preview highlighted areas in slicer
  • Design model to require little to no supports

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