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

blog.prusa3d.com

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

#41

Post by circuit10 »

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…

This is a software solution designed to work with existing multi colour printers, so you can’t “just mix” them as this would need additional hardware

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

#42

Post by bradfa »

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…

Xerox had (maybe still has?) some printers with 5 or 6 color toner capacity. CMYK plus you could order special color toner in stock or fully custom mixes (minimum order sizes apply for full custom) but it was great for companies who had logos which could not be exactly represented by CMYK half toning as the spot color toner could be their exact logo color.

I’m sure the same kind of thing would be possible using Prusa’s documented methods with a little extra work.

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

#43

Post by qwery »

schobi wrote: post #32

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 time…

Calling it "marketing" is a bit over the top. I understand what you're saying and your disappointment, but I think the issue is really a matter of unrealistic expectations.

The article is by Prusa Research and it's about a recent, novel 3D printing technique. This is very much an area of active research and also development (not to be confused with R&D).

The "FullSpectrum" thing is the name given to the project in which the developer, ratdoux, who is presumably an individual, demonstrated the technique. There's no Orcas in it, either.

https://github.com/ratdoux/OrcaSlicer-FullSpectrum

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

#44

Post by MBCook »

Aurornis wrote: post #18
MBCook wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s wrong with not using the community model for their internal tests? I’m sure they have a good reason. It can’t possibly be just NIH. Yeah they’re focusing on their filaments but that’s their product. It would be weird if they didn’t start there. Plus they’re working with the open filament database that as established to go with the open source NFC tags they cooperated with other companies on. That seems sand to…

> What’s wrong with not using the community model for their internal tests? I’m sure they have a good reason. It can’t possibly be just NIH The problem with their models is that it's a cone shape. The angle is fixed. The community models are domed so you can see the effect at different angles. > Plus they’re working with the open filament database that as established to go with the open source NFC tags they cooperate…

Yeah the dome gives you more angles. That may be the problem. If you’re testing a color mixing algorithm and measuring the output a larger surface at a single angle is probably much easier to measure constantly with colorimeters. If you can’t predict one angle accurately how will you predict others?

That’s just a guess. I’m sure there’s a reason.

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

#45

Post by MBCook »

Aurornis wrote: post #20
MBCook wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big thing for me is this plus the INDX from Bondtech. And at least for now they are the exclusive partner for that (you can still buy on your own and add to any machine). INDX already has fast color changes and produces far FAR less waste than an AMS. And that’s what sold me. Then the coloring mixing stuff started coming from the community. Now you don’t need to buy 30 colors of filament for many uses. Thats a se…

> It’s a great confluence of events if you’re in the Prusa ecosystem or just don’t want a Bambu or U1. I'm excited for INDX too, but like you said it's not a Prusa exclusive system. I think this is great news for people who like to play entirely within the Prusa ecosystem, but I also think it's good to let people know that there are a lot of options outside of that ecosystem. The Snapmaker U1 is looking good at $899…

If I wasn’t already in the Prusa ecosystem the U1 is what I’d want. I was jealous of it until INDX was announced.

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

#46

Post by MBCook »

_zoltan_ wrote: post #25
MBCook wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big thing for me is this plus the INDX from Bondtech. And at least for now they are the exclusive partner for that (you can still buy on your own and add to any machine). INDX already has fast color changes and produces far FAR less waste than an AMS. And that’s what sold me. Then the coloring mixing stuff started coming from the community. Now you don’t need to buy 30 colors of filament for many uses. Thats a se…

at home printing values, is filament waste really such a problem? I understand OSS people don't like Bambu, but as pure end user, they are great and well put together.

I’d say the level of waste from filament switching is a disaster. But many people are used to it which I find crazy.

It can be multiple times the weight of the actual thing you’re printing. Exactly how bad depends on the model. Here’s an extreme version:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1jluvde/35_g_mode...

It makes one of those little color blobs every single time it changes colors.

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

#47

Post by wongarsu »

imtringued wrote: post #33
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 temp…

Minuteman on youtube has a four extruder single nozzle setup for speed printing. He occasionally uses multiple colors, and they basically don't mix in the nozzle. The cross section of an extrusion looks like a pie chart

You would need special nozzle geometry that encourages mixing, and likely much higher temperatures. And any such mixing geometry will trap some filament. Switching from dark to light colors might require purging with meters of light filament to get all traces of black filament out

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

#48

Post by wongarsu »

MBCook wrote: post #15
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.

They’re not limiting you, the community work this is based on doesn’t either. Yeah they’re going to sell sets for easy use but it’s just color mixing. If you know the filament colors, which is what the filament database is for, you’ve got all the info you need. And you’re only limited in quantity by how many filaments you can load at once. A full INDX setup on a Core One is 8. I thought you could daisy chain Bambu AM…

The newer Bambu printers (H2D and X2D) allow up to 25 colors. One nozzle connected directly to the spool holder, then the other to four 4-spool AMS 2 Pror and 8 single spool high-temp AMS HT

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

#49

Post by MBCook »

schobi wrote: post #32

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 time…

> 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.

The INDX has extremely low waste when you switch from one tool head to another. Just a little tiny nugget.

It also supports different sized nozzles in the different heads, like the Prusa XL.

So I suspect having far more people with access to that will help push better uses for that. PrusaSlicer 3 is coming soon with lots of improvements (according to them) but we don’t know what yet. I’m hoping that’s one of em.

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

#50

Post by MBCook »

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...

You can read the entire article without that, it explains everything really well.

It’s not like many companies in the world where the video IS the article and they just assume no one reads.

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