Getting Started with a 3D Printer - Make: 3D Printing - page 6

likely at least a few good starting points on
Thingiverse.

Five 3D-Printed Replacement
Parts for My Ultimaker

Slice
The slicer is what turns an STL file into a series
of commands—typically G-code—that tell
the printer where to move the print head and
when to extrude plastic. While the printer's
driver software is dictated by the printer, it's
actually a critical piece, as the printer soft-
ware will often model the motion dictated
by the stream of commands and will vary the
acceleration of the motors to eliminate print
artifacts.
Slicing is a critical phase of the print. It's a
careful balance between quality, speed, and
amount of material used. In many cases, the
choice of appropriate slicing parameters is
the difference between a successful print
and a pile of spaghetti.

Five 3D-printed replacement parts for my Ul-
timaker: a new drive gear, the white knob hold-
ing the gear on, the Bowden tube clamp (the
white piece at the top of the extruder assem-
bly), the orange piece on the left that holds the
extruder in place, and a filament spool holder
(hidden).

Fixup
During fixup , the STL to be printed is often
checked for errors (modelers sometimes
dump 3D descriptions that look OK, but can't
translate directly to a 3D print because the
structure is invalid). The model may be rota-
ted or scaled, or it may be duplicated to print
multiple copies simultaneously. Often, slic-
ing and fixup are contained in the same pro-
gram (sometimes with the printer driver,
too). Cura and Slic3r combine slicing with
limited fixup, offering the ability to rotate,
scale, and print multiple different STL files in
a single print run. Netfabb , a commercial
package, has extensive mesh debugging
and fixup capabilities, along with basic lay-
out tools and a powerful slicer (see “Cleaning
and Repairing Scans for 3D Printing” on page
70 ).

Your First Print Job

Now that you have a background on all
things 3D printing and have bought or built
your first 3D printer, how do you go about
creating useful things (or creating useless,
but very cool, things)?
The first step is to know your tools. If appli-
cable, download and print all of the
upgrades and replacement parts for your
printer. For the Ultimaker, I've printed a num-
ber of parts, some of which can be seen in
the image shown in the sidebar “Five 3D-
Printed Replacement Parts for My Ultimaker.”
Then download and print some useful things
from Thingiverse. Start with small items—
but not too small—like an earbud holder, a
bottle opener, or a simple character. Choose
something where lots of folks have uploaded