Prusa

The 4 black and orange printers in the lab are Prusa Printers

Prusa is a Czech company who makes great inexpensive printers. We have 2 mini's, 1 MK3+, and 1MK3+ MMU(multi-material). These are great all around printers which in the lab print PLA (hard plastic) and TPU(flexible plastic) filament.

As discussed in Design for 3D printing all 3D prints start as a 3D model (STL or 3MF file) which is then processed in software (slicer software) into slices and assinged motor values to create each shape of each layer. The computer code made by a slicer to send to a 3D printer is called G-Code.

Steps to print

1. Create or find a 3D model

2. open Prusa slicer(if unavailable on lab computer let Mr.Mansfield know or look for a different computer)

3. insure the correct settings for machines and filament's

1. Make sure your Print settings are set to the correct printer (mini, MK3+ or MMU) and your filament is set to the correct material (PLA or TPU/FLEX)

Check your settings

1. Now add your STL or 3MF model via File->Import->Import STL... Make sure you import you file as the correct units (inches or mm)

Import your model

Ta-Da!

1. Now select the detail level- the higher the detail the longer the print will take. I normally will leave this at the default "Quality" unless I need to change it

Select your quality/resolution

1. Choose if you want supports or not. You have to consider overhangs. For best results I often select supports everywhere, however there are good cases for other support strategies or no support

Supports?

1. Now it is time to Slice! this will convert the model to layers and generate G-code to follow those slices. There are tons more settings you can play around with, but for the most part this should print. If you are interested in more advanced settings explore them!

10. we have to get it to the printer. There are two ways to achieve this: physically and over the internet. The simplest way in the lab is to use Prusa Connect. Simply login to Prusa connect using :

[e-mail] and Tomorrow1 as the password

To physically get your G-code to a printer you will need a USB drive for the Mini's or a SD card for the MK3+ or MMU. Just export the G-code and save to the storage media.

To share your G-code via the internet we will use Octoprint. A Raspberry Pi ( a credit card sized computer) is plugged into the printer, we can send our G-code to the Raspberry Pi and it will control the printer! Octoprint is on the Rpi plugged into the 3D printer, that little computer makes a server which we will access by typing the IP address listed in front of the 3D printer. This can only be done if you are in the lab and connected to the ToMorrow Labs wifi network.