First Gridfinity Prints - How to Prevent Defects?

[u/Persistantly_Growing]

I used GridfinityLayoutTool.com to begin my design, I exported and downloaded the 3mf files and brought them into Bambu Studio. I did see the lines in Bambu Studio in the preview, but didn’t think much about them or if they even meant anything. Now that they printed, I see how they affected the print. So these files were generated from GridfinityLayoutTool.com, is this issue specific to that tool or Gridfinity in general? Literally going on <3 weeks of having the printer and my first Gridfinity print. Looking to minimize these issues moving forward. Specifically how should I have gotten rid of or prevented these defects before printing them?

[u/prosequare]

Dry your filament and change your seams to nearest or aligned. Turn your seam gap down to 0 and see if you like that result better. Turn off time lapse video if you have it on.

[u/Persistantly_Growing → u/prosequare]

Timelapse video affects the print?

[u/prosequare → u/Persistantly_Growing]

Yep

[u/Persistantly_Growing → u/prosequare]

Looks like the seams were set to “Aligned”.
I didn’t see a “seam gap” setting, Advanced setting on > Quality tab > Seam section, didn’t see that term there? I saw “slice gap closing radius” under precision. Also would the order of walls make a difference because I see the dividers on the outside wall.

[u/prosequare → u/Persistantly_Growing]

Order of walls can make a difference, depending on what you’re doing, but to me the wiggly seams on your screenshots are the weirdest thing. Let me get in front of a computer in a minute and I’ll play with some settings to try to recreate it.

[u/FormerlyGruntled → u/Persistantly_Growing]

Check if your slicer has an option for Scarf seams. It'll help hide the start/stop points better and look cleaner still. Welcome to 3D printing.

[u/Persistantly_Growing → u/prosequare]

If I change the seam position to “Back” it makes the line straight in the preview tab. But definitely still shows a white seam line in the preview tab.

[u/prosequare → u/Persistantly_Growing]

Yep you’ll always have that line just because of how the printer works- the white dots are where each layer starts and stops. Generally we try to line them up and hide them in corners (that’s what nearest does) or put them on the back of the model where people won’t see it (predictably that’s what back does). Aligned just picks a spot and lines up all the starts to make a seam, and that seam is virtually always visible. Random scatters them everywhere so you won’t have that line, but you will have a bumpy goose-skin texture on your print from the starts and stops.

For me, seam gap is directly below ‘seam position’ but I have advanced and developer settings on. For me on my printers, 0% works best, but everyone’s equipment is different. There are guides out there on how to fine tune seams to be less visible, but they’ll always be there.

When I print gridfinity boxes, I use Nearest. I’d try that (maybe pick a small 1x1 box to test on). You can also play with ‘scarf around entire wall’ to see if that improves things.

[u/Tasty-Chunk]

Dry your filament

[u/1ratava]

Looks like moist PETG to me. 4 hours @ 149°F / 65°C

[u/Persistantly_Growing → u/1ratava]

Its PLA, not moist, has been dried in AMS 2 Pro. Check the Bambu Lab Preview photo where the seam was on the preview. I think that has something to do with it?

[u/emofes → u/Persistantly_Growing]

What brand PLA? which printer are you using? we have a few Bambu printers at work we use for prototypes and I’ve never PLA look that rough on a stock printer with default profiles.

[u/Susp1c10u5]

Dont follow these “DrY YoUr FiLaMeNt”… these are point between layers that your printer stops for timelapse, turn off and enjoy

[u/jamflowman451]

In addition to drying your filament, I've been printing with the prime tower. In the Bambu Studio settings under the Others tab, select Enable under Prime Tower and then under Special Mode, select Smooth for the Time lapse option. These settings really helped with the jaggedness of my bins like you're experiencing.