Question about multiple color printing and slicing

Nylkos · 13 Dec 2017, 19:41

I am gathering the required info to start multiple color printing and I was wondering if there was a slicer that, while slicing, would consider the different colors. A slicer that would:

Prioritizing them (color 1 first then color 2, …), that would minimize the mix color material
Use the color change (mix color material) in an infill area instead of the outer layer or in a waste tower.

Thank you

deckingman · 13 Dec 2017, 21:10

I've tried most of them. For me, the best of a bad bunch is Slic3R. There are others that handle dual extruders reasonably well but none that handle 3 or more as well as Slic3R IMO. I'm using the latest Prusa variant.

Lots of info on my blog. e.g. https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2017/01/09/making-a-multicolour-gcode-file/ but there are many more related posts if you search the blog roll here https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/blog/

Nylkos · 14 Dec 2017, 02:00

Will read thanks you

Nylkos · 14 Dec 2017, 02:05

Your Blog is very complete.
Thank you.

Nylkos · 14 Dec 2017, 18:12

I currently have the 3 color diamond hotend.
Do you know if we could mix 2 filaments to create 4th color?
For what I have in mind, the purity of the color isn't important.

deckingman · 14 Dec 2017, 18:46

@Nylkos:

I currently have the 3 color diamond hotend.
Do you know if we could mix 2 filaments to create 4th color?
For what I have in mind, the purity of the color isn't important.

Yes of course you can. Lets say we have 3 filaments A B and C. You can mix A + B, A + C and B + C as well as A+B+C. So starting with 3 colours, we can create not just 4 but 7. Obviously not every colour combination works but Blue + Yellow will give Green. Red plus White will give Pink, Yellow plus Red will give Orange.

And it gets better because we can mix filaments in 1 % increments so we could have for example, 10% Red and 90% White giving a very pale Pink. So not just 7 colours but hundred of shades.

However, it's not quite so straightforward. If you read my blog (especially this post https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2017/01/28/the-stripey-toothpaste-effect-of-the-diamond-hot-end/)) you'll see that what comes out of the nozzle isn't truly mixed. So if you use solid colours, the object will appear to be have different colours on each side. Translucent filament largely negates this effect.

HTH

Nylkos · 15 Dec 2017, 01:55

I hadn't read that one yet, thanks you for all the information.