Example printing an OBJ file on a FlashForge printer

14.3.1 Example printing an OBJ file on a FlashForgeprinter

This section presents an example of working with an OBJ file:uploading it, manipulating its “PLACEMENT” on the virtual buildplate, and printing it on a FlashForge Inventor II printer.

Clicking the green “UPLOAD” button (towards the upper right) ona Polar Cloud “OBJECTS” screen such as the “COMMUNITY OBJECTS”screen (recall that object upload always uploads objects to yourprivate collection of objects, no matter at which “OBJECTS” screenyou click “UPLOAD”) will bring up an “UPLOAD FILES” pop-upscreen such as shown in figure 14.4; select the desired OBJ filefrom your device and click the “UPLOAD” button (towardsthe lower right of the “UPLOAD FILES” screen), as in Figure14.5.

Figure 14.4: Polar Cloud UPLOAD FILES screen

Figure 14.5: Polar Cloud UPLOAD FILES screen: Lion_Statue.OBJ

When the object has finished loading, you will automatically betaken to the build plate screen. With OBJ files, which often werenot created with 3D printing in mind, it is common to find that theobject loads with a size (SCALE), orientation (ROTATE), and position(MOVE) that need some adjustment for 3D printing. For instance, seeFigure 14.6 which shows the initial view of the build plate whenthe Lion_Statue.OBJ file is first loaded: the “SCALE” is waytoo large, so that all we see is a small portion of the objectsurface.

As a first step, we probably want to adjust the object “SCALE”,so that we can see the object sensibly enough to make any furtheradjustments, so click on the boxed Lion_Statue.OBJ object nameto select object “PLACEMENT”, with its “MOVE”, “SCALE”, and“ROTATE” choices, and then click the “SCALE” tab (or with“hotkeys” enabled, press the “E” key); see Figure 14.7. Make surethat the “Scale all axes uniformly” checkbox is clicked(towards the lower right of the “PLACEMENT” pane), and then adjustthe scale on any of the axes to shrink the object uniformly. You mayclick-and-drag the slider circle on an axis, or click on the numericvalue (to the right of the axis) and then either click on the down (orup) arrow on the value or type in a numeric value directly.(In general, it is also possible to click on the image of theobject on the build plate and drag the head of an axis on theimage – but that may be less convenient in cases such as thiswhere the initial “SCALE” of the object is so extreme.) Figure14.8 shows the object scaled down enough to fit on the buildplate. Note that the “Show object dimension in mm” boxeshave changed from red in Figure 14.7 to blue in Figure 14.8, while the object file name (Lion_Statue.OBJ) has changedfrom red to black; the red was a warning that the object wasoff-of-the-build-plate.

Figure 14.6: Build plate: Lion Statue loaded, initial view

Figure 14.7: Build plate: Lion Statue, SCALE selected

Figure 14.8: Build plate: Lion Statue scaled to fit

The object in Figure 14.8, while now scaled to a reasonable size,is in an orientation that is probably not the best orientation for 3Dprinting; this again is a fairly common occurrence when workingwith OBJ files. So click the “ROTATE” button (or with “hotkeys”enabled, click the “R” key); see Figure 14.9.

Figure 14.9: Build plate: Lion Statue, ROTATE selected

Note in Figure 14.9 that with “ROTATE” selected, there are fourcolored circumferences of the object displayed: these are color-codedto match the three axes, with the fourth circumference (in yellow)being perpendicular to whatever your current view of the objectmay be. In this example, it appears that rotating by about 90°about the y-axis (rotating along the green circumference) might getthe object “upright”; see Figure 14.10.

Figure 14.10: Build plate: Lion Statue rotated 90° on y-axis

Has the y-axis rotation of 90° gotten the object completelyupright? At this point, clicking and dragging on the build plate toview the build plate “edge on” may be helpful: see Figure 14.11,where it can be seen that a bit more rotational adjustment of theobject is needed, as the object is not yet resting quite flat on thebuild plate.

Figure 14.11: Build plate: Lion Statue viewed “edge on” to build plate

Without yet having performed any more rotation on the objectitself, Figure 14.12 shows the build plate further rotated to see whatadditional rotation is needed, with the additonal rotation neededperpendicular to the view (so that the yellow circumference providesa convenient way to perform the rotation). Different peoplewill prefer to perform “PLACEMENT” adjustments differently:some will prefer to perform all adjustments via numeric entry;others may prefer to “eyeball” the approximate changes, andthen perhaps fine-tune the adjustment further via numericentry.

Figure 14.12: Build plate: Lion Statue viewed “edge on” perpendicular to needed rotation

From Figure 14.12, clicking and dragging on the yellowcircumference can get us to Figure 14.13, which shows the lionobject rotated to sit flat on the build plate. (Note that because thePolar Cloud represents rotation values as positive values between 0°and 360°, the small negative rotations needed along both the x andz axes get recorded instead as two large, positive rotations:represented as if the object was flipped almost upside-down aroundone axis, and then almost upside-down again around another axis.This is perhaps an example of why it is sometimes easier to performthe rotations visually, by dragging along the desired rotationcircumference.)

Figure 14.13: Build plate: Lion Statue final orientation

Though not necessary for this object, note that when workingwith OBJ files, sometimes after adjusting the object size andorientation, you will further wish to adjust the object’s position onthe build plate; this may be especially likely when working with amulti-component OBJ file.

For this example Lion Statue, no “MOVE” adjustment is needed:the object is now placed suitably for printing! Perform any desired“PRINT SETTINGS” adjustments (see for instance the “RecommendedPrint Settings” in Figure 14.15), and then click the “PRINT”button (upper right of the build plate screen). Once the object loadsto the printer, you will be taken to the printer dashboard screen; seeFigure 14.14.

Figure 14.14: FlashForge Inventor II printer dashboard: Lion Statuequeued

For FlashForge printers, the object slicing is performed in thePolar Cloud, rather than onboard the printer itself. So with aFlashForge printer, you may potentially go to (see) the printerdashboard while the Polar Cloud is still performing the objectslicing: the print job tile may show a slicing status of “Waitingto Slice”, “Preparing slicer”, “Slicing”, or “Savingsliced model”. Once the print job tile in the FlashForge print queue says “Slicing completed” (which typically takesonly a minute or so), see Figure 14.14, you may then click the“START” button on the printer dashboard to start the printjob.

Finally, Figure 14.15 shows the object detail screen for thisobject, including a photo of the object on the FlashForge Inventor IIphysical build plate after finishing printing. Note that therecommended rotation settings on the object’s detail screen are notthose shown found in the example above, but they also work to getthe object upright on the build plate.

Figure 14.15: Chinese Lion Statue object detail screen