Demozendium

Demozendium

The skeinforge manual has been moved to:
http://fabmetheus.crsndoo.com/wiki/index.php/Skeinforge

I'd like to thank Bogdan Kecman:
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Bogdan.kecman
http://picasaweb.google.com/bogdan.kecman/RapMan
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bogdan

and in serbian:
http://www.mysql.rs/
http://elco.crsndoo.com/

who made the skeinforge download site and has now finished the new Demozendium wiki:
http://fabmetheus.crsndoo.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Demozendium is an open source encyclopedia that gives contributors a fair share. Basically, decisions about this wiki are made democratically, by range voting to select between choices and by median voting to determine quantities. The adsense revenue is shared among the contributors. More information is on the About Demozendium page at:
http://fabmetheus.crsndoo.com/wiki/index.php/DEMOZENDIUM:About

The content from the old manual was copied on Thursday, November 18th. So if you made any edits to the old manual since then, please reenter them into the new wiki.

To prevent spam, registration in the new wiki is by email to:
perez_enrique yahoo.com

If your contributions online have been seen, you will get an account. If you haven't contributed somewhere before, then include your first article or edit or artwork. When registering, please also indicate if you want a share of revenue and/or you are willing to help administer.

For those who have written tutorials, the updated list which is now at the top of the skeinforge manual:
http://fabmetheus.crsndoo.com/wiki/index.php/Skeinforge#Tutorials

please either register and add your tutorial to the wiki directly, or send me an email granting me permission to add it to the wiki.

The new demozendium wiki is meant for anyone to write good articles on any subject and get a fair share. It's starting with skeinforge because it has to start somewhere, but it is not limited to skeinforge or reprap. Please send in your articles and artwork, all contributions are appreciated and rewarded, there are no requirements for notability and with controversial topics multiple viewpoints are accommodated with multiple articles.



Command Line Interface

The command line interface for slicing a file directly has been changed and there are now more options. Programs which call skeinforge from a shell command to slice a file may have to change the command string.

Slicing a file from skeinforge_utilities/skeinforge_craft.py, for example:
python skeinforge_application/skeinforge_utilities/skeinforge_craft.py test.stl

will slice the file and exit. This is the correct option for programs which use skeinforge to only generate a gcode file.

Slicing a file from skeinforge.py, for example:
python skeinforge_application/skeinforge.py test.stl

will slice the file and bring up the skeinforge window and the analyze windows and then skeinforge will wait for user input.

Slicing a file from skeinforge_plugins/craft.py, for example:
python skeinforge_application/skeinforge_plugins/craft.py test.stl

will slice the file and bring up the analyze windows only and then skeinforge will wait for user input.

Note, this does not change the command to bring up the skeinforge dialog without a file name, which is still:
python skeinforge_application/skeinforge.py



Scale Tool

There is a new tool scale which scales the carving to compensate for shrinkage after the extrusion has cooled. This is useful for things like gears which are eventually connected to non extruded components and must mesh precisely. The scale tool is not activated by default, so if you don't want scale you don't have to change anything.

It is best to only change the XY Plane Scale, because that does not affect other variables. If you choose to change the Z Axis Scale, that increases the layer thickness so you must increase the feed rate in speed by the same amount.



Delete Comments in Export

The Delete Comments checkbox in export has been changed to the Delete Comments menu. The new default is 'Delete Crafting Comments', which is similar to the old 'Delete Comments' default, so you don't have to change anything. The new choices are explained below:

Do Not Delete Comments
When selected, export will not delete comments. Crafting comments slow down the processing in many firmware types, which leads to segment pauses.

Delete Crafting Comments
When selected, export will delete the time consuming crafting comments, but leave the initialization comments. Since the crafting comments are deleted, there are no additional segment pauses. The remaining initialization comments provide some useful information for the analyze tools.

Delete All Comments
When selected, export will delete all comments. The comments are not necessary to run a fabricator.



The stable cached skeinforge is the latest file at:
http://fabmetheus.crsndoo.com/

the unstable skeinforge is on my website at:
http://members.axion.net/~enrique/reprap_python_beanshell.zip

the infrequently updated subversion version is at:
https://reprap.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/reprap/trunk/old_files/miscellaneous/python-beanshell-scripts/


Enrique

Limit and bottom

The stable cached skeinforge is the latest file at:
http://fabmetheus.crsndoo.com/

the unstable skeinforge is on my website at:
http://members.axion.net/~enrique/reprap_python_beanshell.zip

the infrequently updated subversion version is at:
https://reprap.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/reprap/trunk/old_files/miscellaneous/python-beanshell-scripts/

Thanks to Erik de Bruijn, who is one of the people working on the ultimaker at:
http://www.ultimaker.com/

many of the skeinforge tools now have layer progress indication.

Maximum Z Feed Rate has been moved from speed to limit, so set the Maximum Z Feed Rate in limit to whatever it was in speed.

Bottom Altitude has been moved from raft to bottom and in bottom it is now called altitude with a default of zero. So if you have Bottom Altitude set to something other than its default of zero, set the Altitude in bottom to whatever Bottom Altitude was in raft.

Skeinview has been renamed skeinlayer and behold has been renamed skeiniso. Any settings in skeinview and behold should be transferred automatically.

Initial Circling has been moved from temperature to raft.

Skeinforge can now read inskcape svg directly, so when using skeinforge to plot svg files:
http://reprap.org/wiki/Plotting

you can now skip the Blender conversion step.

The grid circle infill pattern has been added to fill. Because the circles are separated, the pattern is weak, it only provides support for the top layer threads and some strength in the z direction. The flip side is that this infill does not warp the object, the object will get warped only by the walls. Because this pattern turns the extruder on and off often, it is best to get a stepper motor extruder if you don't already have one.

The problem where alterations, like start.gcode, were sometimes being changed by the tool chain is mostly fixed, so you no longer to need to send some of them through with a replace prefix. If you're not using a replace prefix or haven't heard of one before, ignore this paragraph.

Cheers,
Enrique

Raft split into raft and temperature

I'd like to thank Bogdan Kecman:
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Bogdan.kecman
http://picasaweb.google.com/bogdan.kecman/RapMan
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bogdan

and in serbian:
http://www.mysql.rs/
http://elco.crsndoo.com/

for creating and maintaining the skeinforge website, where all the cached versions are, for testing skeinforge, and in general for helping many people.

I'd also like to thank Cliff Biffle, Nick Ames & Rick Pollack for writing up calibration information:
http://makerblock.com/2010/02/makerbot-skeinforge-tuning-and-calibration/

Triffid Hunter, whose blog is at:
http://wooden-mendel.blogspot.com/

has improved send.py:
http://dev.forums.reprap.org/file.php?154,file=1972,filename=send.py

and RepRapArduinoSerialSender.py:
http://dev.forums.reprap.org/file.php?154,file=1973,filename=RepRapArduinoSerialSender.py

These files are also in the miscellaneous/fabricate folder in skeinforge. The scripts can be send commands to the firmware. Please test these out and either send the results to Triifid Hunter or post them in the "patches for send.py and RepRapArduinoSerialSender.py" thread at:
http://dev.forums.reprap.org/read.php?154,35440

The default cool type choice in cool has been changed from Slow Down to Orbit because the DC motor extruders can not operate at slow flow rates accurately. Orbit has the problem of leaving hair around the object and emptying the nozzle, but if the extruder does not work properly at slow flow rates, Slow Down can not be used. Geared stepper motor pinch wheel extruders are the way to go, like the one Wade built, with articles at:
http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Development:Geared_Nema17_Extruder
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1794

Raft has been split into raft and temperature, and the setting names have been changed, so please reenter your settings in both tools. Otherwise, unfortunately, all your temperature settings will be the defaults.

Chamber used M109 for the bed temperature, then the reprap host used that command for something else, so I changed the bed temperature command to M110. Then the reprap host used M110 for something else, so now I've changed the bed temperature command to M140, so that chamber should be safe from new commands for a long time. The new commands follow below.

M140 Bed Temperature
M141 Chamber Temperature
M142 Holding Force

Clip now has the default option of connecting loops. Because the extra connection means extra filament, the 'Clip over Perimeter Width' ratio should be increased by roughly 50%, the default is now 0.5. Also, since 'Clip over Perimeter Width' is renamed from 'Clip over Extrusion Width', you have to reenter that setting in any case.

The extruder distance format choice has been moved from preface to the new tool dimension.

The stretch algorithm has been changed and stretch now moves the entire line, it no longer breaks up the line. As a side effect of the algorithm change, on average it does not stretch as much as it used to, so the settings should be increased by very roughly 15% to compensate.

Cheers,
Enrique


P.S.

Because a bit of spam is starting to appear in the comments on this blog, I have turned on comment moderation. So when you send in a comment, it will be a while, on average roughly a day, before it appears in the comments.