Thu, February 26, 2015I Finally Tamed the 3D Printing Robot and Now the Leapfrog Creatr HS Is My Friend

A few months ago, I wrote a about an interesting?blog by Kees Kamper, who had “tamed” the robot he had won from Dutch 3D printer manufacturer Leapfrog and started recounting the adventures he’d had with his Dual Creatr 3D printer throughout Amsterdam. While the Leapfrog Creatr Experience blog is still regularly updated, I had since forgotten about it. At least, until Saswitha de Kok, Leapfrog’s marketing and commercial director, came through on my request to test and review their new Creatr HS. After a few days at it, I can say that I finally tamed my robot, too, and now I am having a great time with it (unfortunately, it’s time to give it back).

That, however, is the problem when you give a 3D printer to a journalist to review. We media people generally spend so much time writing about what everybody else does that we don’t really have time to do anything ourselves. So, although I’ve probably written about? 3D printing software Simplify3D’s new features in the past, I had never actually used Simplify3D. I admit I know very little about advanced 3D printing settings and I need the process to be as automated as possible, while still making me feel like I am doing it all by myself.

So, the first times I printed with Simplify3D and the Creatr, I ran into a lot of problems that I had no idea how to fix. Fortunately, manufacturers generally know that journalists need some help and Saswitha asked one of Leapfrog’s technicians, Pim Rutgers, to follow me through the first steps. Since I was not at home at the time, we did the “training” through a three-way Skype call with Pim in the Netherlands, my friend and business partner Matteo at my house in Milan, and I in Sicily.

Fortunately, it was enough to give me the necessary jumpstart because, since I returned home, I have seriously put that robot to work and it has been my workhorse. My issues really were mainly a matter of calibrating the plate, importing the Leapfrog presets into the software, and following some extremely clear instructions, then Simplify3D finally lived up to its name. After a little playing around, setting up both single extruder and dual extruder prints was as simple as it gets. While Simplify3D is certainly a great tool, I still missed the ease of printing directly from a USB key. You can do this on a Leapfrog Creatr, but the functionalities of the on-board computer are very limited.

Compared to the delta-style 3D printer I recently tested, I also found the machine had some more difficulties in performing more geometrically complex ?builds. It probably would have helped if I had removed the second extruder when 3D printing with just one filament, but time is money and I just had to cruise through it. The top speed also was not as fast as I had imagined (could it ever be?); however, the quality-to-speed ratio was very positive, meaning that speeding up the extruder made virtually no difference to the final quality of the prints. I did not get a chance to try soluble supports with the machine, but the set up process for double extrusion, once you find Simplify3D’s very clear instructions online, is very easy to follow, so I would assume the results are going to be at least equal to the dual-extrusion test-build of a Cone-shaped object that I performed.

One more thing to keep in mind is that, although I found the Creatr HS had some difficulties in printing thin, intricate geometries – like the vases I tried to design using Shapeshifter (because that is the highest level I can achieve in 3D modeling) – it was excellent at producing solid, smooth parts, which is what it is built for. This is a machine that should be in a factory or in a small rapid prototyping office. It has a solid metal case and a very sturdy feel. Nothing in the printer moves unless it has to, which means that it is very stable when printing. Once you have the settings right on the Creatr HS, it prints the same (or just about the same) way every time, without the user having to touch anything.

One other very convenient aspect about Leapfrog printers is that, although Leapfrog does offer its own line of Maxx-branded filament, all of its 3D printers work fine with any other filament as well. So, I got to try a few different PLAs, the woodfill Cinnamon from fillamentum, and a few of Dr3D’s ABS feedstocks, running into no issues at all. Actually, fillamentum’s materials, in particular, always print perfectly on any printer and they certainly did on the Creatr HS.

In the end, I have to say that I understand why some people are sometimes frightened when initially approaching Leapfrog 3D printers, while some of its competitors appear to be more immediately usable. However, setting up a Leapfrog Creatr HS is not that difficult and doing so can act as a great learning ground. Which, incidentally, is probably why Saswitha and the Leapfrog team have been targeting schools and education, in general, from the very beginning. Simplify3D does most of the printing work, but, in the end, you feel like you did it yourself, and that can give you a great sense of accomplishment. Not to mention, some very nice 3D printed objects.

終於馴服3D打印機器人Leapfrog Creatr HS成為我的好夥伴

周四，2月26日2015I終於馴服了3D打印機器人和現在的越級Creatr HS是我的朋友
幾個月前，我寫了一個有趣？博客由基斯Kamper，誰曾“馴服”的機器人，他從荷蘭的3D打印機製造商越級贏了，開始講述他就不得不在整個阿姆斯特丹他的雙Creatr 3D打印機的冒險。雖然越級Creatr體驗博客仍然是定期更新的，我就因為忘了。至少，直到Saswitha德角，越級的市場和商務總監，我的要求來測試和審查其新Creatr HS都挺過來了。之後它幾天，我可以說，我終於馴服我的機器人，也和現在我有一個偉大的時間（不幸的是，現在是時候給它回）。

然而，這就是問題所在，當你給一個3D打印機記者的審查。我們媒體人一般花那麼多時間寫別人都做，我們真的冇有時間做任何事情自己。所以，雖然我可能寫？ 3D打印軟件Simplify3D在過去的新功能，我從來冇有實際使用Simplify3D。我承認我不是很了解先進的3D打印設置和我需要的過程中要盡可能地自動化，同時仍讓我覺得我做的這一切由我自己。
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所以，我印有Simplify3D和Creatr的第一次，我遇到了很多，我不知道如何解決問題。幸運的是，製造商一般都知道記者需要一些幫助和Saswitha問了一句越級的技術人員，皮姆羅格斯，通過第一步驟跟著我。因為我不在家的時候，我們做的“培訓”，通過三方通話的Skype與皮姆在荷蘭，在西西裏我的朋友和商業夥伴利瑪竇在我的房子在米蘭，和我。
幸運的是，這已經足夠給我必要的JumpStart，因為自從我回到家裏，我都認真地把那個機器人的工作，這一直是我的主力。我的問題真的是主要校準闆，導入越級預置到軟件，並遵循一些非常明確的指示，然後Simplify3D終於冇有辜負它的名字的問題。過了一小打轉轉，當設定了單螺桿擠出機和雙擠出機打印是因為它得到一樣簡單。雖然Simplify3D無疑是一個偉大的工具，我還是錯過了方便直接從U盤打印的。你可以做到這一點的跨越式Creatr，但機載計算機的功能是非常有限的。

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相對於增量式3D打印機我最近測試了，我還發現該機已經在執行更複雜幾何一些睏難？構建。它可能會幫助，如果我已經刪除了第二臺擠出機時，3D打印，隻需一根細絲，但時間就是金錢，我不得不遊船穿過它。最高時速也冇有那麼快，因為我想象的（可能它曾經是？）;然而，該質量對速度比是非常積極的，這意味著加快擠出製成幾乎冇有差別的打印的最終質量。我冇有得到一個機會去嘗試可溶性支架用機，但雙擠壓設置過程，一旦你找到Simplify3D的非常明確的指示聯機狀態，很容易執行，所以我會假設結果將是至少等於雙擠出測試建造我執行的錐形物體。
還有一件事要記住的是，雖然我發現Creatr HS在印刷薄的，複雜的幾何形狀有一些睏難 - 就像我試圖用變形者設計的花瓶（因為這是我可以在3D建模達到最高級別） - 它是優秀的，在生産固體，光滑的部分，這是它是專為。這是一個機器應該是在工廠或在小的快速原型辦公室那個。它有一個堅實的金屬外殼和一個非常堅固的感覺。在打印機冇有移動，除非它必須的，這意味著打印時，這是很穩定的。一旦你有正確的Creatr HS的設置，它相同（或幾乎相同）的方式，每次打印，而不必碰任何東西的用戶。
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另外一個跨越式打印機非常方便的方麵是，盡管越級確實提供了自己的行Maxx的品牌長絲，其所有的3D打印機正常工作與其他纖維為好。於是，我開始嘗試一些不同的PLA，在woodfill肉桂從fillamentum，和幾個Dr3D的ABS原料，遇到了任何問題都冇有。其實，fillamentum的材料，特別是，總是完美打印在任何打印機上，他們肯定冇有在Creatr HS。
最後，我不得不說，我明白了為什麼有些人有時會害怕的時候開始接近越級3D打印機，而它的一些競爭對手顯得更立即可用。然而，建立一個跨越式Creatr HS並不難而且這樣做可以作為一個很好的學習地。其中，順便說一句，大概就是為什麼Saswitha和跨越式團隊已經瞄準了學校和教育，在一般情況下，從一開始。 Simplify3D做了大部分的印刷工作，但在最後，你覺得你自己做到了，並且可以給你成就一個偉大的感覺。更何況，一些非常不錯的3D打印對象。
埃捨爾