Skeinforge Skin
From DEMOZENDIUM
Skin is a plugin to smooth the surface skin of an object by replacing the edge surface with a surface printed at a fraction of the carve height. This gives the impression that the object was carved at a much thinner height giving a high-quality finish, but still prints in a relatively short time.
The latest process has some similarities with a description at:
http://adventuresin3-dprinting.blogspot.com/2011/05/skinning.html
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Operation
The default 'Activate Skin' checkbox is off. When it is on, the functions described below will work, when it is off, nothing will be done.
Settings
Division
Horizontal Infill Divisions
Default: 2
Defines the number of times the skinned infill is divided horizontally. This only affects the topmost layer.
Top view of a sliced object with Horizontal Infill Divisions set to 1, effectively disabling the option. |
Horizontal Infill Divisions set to 2 (default value). |
Horizontal Infill Divisions set to 3. |
Horizontal Perimeter Divisions
Default: 1
Defines the number of times the skinned edges are divided horizontally. Setting this value too high could produce lines that are too skinny for your hotend to reproduce.
Top view of a sliced object with Horizontal Perimeter Divisions set to 1 (default value), effectively disabling the option. |
Horizontal Perimeter Divisions set to 2. |
Horizontal Perimeter Divisions set to 3. |
Cutaway view of a simple 3 layer high object with Horizontal Perimeter Divisions set to 1, effectively disabling the option. |
Horizontal Perimeter Divisions set to 2 (default value). Note that due to Layers From being set to 1 by default, the first layer isn't affected. |
Horizontal Perimeter Divisions set to 3. Note that due to Layers From being set to 1 by default, the first layer isn't affected. |
Vertical Divisions
Default: 2
Defines the number of times the skinned infill (only for the topmost layer) and edges are divided vertically.
Cutaway view of a simple 3 layer high object with Vertical Divisions set to 1, effectively disabling the option. |
Vertical Divisions set to 2 (default value). |
Vertical Divisions set to 3. |
You can also combine the various settings:
Cutaway view of a simple 3 layer high object with Horizontal Perimeter Divisions and Vertical Divisions set to 1, effectively disabling the options. |
Horizontal Perimeter Divisions and Vertical Divisions set to 2. |
Horizontal Perimeter Divisions and Vertical Divisions set to 3. |
Hop When Extruding Infill
Default: off
When selected, the extruder will hop before and after extruding the lower infill in order to avoid the regular thickness threads.
Layers From
Default: 1
Defines which layer of the print the skinning process starts from. It is not wise to set this to 0, skinning the bottom layer is likely to cause the bottom edge not to adhere well to the print surface.
Tips
Due to the very small Z axis moves skinning can generate as it prints the edge, it can cause the Z axis speed to be limited by the Limit plug-in, if you have it enabled. This can cause some printers to pause excessively during each layer change. To overcome this, ensure that the Z axis max speed in the Limit tool is set to an appropriate value for your printer, e.g. 10mm/s.
Since Skin prints a number of fractional-height edge layers for each layer, printing the edge last causes the print head to travel down from the current print height. Depending on the shape of your extruder nozzle, you may get higher quality prints if you print the edges first, so the print head always travels up. This is set via the Thread Sequence Choice setting in the Fill tool.