It’s known that a simple material inversion in Insight can give you some pretty unique and powerful results in your print. This is definitely the key to a few of the more advanced applications we can achieve on FDM. The purpose of material inversion is fairly simple. Essentially, you’re simply flipping the model and support material toolpaths on your piece so that model prints where support would be and vice versa. The power of this, inherently, is now you have […]
Welcome to the third part of our step-by-step walkthrough of the “General Tour of GrabCAD Advance FDM Mode” series. In this section, we will dive into the core that makes up GrabCAD – Advance FDM Mode. Let’s dive right into the powerful Selection Menu and it’s sub tabs of Body and Face. Starting with a blitz through “how to get there” Launch GrabCAD Once on the landing page, be sure to click on the 4th Icon to get into the […]
Adding texture to your FDM 3D prints is a cool and clever way to hide layer lines on vertical walls. Doing this can really make your parts look professional and practical. Follow along this simple tutorial to create your own textured parts in SOLIDWORKS. 1. Open your model. 2. Highlight the face(s) that you want to add the texture to and then go to edit appearance. 3. On the Right side of the screen, open the “Miscellaneous” folder and select […]
The X/Y Calibration on a Desktop Metal 3D Printer is intended to calibrate the offset between the metal and interface extruders. The process consists of printing a series of metal lines and then printing interface atop those metal lines. The user then visually inspects the location of the interface lines and enters the found values to the user interface screen on the printer. Notes: X/Y Calibration is required upon the first print X/Y Calibration may also be run if you […]
The Desktop Metal Studio System+ offers not only the convenience of office-friendly 3D printing, but the ability to 3D-print metal flexures. Flexure: (n.) A flexible feature (or combination of elements) within a part, engineered to be compliant in specific degrees of freedom. Background Flexures are used for precise adjustment in devices like optical stages and actuating clamps—such as collets and compliant features—where minimizing backlash is critical. Based on their geometric complexity, fine features, and susceptibility to vibration, flexure designs are challenging […]
When you need to put complex assemblies together that have a lot of different pieces it can be a challenge to do it efficiently, let alone easily. What makes a job like this much better is creating a custom fixture to hold of your parts in place while you do the assembly. This allows you to put the parts together much safer, quicker, and more efficiently, which is what matters when working on a high capacity assembly line or even […]
TPU Material Handling Proper storage of the TPU material spool is critical. When removing TPU spools from the system, place the material spool in the Mylar bag as soon as possible. This will prevent moisture from getting into the material. Wet material can damage the print head and should not be used. For extended non-use periods greater than 48 hours, unload the material from the head and wind back onto the spool. Store in the material bay. Environments with high […]
GrabCAD Print version 1.30, May 2019 Build number 1.30.28.52238 released on 22 May 2019 Printer history may be deleted from the Printer History page of the GrabCAD Print application. The option is enabled by a preference; the preference is active for the GrabCAD session only. Printers must be idle when history is deleted, though they may have jobs in their queue. We reviewed the translations in GrabCAD Print and fixed errors in 6 places. Brian Maxwell Field Service Engineer Computer Aided Technology, LLC
Welcome back to the General Tour of Advance FDM Mode Part 2. After reviewing the menus, learning to add models, and learning about the selection of bodies in Advance FDM Mode: General Tour Part 1. Moving forward with our General Tour, our next steps are exploring the Print Settings menu and understanding how the Orientation menu works. Let’s get started. Please Launch GrabCAD and proceed to the 4th icon, Advance FDM Mode Tab. But if there are only 3 icons refer […]
Part 2 of 2 – Importing a CMB File Stratasys FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) technology utilizes a CMB (Coordinate Machine Binary) file format as the code to drive its equipment. CMB files are typically created with the advanced Insight software for F370 and Fortus level machines, but GrabCAD Print can also export and import a CMB file. In Part 1 we discussed how, when and why to export a CMB file from GrabCAD Print. In this blog, we will focus […]