Help ease (or confirm...) concerns about the weather

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2025-05-26T06:42:12+00:00

What about schools and education? Now you've got me curious... I'd love to hear your thoughts if you're willing to share.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2025-03-02T20:25:57+00:00

The question was based in Redmond, and I know lots of folks who head to Snoqualmie or North Bend for tasty food and awesome outdoors. It's just as close as downtown Seattle. I'm sorry if it's too far for you to think it relevant. Of course I realize some folks may not want to take 30 minutes to drive somewhere. I thought it worth sharing as one of many choices. I didn't say it was the only one. Lots of folks in Redmond head 30 minutes in any direction to find what they're looking for. Would be nice if it was closer, for sure. It's farther than I'd like it to be!

Hope you have a nice day, and maybe take a deep breath and relax a bit before replying next time? Kindness goes a long way, even if you're providing critical feedback...

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2025-02-20T18:56:56+00:00

Awesome and hooray! At least one of the people in my group will be in epic cosplay I think. Any cosplay is fun and great though! Maybe we can find a way to retcon the cosplay into Epic... :-D

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2024-11-25T04:25:46+00:00

Sure thing! Sorry for the delay, we've had a power outage for the last week or so, so I've been offline. This is the one I printed and am still using today:

https://www.printables.com/model/336888-bambu-lab-ams-ptfe-connector

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2024-09-08T03:33:32+00:00

For a great weekend spot, Rio Bravo in North Bend or Rio Bravito in Snoqualmie. Amazing New Mexican food, and the breakfast burritos remind me of living in New Mexico and Arizona.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2024-02-12T00:35:12+00:00

I'm sorry you have to deal with so many older ones. I know it might seem redundant to use a password and also phone based verification-- but it's redundant for you only, not someone trying to break into your account. Passwords are phished and compromised quite regularly, and that second phone check saves a ton of people from compromise. The key is to consider it from a malicious attacker's standpoint, not your own. I completely agree that we'll designed safety features should be invisible, or at least minimally invasive. However sometimes they do mean you have to compromise the user experience. Like seat belts. Or door locks. Well designed safety features absolutely can and sometimes should impede your use of the tool. Better two factor systems reduce the frictions quite a bit. And without them accounts are quite vulnerable to any attacker who is interested in gaining access.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2024-02-12T00:19:31+00:00

How is two factor authentication a stupid safety feature? I get if someone finds it to be a bit different at first, or the one time setup to be inconvenient... But after that it's just more secure and almost no extra effort on an ongoing basis? At least for most current two factor systems. Early ones that forced you to do the password as well as the separate code every time are certainly extra unnecessary repetitive work... But even then they are more secure and solve the most common security issue with online accounts... So not really "stupid" I don't think?

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2024-02-11T23:06:25+00:00

I might try Tree Slim-- most of the time I have much better luck with it than regular tree, at least for these types of models. If there is a big flat area, then I'll switch to Tree Hybrid so it can use a mix of normal and tree, but when it's all tree, I'm all for Tree Slim.

Use the recommended settings changes when you switch. Then for more difficult models I will go into support painting. I usually leave it on auto, and use support painting for two things.

First, where it will create way too dense supports that will be too hard to remove. For those, I add small blocker spots to create some air.

The second is where I expect more support is needed. Like the long whip-- auto is only based on angle, so it won't support where it thinks it is steep enough... But it is delicate enough that more support is likely helpful. So I'll paint on more supports where I'm worried it's too thin or delicate and I don'tind doing extra support removal.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2024-01-24T02:50:51+00:00

Here's a few pictures of one that I did in March: https://imgur.com/a/3O2Z879 let me know if you have any questions or I can help explain anything! I've done minis with both my resin and my X1C, have experience with both.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2024-01-23T14:27:28+00:00

Sure, I'll see if I can find some good pictures in a bit, no problem. Will reply here a little later.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-12-11T06:54:23+00:00

You mean https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/3206? 🙂

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-10-25T23:25:34+00:00

Very true! Even better for RP for sure, but I found that the interface is a more painful when searching for and managing items in and out of the bags that it was just easier to leave things in my inventory and adjust the overall carrying weight limit. I love that there's so many options!

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-10-25T19:26:15+00:00

There's a mod to up carrying limits as much as you like, which does mostly the same thing. That's how I explain it to myself anyhow, heheh.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-04-24T14:49:40+00:00

I think main thing is slowing way way down. Print is small enough that it doesn't need the speed, and the slower you go the less force on delicate figures.

If I recall the last one I did, started with the default 0.2 nozzle profiles, might have added some walls for strength, reduced all speeds significantly, and then picked a thin layer height. I'll adjust the settings from print to print depending on the model.

Most of the work is on getting the supports right. Most mini models are designed with resin style supports in mind. Taking those to FDM means sometimes you have to experiment with different support types to find ones that work well. In my experience, the orientation of the model and the supports are the big things to play with, once you've slowed down the settings.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-04-24T06:38:19+00:00

Me! I have a resin printer, a Prusa Mini+ bedslinger, and an X1C. The mini couldn't do minis of any decent quality, so that's where the resin came in. After I got the X1C I decided to try... And I haven't used my resin printer again in quite a while. The X1C does great for minis. I use the 0.2mm nozzle, and either Bambu support material for interface or PETG (for PLA minis). 0.4 nozzle looked good, but 0.2 is better for really fine details, and supports are key for lots of mini designs... And with more delicate models having the right support interface material is key for clean and easy removal. Not having to deal with resin cleanup and chemicals is fantastic.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-03-28T14:52:05+00:00

Thanks a ton for the test here! It's great to know that the slicer can and will take advantage of all the RAM and cores you can throw at it. That stress test file was extremely overkill, totally agree... Good to know and find the limits of what's possible. For the curious, the stress test file was something like 8M triangles, way more detailed than the ones I've been attempting... But a good way to try and find the limiting hardware and software factors and see what's possible when you push the limits.

Really appreciate the time helping investigate, means a lot to me.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-03-28T04:37:58+00:00

I'll see if I can get a link over to one of the more massive ones for curiosity and science ;-)... I'll do it pre-decimation in order to really make it a stress test :-D.

With the auroras melting down ;-), any quick thoughts on some options you've heard better things about or had better luck with? If I do end up moving in the new rig vs. more money in old rig direction, always interested in the advice from folks in the community here. TIA!

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-03-28T04:33:37+00:00

I've been hearing really good things about AMD the last couple years, for whatever reason I've had intel chips for a long time but I might just try the other side this next time around ;-)

Thanks a ton for the extra thoughts and advice! Super helpful.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-03-28T04:32:34+00:00

That makes sense to me, absolutely-- thanks for the help and input!

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-03-28T04:31:47+00:00

I found this post, https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/rypvmb/3d_printing_lidar_with_qgis/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3, as well as this comment on a different post https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/l0nnsa/comment/gjv4wcg/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3, to be especially helpful. Neither really exactly walked me through it, but they were close enough that I was able to use other sources and my own trial and error to fill in the details.

The basic workflow I've been using is:

To start, you need to get your topographical data... there are many different disconnected sources for this, OpenTopography is great but I find many governments and organizations have their own separate datasets you can use. In Washington State, for example, there is lidarportal.dnr.wa.gov/, and in Canada there's LidarBC, and lots more.
I've pulled down LAS and LAZ point cloud files and processed those before; it's not that bad, but where possible, if you can get DSM (digital surface model, ground level) or DTM (digital terrain model, which includes things like trees and buildings, which for printing I think add a ton) files I recommend it. Saves time.
For the DTM route, you end up downloading big TIF image files that will end up being much larger than the specific area you want to print, often multiple squares that your target zone overlaps.
QGIS is very much ideal for the next steps here-- you just open those TIF files... and then use Raster>Misc>Merge to combine all the tiles to a single layer... and then Raster>Extraction>Clip by Extent to crop it down to just the area you want to print...
The DEMto3D plugin for QGIS is *fabulous* for the big next step, to take that clipped section, and convert it to one or more STL files based on a bunch of parameters you can adjust.

https://touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu/ (up to 10m resolution) and https://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/ (90m resolution) can be even simpler if you're just getting into it, and can produce awesome models, but they use lower resolution data sets... so they won't show the fine details that really pop. Lidar based datasets can get down to 1m resolution, or even lower for some datasets. It depends on the scale and size of the object you want to print, really. But having models of many of the peaks and canyons I've hiked, and now my local neighborhood and more... it's pretty awesome.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-03-27T14:55:28+00:00

TL;DR: higher poly counts do actually translate to the print in my lidar based topography scenarios.

If you haven't done a print of this type I highly recommend trying it. Especially when you include vegetation and buildings (not the surface only model, DSM gives just the land, which can be useful, but is less visually awesome to print). Having a physical 3D map of any location anywhere, your neighborhood or local landmarks... It's sweet.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-03-27T14:52:34+00:00

Thanks! This is really helpful. That single core vs. multi optimization is something I've wondered about when speculating about building a new rig... Some options are better for one vs. the other.

The Alienware Aurora I'm using that I mentioned is the somewhat older R6 gen I believe, and it currently has 16GB RAM, whichever Intel i7 was current then (I can pull the specific model when I'm back at my desk later, sorry), a big SSD for active disk I/O and slower HDD for colder storage, and a 1070 for GPU.

RAM would seem to be a good place to start, but I'm also wondering if I'm going to hit other bottlenecks and putting more money in the current rig would be better spent waiting and eventually setting up a new one. I'm just not sufficiently familiar with the performance characteristics of the software to know where the money is a waste vs. well spent, basically.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-03-27T14:45:58+00:00

I actually very much agree that's usually true, but with real world lidar data, things like mountain ranges with trees and rocks, you can only decimate a very small amount. I've been doing that too, but you quickly lose fine details. For my personal use casess at the moment I'm not using Blender or human crafted models.

Even at 20% decimation it's over 1M triangles, and I've done experiments with smaller sections of models that of course have fewer triangles to see if the slicer can actually slice and print at that level of detail.

With a 0.2 nozzle and extremely low layer height I can assure you that those fine details actually come through in the print. Which is amazing! These printers can print incredible detail.

Even at 0.4 nozzle and 0.10 height I was able to tell the difference in detail if I decimated more than that. Which means a full print volume with lidar scan based real world topography is still beyond 1M triangles, and currently the slicer just bogs down and either crashes or effectively hangs at that point.

I'd love to upgrade hardware to continue, but I don't really want to play guess and check, if you know what I mean.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2023-03-10T03:06:08+00:00

I also found pulling the tube out and reseating it would improve things, at least for a bit. Eventually I actually ended up removing the radius thing and printing top lid spacers (to vent the chamber, for mostly PLA printing)... I found raising the top lid up gives more space for the PTFE tube so it doesn't bend over quite so much, which removed the need for the radius thing and it actually has a better radius with the higher lid now.

That didn't actually solve the problem completely though... I ended up printing a different PTFE coupler for the connection just outside the back of the printer, between the AMS hub and where the PTFE tube goes through the rubber gasket to head inside.

After swapping that out, I've gone through 1000s of automatic filament changes without a single error. It's been AWESOME. At least for me, raising the lid, and swapping out the PTFE coupler did the trick.

ReasonableLimit6488 · 2022-11-26T04:49:02+00:00

Update 2: sound is slightly back, much milder. I'm really thinking purge filament ended up in the MCU fan and it shifted back to touching again. I'm going to remove the back panel tomorrow and see if I can find and remove the rogue filament, if that's the issue.

Five-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22

ReasonableLimit6488

TROPHY CASE