Quite some time ago I’ve bough myself a 3D printer. Because why not. Wanted to learn something and they are really cheap now, grabbed Creality Ender 3 v2 because it was super cheap and felt like it’s not a too big downgrade from Ender 3 S1 plus a great way to learn basics including bed leveling and stuff. I used to fabricate parts for years, but in reverse, by removing material from a block and carving it into desired form. 3D printing goes the other way, by adding material until it forms a desired shape. It’s sometimes more efficient and neat.
One thing I quickly noticed is a layer seam that happens at a point where 3D printer is changing layers. I get the reason behind it, what I don’t understand is how it’s done, with no option to get rid of it in the slicer itself. Essentially slicer software computes the printing paths and then just feeds it to printer via gcode so it’s irrelevant what printer it is.
What I can’t understand is why (at least on Ender 3 v2 in Creality Print slicer), there isn’t any option to make the seam fully on the inside of the printed model. You can only adjust whether filament is retracted on layer change which seems to improve things dramatically, but it’s still not it. You can also control where seam is preferred, which is by default designated to happen on the inside of the sharpest edge. Question I have is, why not have option “middle of the model” ?
Who says layer shift needs to happen on the outside edge? Or on the sharpest anything? Usually doing it on the corners, basically ensuring its visibility.
Just add option to slicer to create seam in the middle of the model on the infill. I don’t care if it takes a bit longer and uses a bit more filament, if it’s piling up material on layer changes literally in the middle of the model, I don’t care how ugly it is, it’s done on the infill which I don’t see anyway. Travel outside of the model, move nozzle in the middle of the model and change layer there and return printing to the outside uninterrupted, entirely eliminating any seam formation on the exterior of the model. It’s such a simple solution, yet at least Creality isn’t using it. Hm.
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