FDM Material Handling & Storage: When handling 3D print material that is on an open spool use two hands. Hold the spool with one hand and the filament with the other before loading and after unloading from a 3D printer. If the filament becomes free to unwind on its own, be sure to carefully place it back on the spool without cross winding. If the filament becomes cross wound, it will cause jams and break off the spool during the […]
Using PBR Materials in SOLIDWORKS Visualize PBR or Physically Based Rendering materials are a set of shading models that attempt to create a higher level of realism and rendering quality and provide a standard for materials across multiple rendering programs. Tech Tip: It is possible to create your own PBR Material by going to Add > New Appearance and choosing PBR Material as the Appearance Type. However, it is highly recommended to use one of the many available PBR Materials […]
Self-Supporting Angles with FDM Looking to save some time when printing with FDM? Generally, in 3D printing processes when there is some of overhanging feature, support will be required to be underneath. The time it takes to switch between support material and model material can add up to a lot by the time the build is finished. However, when using the FDM process, there is a degree of self-supporting angles that can be utilized to greatly reduce printing […]
Both Polyjet and FDM materials have a shelf life to them and Polyjet has a hard expiration date which it won’t read in the machine past that date. The shelf life for the material is from when it’s manufactured till when it’s no longer available. For FDM machines the shelf of the material is about 3 years from manufactured date as long as the sealed bag and cartridge is not opened. If the bag is opened the shelf life goes […]
The following article will take you through the how and why you should calibrate your load cells on a Stratasys PolyJet Desktop 3D Printer. The load cells measure the weight of the material bottles in grams to determine which bottles to use first and when to stop using them. To keep them as accurate as possible, we recommend doing this calibration once a month for heavy users (125+ hours a month) and no less than once every other month for […]
A brand new feature for SolidWorks 2013 is the ability to create a design study that changes the material of the part file. This will allow you run multiple simulation studies on the same part with different materials. The process is as follows. Begin a new design study. Insert a new design study parameter. Name the parameter, change the category to material, and make sure the body you want included is checked at the bottom. In the design study select […]