Exposure parameters per slice stack, available for printjob file generation during export
Slice properties are individual parameters like laser power that are written into printjob files. In machine-specific slicing, toolpath generation, and printjob file export, these parameters are set through the build configurations. Slice stacks generated through the Slicing sections, however, have no exposure instructions initially. They are purely geometric instructions about drawing lines and polygons, and their properties are defined separately.
Jump to:
- Setting slice properties in the project tree
- Setting slice properties during export
- Slice property reference
Setting slice properties in the project tree
Setting the properties through the project tree registers them ahead of export, and any properties set this way also override their respective defaults that the export formats would have.
Properties added through the project tree are saved in the FABBPROJECT file and can be adjusted at any time.
Slice properties defined in the tree appear as nodes under their slice entries (left), and propagate to the export where defined (right).
Setting individual properties
- Prepare slice stacks for contours, hatchings, support, and any others needed for your build.
- Right-click a slice stack you want to adjust the properties of and choose where <property> is "Laser speed", for example.
- Adjust the value for the property, then click OK.
Managing multiple properties at once
- Right-click the slice stack
- Choose .
This opens a dialog which lists the available properties. Here you can not only modify them all at once, you can also disable them so that they don't override their defaults during export. The value remains saved in the FABBPROJECT file even when the respective property is disabled. Additionally, this dialog supports settings management where you can store and retrieve values and disabled/enabled states for the whole dialog at once.
To manage
multiple stacks at once, select them all before choosing
.
- Items without checkmark and grayed out: None of the selected stacks have an override of defaults active. (Example: Tag)
- Items with a checkmark: All selected stacks have an override of defaults active. (Example: Mark speed)
- Items with a gray square in the checkbox: Some of the selected stacks have an override of defaults active. (Example: Jump speed)
- Items with "---" for their value: There are overrides set for all selected stacks, but between them they are not the same. (Example: Premark delay)
Example of inactive, active, and individually different overides of default values
Managing properties for new stacks
- Right-click the Slices section and choose Manage standard properties.
- Set up the parameters here. Save them as an existing or new entry in the Manage settings dropdown to persist during restarts of Netfabb, otherwise they apply to the current session only.
Setting slice properties during export
When exporting to certain formats (buildfiles for SLM, LSR, NSP, AI, or ILT), a section in the export dialog is available to adjust these. The export loads built-in defaults that you can modify here for this instance of exporting, and are not saved when you close the dialog.
Example: Slice properties set for export to SLM buildfile. (The parameter Build Style here is format-specific and only available in this export dialog.)
- Prepare slice stacks for contours, hatchings, support, and any others needed for your build.
- Select all stacks.
- From the main menu, choose .
- Choose the desired output format.
- In Specific Export Settings, double-click the slice to modify.
- In the <format> Export Settings dialog, adjust the properties as required by your build.
- Click
OK.
The adjustment is now saved to the properties you modified.
- Click OK to export the printjob file with the modified properties.
Slice property reference
Not all export formats support all slice stack properties, and some of them expect an equivalent under a different name or in a different format. The generic CLI format, being generic, is not listed here.
| Property | Project tree | SLM | LSR | NSP | AI | ILT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Tag |
Yes | |||||
|
WaitFor |
Yes | |||||
|
Mark speed |
Yes | Yes ("Laser Speed") | Yes ("Deposition speed") | Yes ("Deposition speed") | Yes ("Laser Speed") | Yes ("Laser Speed") |
|
Jump speed |
Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
|
Premark delay |
Yes | Yes ("Deposition delay") | Yes ("Deposition delay") | |||
|
Postmark delay |
Yes | Yes ("Jump delay") | Yes ("Jump delay") | |||
|
Polygon delay |
Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
|
Jump delay |
Yes | |||||
|
Pipeline delay |
Yes | |||||
|
Laserindex |
Yes | Yes | ||||
|
Power |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Laser focus |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ("Focus shift") | ||
|
Laser diameter |
Yes | Yes ("Radius", 0.5×diameter) | Yes ("Radius", 0.5×diameter) | |||
|
Build style |
Yes (Export dialog only) | |||||
|
Point distance |
Yes (Export dialog only) | |||||
|
Exposure time |
Yes (Export dialog only) | |||||
|
Include in export and time calculation* |
Yes |
* Include in export and time calculation is a special property that is itself not written during export but affects how Netfabb handles the slice stack during display: When set to No, the slice is ignored during build time estimation and is not included in the export, either. For example, use this setting when you want to exclude but retain auxiliary or dummy slice stacks that are only used to derive other toolpath data, or when you want to retain variants of the same stack generated with different settings each.
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