How to Print with a 3d Printer

How to Prepare a 3d Print

Once you have a file for a model you want to print there are a couple of things that you need to do first. First, if you created a file in a CAD software you need to save your file on your computer as an STL (Standard Tessellation Language) file. This is a necessary step to convert your model into something useable by a printer. Next, once you have an STL file you then need to feed that file into a slicer software. Slicer software configures several settings about the way that your printer will print the part. Most slicing software can be used for free and I would recommend Ultimaker Cura as it can support a wide variety of different 3d printers. Within that slicing software you first upload your STL file into the software, from there you can position how you want your model to print on the printer and the orientation with which it prints.

For those of you using premade models you can mostly skip a lot of what was said in the last paragraph. However, you will still need a slicing software and you will then download whatever model you want and insert it into the slicing software. From here, whether you made a custom design or downloaded one you most likely need to have an SD card and a method of accessing that card with your computer. After you have all your settings configured in a slicer you need to download the slicers output to a SD card because most 3d printers utilize SD cards as their method of accepting print files. Once you've inserted your SD card into your printer you can then use the printers display to select a print file. After that, you may just want to occasionally check up on your printer to ensure the print hasn't messed up. If the print has messed up you can stop the print, clean off the print bed, and restart the print or you could reslice the model with new settings and then reprint. Hope this was helpful to anyone interested in 3d Printing!