Poor Quality Print

I just recently purchased by SnapMaker 2.0 and am brand new to 3D printing in general. I printed the included sample and the results were as anticipated. I purchased a design and printed. It is a small cameo about 1.5 inch in length. The print quality is quite poor. I’m not sure if it is the size vs amount of detail, the file, or my settings. I thought I had made note of what the settings were when I printed, but unfortunately can’t locate them. I thought I would post here anyway to see if there are any suggestions for better quality. I’ve attached the print for reference. Thanks in advance for any advise.

At the risk of sounding obtuse, what are you finding unacceptable about that print? It seems pretty good to me.

If you’re primarily referring to the surface finish with the lines that is to be expected and there’s not much you can change for that.

If you’re referring to the right lower middle (flower bouquet?) that is a limitation of how the FFF process lays down filament. The only way to get good resolution there would be to use a much smaller nozzles, maybe .1 or .2mm diameter which would made the print time take an eternity for anything larger than tiny objects.

The necklace has the same issue - you can’t really place dots of filament and expect them to look good for technical reasons.

Chemical smoothing is one way to smooth a surface. Often people will sand and use a filler before painting. And there are other ways to improve the finish. Using small layer heights can help, but too small and it causes other problems.

The smallest X/Y detail the printer can print is 0.4mm (with the current nozzle). Anything smaller than that is ignored. To get finer, you have to follow brent113’s suggestion of a smaller nozzle.

FWIW, I regularly print with 0.04mm layer heights (using Cura). It does take a long time, but I don’t mind. The terraced steps on the cheek and shoulder will be much smaller.

The flat background does look a little off. I like to see a smoother surface than that. I think if you calibrate your E-Steps, you’ll be happier with the results. I recommend new printers go through xchrisd’s 3D Print Walk Through. It starts out very easy, and gets to some semi-technical sections. Feel free to skip anything that feels overwhelming, and come back to it later when you feel ready.

Thank you for the suggestions. I will look into smaller nozzle and will review the walk through.