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.
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)
