Details on operations available to process slice data and to generate or refine toolpath information
Depending on their function, these filters typically take only closed contours or open lines, or hatches, and using them on toolpath types they are not aimed at may produce undefined behavior. For example, it does not make sense to create intersections between open lines as open lines on their own have no enclosed area.
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- Generate offset
- Reinforce thin walls
- Remove self-intersections
- Boolean operations
- Create intersection
- Create filling
- Trim hatches
- Extend hatches
- Convert contours/hatches
- Contour segmentation
- Flow segmentation
- Multilaser splitting
- Reduce points
- Aggregate slices
- Sort contours
- Z compensation
- EBPA calculation
Generate offset
Generates a new toolpath parallel to the original and offset by a definable distance.
Expects the offset value itself, the direction (inner or outer offset), and a roundness in degrees to generate a fillet. A fillet is only generated over convex corners. Concave corner offsets do not receive a fillet. The lower the value, the higher the subdivision of the fillet curve around the corner.
Reinforce thin walls
This generates additional toolpaths along narrow sections of a contour that might otherwise go unsupported by infill or internally offset contours. This operation exists in two variants that calculate the necessary toolpaths in slightly different ways. You should experiment which one is suited best to your application.
Expects values for Offset, the threshold distance up to which a wall is considered thin enough for this operation, and for Shorten Terminals, which makes the path terminate before it touches the contour at its far end.
TopRemove self-intersections
Intersections can appear when a part with two overlapping shells was sliced. This operation splits off and deletes any overlapping contours, stitches them together properly while maintaining enclosed and valid hollows.
Boolean operations
This operation has two functions: It either keeps the areas occupied by any of the selected slice stacks and merges it into one common area, or, any exclusive combination of stack areas may be subtracted from any other exclusive combination, for example: (A+C)-(B+D).
Create intersection
This keeps only those areas that all selected slice stacks have in common.
Create filling
Generates toolpaths for infill, or filling patterns.
- Simple hatching
Simple parallel lines that scan the entire fillable slice area in one single pass.
- Stripe filling
Parallel lines cover the fillable slice area in as many parallel tracks (stripes) as it takes, with the stripes going in a direction perpendicular to the lines that comprise the stripes.
- Quad islands
The fillable slice area is covered with two passes of complementary checkerboard patterns. The lines in one pattern are aligned perpendicularly to those in the complementary pattern.
- Checkerboard
The fillable slice area is covered with two passes of complementary checkerboard patterns. The lines in both patterns are parallel; however, the islands are hatched in an interleaving manner.
Radial hatching
Hatches are oriented radially from the geometric center of the full slice stack. As hatch lines spread out and the distances become larger, new hatch lines are inserted to keep their distance within a margin.
Extend hatches
Increase the length of contour or hatch lines beyond their original start and end points. This can be used to compensate for the rise and fall times of laser switching.
TopConvert contours/hatches
Provides a number of tools to convert or tweak hatches and contours.
- Convert contours to hatches
To prevent a printer from generating infill hatching, change the type of the path from a contour to hatching. As hatching is usually A) not closed, and B) taken as filling in the first place, embedded slicing software will usually forego generating hatches themselves, leaving you with a contour that you can fill yourself.
- Convert hatches to contours
This tries to connect hatch lines into a closed contour. This should only be used on hatches which had been generated by converting contours and may lead to unexpected results otherwise.
- Filter contours
If a slice stack's data is composed of multiple types of toolpaths, use this to keep only one or more of hatches, closed contours, and open contours.
- Connect contours
When multiple contours are present in a slice layer, a connection is generated between the start and end points of them.
- Filter small contours
Removes any contours that enclose an area up to a specifiable area.
- Revert direction
Flips the toolpath direction. Expects the interval in numbers of layers every which one the toolpath direction should be reversed, as well as a Layer Offset to leave the first layers alone.
- Randomize seam
Moves the start and end points of contour lines around to avoid accumulating artifacts from always starting and ending in the same location.
- Hatch permutation
Reorders the hatches so that they are drawn in interleaving passes. For example, draw the even ones first, then the odd ones.
Contour segmentation
Modify the toolpath such that contours are exposed in segments.
Splitting by length, the operation expects the segment length, the amount of interleaving passes, an overlapping distance (eg. to compensate for laser switching). Also, specify whether to randomize the seam point and whether to apply the splitting to hatching as well, not just to contours.
TopFlow segmentation
Modify the toolpath to ensure the laser is always moving upstream of the purging gas flow.
Splitting by gas flow, specify the gas flow angle, the direction tolerance, and decide whether to overwrite any previous changes of toolpath direction, and whether to apply the splitting to hatching as well, not just to contours.
The gas flow angle specifies the bearing where gas flow approaches head-on. 0 degrees of gas flow is equivalent to the -X direction, and positive angles go anti-clockwise. In turn, contours will be split at the points farthest away and be directed towards the specified flow bearing.
The direction tolerance is a threshold to allow for small sections in the toolpath to go with the direction of gas flow for up to this distance without causing another contour split.
TopMultilaser splitting
This experimental function generates hatching for concurrent exposure buy multiple laser emitters capable of reaching the entire buildroom each. The area is segmented into variable blocks that aim to cover the available maximum slice area in equal shares, and the blocks are assigned lasers for exposure. Gas flow is observed and laser distribution minimizes obstruction by smoke.
This function brings its own hatching, so you should apply it to contours only.
- Laser count
How many concurrent lasers are available over the entire maximum area of the part slice stack
- Default distance
Length of blocks in the direction against the gas flow
- Shift per layer
Moves the start and end points of hatch segments to avoid accumulating artifacts from always starting and ending in the same location.
- Gas flow angle
Specifies the direction of the purging gas flow. 0 ° is equivalent to -Y, and positive angles indicate clockwise rotation.
- Overlap in flow direction
(not used)
- Overlap against flow
(not used)
- Accuracy
All distance calculation results are rounded to increments of this value.
- Max. block size
Determines the block size used to subdivide the slice area. Larger blocks follow the hatching less accurately but take less to calculate.
- Hatch mode
Controls whether the generated contours should get a filling in the same step, and what kind of filling.
The controls for the actual hatching patterns are identical with the regular Create Filling dialog.
Reduce points
During import, more points than needed may be saved in a toolpath. For example, every time a triangle node or an edge passes a slice, a new point is inserted in the path even when the path itself would be perfectly straight. This operation reduces the amount of points needed to maintain the original shape while adhering to a specifiable tolerance of deformation. Be mindful not to specify too large a value for the maximum deformation as this may impair the quality of rounded contours to unacceptable levels.
TopSort contours
To reduce off time of lasers during which beam deflection is repositioned, contours of a layer are sorted into a better order.
TopEBPA calculation
This applies slice processing as saved in an Encrypted Buildstyle Processor Archive file.
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