Posts made by dwuk

Layer segmentation working pretty well.

I set things up so layers are segmented into 4 - other than the top and bottom layers, plus every 4th layer.

Results look pretty good in Bambu Studio Preview - with segmented parts joining back together ok.

Before Join

After segments joined - inner wall only illustrated

Showing the Gcode now for 4 segments
First segment - for motion system queue1

Bambu Studio showing that segment completed - by the time it gets to the gcode for queue0

Gcode now showing wait - for both queue1 and 0 to complete, and then on to 2nd segment for queue 1

End of both queues - and then moving on to a full non parallel layer

@dwuk Made some good progress today on a basic gcode post processor to segment prints into the 4 sections that are going to be required for parallel printing.

The challenges were
a) Extruded Lines going out or coming in to segment
b) Extruded Lines passing both in and out of the segment
c). G2/G3 Arcs

Took sliced gcode file of this

And sliced out just one section

Another example for a more complex model

Remaining challenges before moving on to slicing the whole 4 sections and reording the gcode within each layer to do 2 of each of the sections in parallel on the front and rear gantry extruders.

Performance is fairly slow due to the low tech approach I have taken to arcs - which is to segment them into tiny line sections and treat them the same as lines - as the maths for splitting circles into up to 4 smaller sections where they intersect the border of each section got too difficult.

Another issue is travel moves around the cut off borders - the issue is fairly clear in this screenshot. - This will be a particular issue when printing sections that ajoin a layer on a section that has already been printed.

Will be interest to see how these segmented files actually print - should be able to run some real tests on a single extruder printer.

The approach I now think I will take with the final output is as follows:

1. Go through the Gcode file expanding out G2/G3 to G1s.

2. Go through the expanded file 4 times - creating versions of each of the 4 segments - and collecting statistics per layer per segment.
   NB/ Segment precise bounds can vary a bit per layer for strength and in later versions to better spread the load - they just need to be wide enough to avoid gantry clashes.

3. Final iteration - with output gcode file is generated - which will consist of GCODE, separated by laters - with each layer being either:

a). The gcode of the whole layer unsegmented - for layers with more than 2 colours per segment or not enough time needed in each segment to warrant parallel printing.

b) Segmented - with the following structure:
M596 P01
--Seg3 gcode
M596 P00
--Seg1 gcode - which can be printed in parallel to seg3
M598 - to wait for Seg3 and Seg1 to complete
M596 P01
--Seg4 gcode
M596 P00
--Seg2 gcode for printing in parallel to seg4
M598 - to wait for Seg4 and Seg2 to complete

@dwuk Belt Routing Animation created.

IDEX Part 8 - Belt Routing Demo

@dc42 Thanks yes - thats the correct links.

I have just created a longer post with a few more thoughts on the Multi Axis Printing / IDEX Both on Core XY thread.

@oliof Appreciate that this is a fairly old topic - and sorry for the long post - just wanted to get a few ideas down together.

I have been investigating some options for a multi headed / multi colour printer for printing large multi coloured models.

I think the RatRig VCore 4 / With Hybrid Motors and IDEX 'Dual Markforge' is something like what you were describing in your post back in May.

What I am thinking along the lines of is something like a RatRig VCore4 IDEX RMMU, with a 2nd IDEX Gantry, which also has the ability for limited Z movement too.

I think it is going to need to be powered by Duet/Reprap firmware though - rather than RatOS/Klipper

My ultimate target is a machine/set of machines with the following capabilities:

1. Large build area - at least 300X x 500Y x 250Z - With at least two independent gantries for parallel printing of large objects - probably using the Reprap 3.5 Multi Motion System parallel printing capability
2. Each gantry being IDEX - to allow for fast colour changes for most commonly used colours, and for some models - mirror mode or duplicate mode parallel printing within the IDEX gantry.
3. Filament Multiplexing - probably using something like the Reprap RMMU or BambuLab AMS - as I need up to around 12 colours in total per object.
4. Parallel background colour feeding and purging etc. - which is hopefully supported by RepRep 3.5 (but not by Klipper/RatOS I believe). - See part 2 video for more details of this.
5. For the multiplexed colour changes - The ability for very efficient 'flush-into object' printing to be done - with the flush-into objects potentially being printed at a different Z heights to the main object.
6. Ideally in cases where fairly simple small prints are already in progress on only one of the gantries - the ability to separately start a simple 2nd print on the spare gantry.

I have created a few videos demonstrating a few ideas - the most relevant to my current thoughts is Part3 of this IDEX series.
IDEX Part 3 - Dual IDEX

'IDEX Part 6 - Motors and Belts'
Youtube link

What I would like to do next is add the ability for the 2nd Gantry to have a small amount of Z axis movement ability - so that it can be completely independent of the first gantry. I will probably add a few of the Reprap 3.5 Multi Motion System Gcode commands to my Blender add-on to drive the fully independent simulations.

Will probably also add some animations along the lines of the diagrams posted by @droftarts in this thread to the simulations too.

The next problem is then splitting up models into sections for Multi Motion printing.

I have done some reading of this forum of posts about Multi Motion printing - mainly by @dc42 and can't find a lot of details of any slicer developments.

So unless work is already underway in this area I am thinking about creating a GCODE post processor that does a basic split of single head multi colour prints (probably sliced for a BambuLab X1C) into up to 3 or 4 separate areas per layer if they are big enough be warrant parallel printing on the two gantries at the same time. The reason for the 4 areas is to avoid head clashes - see this diagram.

Plus probably a 2nd post processor that does some more automated mirror mode splitting - I am currently do this in my simulations by pre-splitting up the mirrored / duplicated and single threaded parts prior to slicing into different 'virtual colours' - am then using the tool change commands generated by the slicer to switch the 'virtual' printer between IDEX modes.

Appreciate that this is an old post - but I have been recently doing some investigations of dual gantry IDEX printers, and came across this post via the zrucho3d DuelingZero design on github.

I am looking at creating something probably based on a Ratrig VCore4 RMMU IDEX, but with a 2nd IDEX Gantry added.

Looks like with that number of motors and also ideally getting the system to do parallel colour changes on idle extruders that I would need to be looking at Reprap 3.5 at least as the firmware.

Initial ideas in a series of video animations if anyone is interested.

It won't let me post the link as I am new to this forum - but should come up hopefully if you search for 'IDEX Part 3 dual' on youtube.