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Print with dozens of colors: Our new open-source ColorMix for PrusaSlicer

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Re: Print with dozens of colors: Our new open-source ColorMix for PrusaSlicer

#31

Post by MayeulC »

Hmm, I am not in the 3D printer space anymore, but I am surprised they went with alternating layer per layer, as that severely limits resolution. It's probably the simplest way to achieve reproducible results, but I can think of a few other ways:

* the simplest is just mixing filaments, like one mixes paint. The article doesn't spell out the reason it doesn't work, I am curious as to why.

* together with alternating layers, colors could be alternated in the same layer. Some purging may be necessary, but I think you could either: accept some mixing (compute its impact to compensate) / take into account the volume in the nozzle (extrusion "latency") / discard the unwanted part in the infill (at the cost of less smooth edges)

Of course, the hard work with any approach, including their current work, is calibration, as the article highlights. I wonder if off-the-shelf monitor calibration sensors could help with measuring the filament you have at hand.

Re: Print with dozens of colors: Our new open-source ColorMix for PrusaSlicer

#32

Post by schobi »

I'm already annoyed by the marketing to call it fullspectrum - this seems to promise more than demonstrated. Maybe call it "CMYK printing"? I was hoping to see them printing a photograph (either on a horizontal or on a vertical surface, unlikely to work well on a ball). I was also missing a continuous gradient - so far, only colored patches?

I'm hoping for the next innovation with mixed extrusion to reduce print times. We are lacking an automatic extrusion amount and nozzle size mixing within a "layer". Not just fine layers everywhere with mixed colors on the inside.

Goal: print the infill and inner perimeter from a larger nozzle and thick layer height. Use the fine nozzle and fancy layer-mixing only on the outside where needed. It is not going to be strict layers any more - I understand, this makes it difficult certainly. Then the Prusa printers could shine that exchange fully loaded and pre heated print heads quickly.

Until then, I'll happily wait for 2 days to get a spool of orange filament delivered.. Instead of waiting for a 20hour print job

Re: Print with dozens of colors: Our new open-source ColorMix for PrusaSlicer

#33

Post by imtringued »

MayeulC wrote: post #31

Hmm, I am not in the 3D printer space anymore, but I am surprised they went with alternating layer per layer, as that severely limits resolution. It's probably the simplest way to achieve reproducible results, but I can think of a few other ways: * the simplest is just mixing filaments, like one mixes paint. The article doesn't spell out the reason it doesn't work, I am curious as to why. * together with alternating…

>the simplest is just mixing filaments, like one mixes paint. The article doesn't spell out the reason it doesn't work, I am curious as to why.

This requires you to control both filaments independently directly at the extruder. Dual direct drive for a single nozzle sounds like an engineering nightmare. The extruder head is going to be huge.

There is also the obvious problem of how to stirr the filament. Printing temperatures aren't hot enough to turn the plastic liquid, they just make it soft enough to drip out the nozzle. This means you can't just feed the filaments at continuos rates, you will have to use a PWM scheme where you extrude the first filament and then the second filament in extremely small discrete increments. That switching will give you the necessary agitation without building a throwaway nozzle that can't be cleaned after a clog.

All of this sounds like it would take at least a year for a well equipped research department to figure out. It's definitely not the simplest solution.

EDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/ender3v2/comments/ssuw3i/my_crazy_p...

Just the hot end of this extruder costs $70 alone. This is definitely not going to be cheap to do.

Re: Print with dozens of colors: Our new open-source ColorMix for PrusaSlicer

#35

Post by ant6n »

WillAdams wrote: post #14

It would be nice if additional colours would be supported, à la Hexachrome by Pantone (this was a 6-colour ink system which covered more than half of the PANTONE spot ink colour space and made quite vivid photo reproduction possible). Even better would be a mechanism like to Cerilica's Truism which would allow one to use arbitrary filaments and preview how they will blend when printed.

I thought Prusa only has a five color print head switcher.

Re: Print with dozens of colors: Our new open-source ColorMix for PrusaSlicer

#36

Post by JimmyBiscuit »

moebrowne wrote: post #34
Priv4cyM4773r5 wrote: post #29

> Your Privacy Matters - Prusa Research value your privacy Please accept 28 Advertisement cookies with 1+ year expiration to play one YouTube video...

At least they give you a choice

*are mandated by law to give you a choice

Re: Print with dozens of colors: Our new open-source ColorMix for PrusaSlicer

#38

Post by joshvm »

MBCook wrote: post #13
sailfast wrote: post #3

This looks awesome! Exciting to see what happens in this space.

I’ve always liked the idea of multi-color. But one of the big mental stumbling blocks for me was needing so many colors. I’m not the kind of person who does a lot of 3-D printing and can justify having a wall of different filaments just to put a different colored label on top of a part. When I first saw this pop-up in the community it was clear this was a fix. No it’s not as good as owning a roll of some specific col…

I recently started playing around with my Palette 3 again (on a MK3.5S). It’s an amazing piece of engineering that has a reputation for being frustrating to use. It’s now discontinued but Mosaic still sell spare parts and it’s designed to be stripped down and repaired. Despite the problems, it was built by good engineers - it uses one torx head for all screws (and comes with a driver). The next printer I get will probably be an INDX system though, the future is multitool.

I had written it off, because of how irritating Mosaic’s cloud slicer is. I’ve been pleasantly surprised how well it works with a fork of P2PP (vhspace/p2pp), a post processor for PrusaSlicer that is completely local. All it does is swap out the filament change commands with Palette splice instructions. I fixed a few gcode interpreter bugs that solved the issues I had with bed calibration and extrusion, and even splicing seems quite reliable. I’ve been using it for simple 2-color same-brand prints that would require a lot of manual changing, so not complex but it’s much nicer to use than an MMU2.

I’m excited to try this out for sure.

Re: Print with dozens of colors: Our new open-source ColorMix for PrusaSlicer

#39

Post by [deleted] »

rented_mule wrote: post #22
rblatz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AMS doesn’t cause the waste, it’s purging the old filament out of the tool head. The H2D and X2D can print two colors with an AMS without needing to purge and the H2C can do 7 without purging. You still need a prime tower when switching tool heads, but that is significantly less than a full purge. But I believe the INDX has the same restriction. I do agree though that direct feeding each tool head offers the best…

> You still need a prime tower when switching tool heads, but that is significantly less than a full purge. But I believe the INDX has the same restriction. INDX no longer needs a tower. They say there is 13 milligrams of waste (which they call less than a grain of rice) on each filament change. So a print with 1,000 changes wastes 13 grams of filament. Details: https://blog.prusa3d.com/prusa-core-one-indx-orders-now…

[deleted]

Re: Print with dozens of colors: Our new open-source ColorMix for PrusaSlicer

#40

Post by Filligree »

ant6n wrote: post #35
WillAdams wrote: post #14

It would be nice if additional colours would be supported, à la Hexachrome by Pantone (this was a 6-colour ink system which covered more than half of the PANTONE spot ink colour space and made quite vivid photo reproduction possible). Even better would be a mechanism like to Cerilica's Truism which would allow one to use arbitrary filaments and preview how they will blend when printed.

I thought Prusa only has a five color print head switcher.

The XL? Yes, but they also have an eight colour nozzle changer.
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