How to use Factory files in Simplify3D - 3D Printing 101 Video Lecture | What is 3D Printing: Basic Knowledge - IT & Software

in today's 3d printing 101 I'm going to
show you how you can use factory files
within simplify 3d to save yourself time
money and frustrations when it comes to
your 3d prints let's get started but
first what is a factory file anyway well
within simplify 3d a factory file allows
you to save everything you've created
within your simplify 3d session so you
can open it up at a later date and
everything's there waiting for you ready
to go this means it includes your 3d
models your orientation and layout
details it also includes your custom
support settings and all the detail you
put into making your parts have the best
chance of success and best of all it
then compresses everything so you can
send it to friends who want to print the
same thing and they can try it out on
their machines no matter where they are
anywhere in the world so with all that
out of the way let me show you four
awesome ways you can use factory files
ok so use number 1 for a factory file
saving a layout that you may want to
print again so this is definitely how I
use factory files the most so I'm going
to open up factory file and open up my
make a coin batch and this is pretty
simple and pretty straightforward
basically I've got a nice batch of maker
coins here I put it heats them out
recently for a Maker Faire and
essentially just lets me save a layout
very quickly and then I can assign it to
different my different printers so
currently it's set up for the I think
the craft bot plus but I can change that
as I like and basically I can just very
very quickly go between my different
machines and send them a batch of making
coins so that's one way to use a factory
file within simplify 3d and the next way
to use a factory files to save a
complicated project that you may want to
print again so this is a batch of screws
and this took me a long time to set up
because all these screws have been
manually moved into place because
normally if I was to Center and arrange
these screws in simplified 3d they would
give them a bit of spacing which is what
you normally want but in this case I
don't
I want these screws to be close together
because I've got a special kind of dense
support structure that's Holley them all
in place so
that way when it builds up the sort of
shafts of the screws they won't fall
over but it goes beyond that I've got
two different processes within this
factory file and one of them goes up to
ten millimeters high at 0.25 millimeters
of Zee layer Heights so that's quite
coarse will print quite quickly but then
after 10 millimeters I've actually got
50 micron layer height and let me
demonstrate to you what that will look
like by selecting both and hidden okay
so as you can see here the top of the
screw heads look quite smooth because
they've got the 50 micron layer height
but as you scroll through it goes down
to the sort of shafts of the screws and
that very dense support structure that I
was talking about that holds those
shafts in place so they don't get
knocked over now this did take a long
time to set up as I said which is why
saving it as a factory file is very
valuable so I can come back to it a
letter date and make tweaks as necessary
sort of having just a g-code file and
then having to sort of redo all of this
because I ain't got the time for that
and another great way to use factory
files is to send a factory file to a
friend so if you've got a model you've
spent a lot of time preparing within
simplify 3d with custom supports and
that sort of thing
you can send it to someone else and then
they can print it on their machine so
this is the deathclaw puppy that I
designed for my sister for a birthday
last year so it's a puppy with a
deathclaw head measured onto the top of
it and it needed a lot of custom support
structures as you can see around the
horn here which I spent a lot of time on
so I saved it as a factory file so I can
come back to it and something that I
find very powerful by saving a factory
file instead of just keeping a g-code
file is for example if I select this
model and if I wanted to print it at a
smaller scale for example maybe I want
to print it at 50% size maybe I've got a
point two millimeter nozzle I'm trying
out I can enter 50 and what's very cool
is the support structures scale with the
model and you can't do that with a
g-code file but because I've saved it as
a factory file I can do that then I can
slice it again and send it to the
Machine and finally factory files are a
great way to troubleshoot 3d printing
issues so as we know 3d printing
hardware is
one side of the coin but the other is
your slicing and layout and your
settings within your your slicer that
determined the success of the print so
as an example this Factory file could
have been sent to me by a fan for
example who was having issues printing
this part here and they might be
wondering why why isn't it working it
doesn't look like it needs supports and
guess what's going wrong so I might sort
of fire up my version of simplifies
ready load in the factory file and have
a look at it and be like yeah okay that
is overhangs there so I can see what
you're doing with your manual support on
other models so what I might do is go in
with customized support structures and I
might generate my own support like this
but you know because I've got experience
with running through any printers I know
that this detail here or the edge where
it's by zoom in it's very thin and I
know that that's often going to be an
issue with adhering to the print
platform so what I might do is actually
come in here and add some support
material just down here and the purpose
of that would be to try to just give it
a bit more surface area when it starts
printing you know something like that
it's something that if you're new to 3d
printing and new to running a
sophisticated slice of like simplify
thoroughly you might not think about but
going into the g-code preview you can
see that these little bits of extra
support here as it builds up will just
kind of give it a bit of extra support I
suppose as it builds that edge and
you're much more likely to succeed a
sort of it breaking free so thanks for
watching this video on using factory
files in simplify today guys it's
certainly an awesome way to package
things up into just one file format you
can use down the track to print things
again without having to try to guess how
you had things laid out and all of that
sort of thing and a big thanks to
simplify 3d for sponsoring this video on
makers muse and if you new to make us
Muse guys want to see future 3d print
IPPs tricks and reviews in simplify 3d
and also 3d printing in general maybe
consider subscribing it helps the
channel out a huge amount and I'd love
to have you on board
my name's Angus and you've been watching
3d printing 101 here on makers muse
catch you later
bye
you
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