Multicolor print with single extruder

njjn2020

Hi!

i need some strategical help: i have delta printer with single extruder.
there is a need to print first layer with 2 colors.
my item is rectangle with some letters on it.

rectangle is one color. font - another. option to print rectangle and print font on the top does not work in this case.

i have created rectangle with "holes" for letters
and i separately have letters.

i can not figure out how to combine all this in the slicer, so that it would first print letters, i change filament and
print the rest.

many thanks!

dc42

Does your slicer support tool change scripts? If so then you could give it a script that uses M117 to write a message asking you to change filament, and M226 to pause.

deckingman

@njjn2020:

…....................................i can not figure out how to combine all this in the slicer, so that it would first print letters, i change filament and
print the rest.

If you use slic3r, there is a post on my blog which might help to generate the actual gcode file that you need https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2017/01/09/making-a-multicolour-gcode-file/.

Then what you would need to do, as David said, is use tool change scripts to pause the print so that you can retract the filament, load the new one and carry on.

c310

thank you dc42 and deckingman
I have done as advised:

prepared 2 separate STL files (one for each ink)
set slic3r printer to two extruders + added M117 & M226 to "tool change g-code"
loaded main model with assigned "default" extruder (t0)
added 2nd item as "part" of first one and assigned extruder 1

on slic3r "layer view" it does not split item to 2 parts (for extruder 1 and 2)
in generated .gcode there is no trace of tool change
what is a trick?

please help me from here.

p.s. if i use only single part - it slices ok.

screenshots are here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/146380739@N02/shares/8d7Z4L

deckingman

I'm only seeing one picture so it's hard to say. What you need to do is assign an extruder to each part. So in the lower window there is a tree with "Object" at the root, then the 2 stl files. Click on the first one (the one with the longer file name), then select extruder 1. Then click ion the second part (the stl file with the shorter name) and select extruder 2. If you've done it correctly, you should be able to then click each part in turn and it'll show extruder 1 when you click on the first part, and extruder 2 when you click on the second part.

When you slice it, if you look through the gcode file you'll see T0 near the start where it prints the first part. Then T1 when it changes to the second part.

c310

ok, partialy i have found the issue. in the article by deckingman there is a paragraph that refers to extruder numbering. i suggest to extend it by following

[[language]]
slic3r on object -> settings it is offered to choose extruder from the "default" (that is prompted to be 0), "1", "2", "3" and "4".  In fact, slic3r treats "default" as "1". Later in generated gcode this "default"="1" is treated as "T0".  "2" is treated as "T1"  etc.

another issue that i look into now - even for very simple things (circle) it generates 5 tool changes, that can be difficult with manual filament change.