Suggestion: Fast draft mode

Software Snapmaker Orca
1

I hope there can be a simple way to configure printing in a “ fast draft” mode, with the goal of increasing print speed as much as possible. Some print quality can be sacrificed. This would be useful during the exploratory stage of making a model, when I want to test ideas, see the results as quickly as possible, and improve the iteration speed.

I tried adjusting the parameters to increase the speed, but it did not seem to have much effect.

Thanks a lot!

2

It sounds like a quite interesting idea.
Do you have any more details in mind about this “fast draft” mode, for example, the expected printer speed and acceptable print quality?

By the way, Have you tried to increase the layer height( the maximum layer height on Snapmaker Orca is 0.32mm)?

3

There are fundamental limits on how fast any particular model of FDM printer can print:

  1. How fast the motors can be made to move without skipping;
  2. The wattage of the nozzle heater block.

The amount of heat (in Watts) available to melt filament puts an upper limit on the volume of filament that can be deposited per second. Try to push more through that, and the temperature of the nozzle will drop.

I don’t know how close to the limits the U1’s config already is, but printer makers are in competition to advertise the best possible print speeds, so I would be surprised if there is much extra to be obtained, and speeds are always headlined as mm/s (linear speed) never mm³/s (filament deposition speed).

Personally I would not use the speed settings on the printer itself, so far as i know all these do is scale the speeds in the G-Code (and I would rather have the right speeds in the G-Code in the first place, handing all the responsibility to your slicer settings). The best way to “draft” a print is to use slicer settings to minimise wall line count, roof & floor thicknesses, and infill density, and maximise layer thickness. You could set those up in a custom profile.

4

If I’m not mistaken in Snorca on the Details page when printing there’s an option to slow down or speed up the print.

5

I have printed with a layer height of 0.4mm using a 0.4mm nozzle, before I was told it shouldn’t go any thicker than 0.32mm.

The surface texture of vertical walls was interesting, but the print completed. It was supposed to be a prototype to check fit, but it ended up being correct, so I used it.