3D Multi Colors and More

[Bill Arnold]

I've had a couple of printing projects that I needed to help along by pausing the print while I did something else. A bit of research led me to an Octoprint add-in called Multi Colors. The intent of the add-in is to pause the machine, keep the motors active to eliminate movement, and allow the operator to change the filament color. I had the perfect subject for that operation with the panel for my laser setup. I printed the first panel in all blue but, of course, it was difficult to see the lettering. So, I tried the add-in and it worked quite well. In the case of my panel, the top three layers are the lettering, so I set the routine to stop after the fourth layer from the top. It worked out pretty well, but I need to do a bit more clean up amongst the letters.




Another way I used the add-in is on some pop-top openers I printed based on a plan on Thingiverse. I'll detail the openers in a different post. The original had a slot on the flat side into which one can insert a 10mm by 1mm rare earth magnet. I made a few that way, then changed it a bit to pause the print while I drop in a magnet. As you can see, that works well also.




If you haven't already found it and are interested, here's a link to the web page.

 

[Darren Wright]

Very Cool! I hadn't seen the octopi plugin, but I've done a script in S3d to pause/park the head at a given layer, then resume after changing the filament.

Here the blue was printed on a "translucent" white for some wall art.

 

[Bill Arnold]

I've seen the 'Stop at Layer' and 'Start at Layer' in S3D, etc. When I found this add-in, it seemed to be exactly what I needed for the two operations on which I used it.

 

[Brent Dowell]

I've done a fair amount of that in S3D using a script to pause at certain layers.

I've used it for making multi color 45rpm record adapters and to insert magnets into a variety of projects.

The script I use will pause the print, move the head out of the way so you can do whatever, then it the un-pause button and it will go back to where it started.

I'll have to check out that plugin. Might be easier than editing the script.

 

[Bill Arnold]

... I'll have to check out that plugin. Might be easier than editing the script.

I like it because I can just process an stl in S3D as normal. When ready to print, I load it into Octopi and use the gcode page to check the layer where I want to do the insert/change. Open Multi Color, enter the layer number, press 'process' and it can either modify your original or, as I prefer, create a secondary file to run. You can modify a script on the setup page to move the axes wherever you want them to have them out of the way.