Slic3r Questions (Bridges, Gaps, Skirts, and Brims??)

Can someone just briefly define these terms for me, I can find them within Slic3r

Bridges, Gaps, Skirts, and Brims.

Thanks so so much!

I'm sorry for being such a terrible person, but you can find a forum, however, you cannot find out what these things mean?

Well, for bridges:
[lmgtfy.com]

And so on.

In Slic3R:

Skirt - An initial laydown of filament outside the perimeter of the object being printed. This is
typically 1-3 loops and is used to make sure the filament is flowing cleanly and laying down correctly.
Typically these are printed 3-6 mm from the object.

Brim - This is additional 1st layer material printed directly along the outside perimeter of the object.
It is designed to help hold the object to the bed. Typically these are 2-3mm. Think of it as
the brim of a hat.

if all else fails. read the manual. here is the link: [manual.slic3r.org]

look at the left of the page for links to setting changes for the above mentioned. with pictures it is quite helpful. it still is a work in progress, so the page author should/would graciously accept feedback about it.

I fully understand the motivation for the original post. It's nice that there is a Slic3r manual, but as I've found with much of the wikis and other documentation for open-source 3D printing, it seems to be written for people who already have a good idea of how things work. If you read over the Slic3r manual after having done a bunch of prints, it is is a pretty good resource. If you are just starting out, though, it is pretty terse and actually leaves a lot unexplained. (I'm not picking on the Slic3r manual in particular - it's better than most open-source docs.)

I've whined on this forum before about lack of documentation and was told in various replies that it's not feasible to document open-source developments the same way a commercial product would be documented -- but not to fear - the open-source community is happy help people get things sorted out. Its nice to see people providing answers to even really basic questions.

As for a Bridge: that is where you are extruding material over a gap in your model that has no support material underneath it. The extruded filament will sag until it connects with another part of your model. Slic3r has options for adjusting the print speed and the amount of cooling to help minimize the amount of sag. (I believe faster and cooler is better for minimizing sag, but I haven't had much luck with bridging, so I may be wrong.)

When you mouse-over the input textboxes, it gives a very good description of what does what

But seriously, the web is not kindergarten anymore. In 2014 you would expect people to google for stuff, this is very easy to find out! Please tell me if I'm too rude, but I really feel like this needs to be said sometimes. And I know that even I can post the most rediculous stuff, however I do look for my information through google before I start asking.

My motto:
The power of knowledge in the current age is self-discovery. And after that fails, ask for help.

Quote
Ohmarinus
But seriously, the web is not kindergarten anymore. In 2014 you would expect people to google for stuff, this is very easy to find out! Please tell me if I'm too rude, but I really feel like this needs to be said sometimes. And I know that even I can post the most rediculous stuff, however I do look for my information through google before I start asking.

It is a fine line to walk, between saying what needs to be said and not being rude, and I can't say I know exactly where that line is. A good chunk of my paying job for the last 15 years has been writing documentation and doing customer support for motion control products for engineers. I can't count the number of times I've wanted to respond to e-mail with "read the damn data sheet". For the incredibly obvious questions that could have been answered with the most casual browsing of the documentation, I take the tact of giving a brief answer and then pointing them to the exact spot where they can get more detailed information.

Often what I find, though, is that a customer is not nearly as lazy as his question seems - that he does have a vague idea of the basics, but is stuck trying to understand some particular detail. This is the other problem - that questions are often far too general. I'd urge people posting questions to give as much detail as possible.

LoboCNC, provide that feedback to the page author.

Quote
jamesdanielv
LoboCNC, provide that feedback to the page author.

Now here's a stupid question: I've looked over the Slic3r manual web pages and haven't seen any obvious place where I can provide feedback (presumably to the author, Gary Hodgson). I must be missing something obvious.

In the info about Slic3r it says that the software is by Alessandro Ranellucci, maybe you can search for him to provide feedback?

I don't have any social media profiles so I can't contact them through Social media about this

On their site it says:

Primary author:
Alessandro Ranellucci
You can contact me at alessandro@unterwelt.it (but see the Support page first) or find me on the #slic3r channel in FreeNode IRC as Sound. Also follow me on Twitter (@alessandroranel)


Also, here, in their Support Page they point to their Slic3r page in the Reprap Forums:
[slic3r.org]

Which can be found here:
[forums.reprap.org]

And there, is where this topic really belongs

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2014 05:56PM by Ohmarinus.