Skeinforge

From DEMOZENDIUM

Skeinforge is a tool chain composed of Python scripts that converts your 3D model into G-Code instructions for RepRap.

Updating Skeinforge manual Skeinforge Manual Update advice from Enrique for updating pages and setting up a new structure.

Contents 1 Tutorials 1.1 Allan Ecker aka The Masked Retriever 1.2 BotHacker 1.3 C Blair 1.4 Cliff Biffle, Nick Ames & Rick Pollack 1.5 Daniel K. Schneider 1.6 Dave Durant 1.7 Keith 1.8 Marius Kintel 1.9 Nick Ames 1.10 Rapmanist 1.11 Tony 1.12 Thanks 2 What 2.1 Requirements 2.2 Where to get it 2.3 File Formats 2.4 Overview 3 Install 3.1 Settings 3.2 Updates 3.3 Version Numbering 4 How 4.1 To Run Skeinforge 4.2 To Run Skeinforge in a script 4.3 To Search for Skeinforge Info 4.4 To Troubleshoot 4.5 To Get Information 5 Tools 5.1 Analyze 5.1.1 Clairvoyance 5.1.2 Comment 5.1.3 Interpret 5.1.4 Skeiniso 5.1.5 Skeinlayer 5.1.6 Statistic 5.1.7 Synopsis 5.1.8 Vectorwrite 5.2 Craft 5.2.1 Alteration 5.2.2 Bottom 5.2.3 Carve 5.2.4 Chamber 5.2.5 Clip 5.2.6 Comb 5.2.7 Cool 5.2.8 Dimension 5.2.9 Dwindle 5.2.10 Export 5.2.11 Fill 5.2.12 Fillet 5.2.13 Home 5.2.14 Hop 5.2.15 Inset 5.2.16 Jitter 5.2.17 Lash 5.2.18 Limit 5.2.19 Multiply 5.2.20 Oozebane 5.2.21 Preface 5.2.22 Raft 5.2.23 Scale 5.2.24 Skin 5.2.25 Skirt 5.2.26 Smooth 5.2.27 Speed 5.2.28 Splodge 5.2.29 Stretch 5.2.30 Temperature 5.2.31 Tower 5.2.32 Unpause 5.2.33 Widen 5.2.34 Wipe 5.3 Meta 5.3.1 Description 5.3.2 Polyfile 5.4 Profile 5.4.1 Cutting 5.4.2 Extrusion 5.4.3 Milling 5.4.4 Winding 5.5 Help

Tutorials

Allan Ecker aka The Masked Retriever

• Skeinforge Quicktip: Cool
• Skeinforge Quicktip: Fill
• Skeinforge Quicktip: The Raft, Part 1
• Skeinforge Quicktip: The Raft, Part II
• Skeinforge Quick Tip; Tweaking the Speed Knob

BotHacker

• Keep it Cool!

C Blair

• 3D Model to G-Code File for Rapman

Cliff Biffle, Nick Ames & Rick Pollack

• Compendium of calibration information: How to Calibrate and Tune Skeinforge for your MakerBot

Daniel K. Schneider

• Skeinforge for RapMan

Dave Durant

• Skeinforge Support.. Part 1
• Skeinforge Support.. Part 2
• Configuring Skeinforge: Some Basic Terms
• The 4 (or 5) Big Settings..
• Configuring Skeinforge: Movin’ on up! (to a recent version)
• Configuring Skeinforge: Making a New Profile.. The Setup
• Configuring Skeinforge: Making a New Profile.. The Test & Tweak

Keith

• Fixing CupCake Build Problems

Marius Kintel

• Explanation of setting the important Skeinforge parameters, extrusion width and layer thickness: reprap.org - Skeinforge Width Thickness Tutorial

Nick Ames

• Skeinforge Tutorial: wiki.makerbot.com - Configuring Skeinforge

Rapmanist

• How to Generate Gcode with Skeinforge video.

Tony

• Fixes for potential printer problems
• Gcode reference
• List of Skeinforge settings
• A detailed explanation about the effects that changing head speed, extrusion rate and layer thickness has on the quality of print RapMan Blogspot - More Skeinforge

Thanks

With thanks to all the above and Enrique who has a Blog for discussion of all things related to Skeinforge: Fabmetheus Blog

What

Requirements

Skeinforge is written in python. To be able to use it you need

• Python 2.x
• Tkinter
• The computation intensive python modules will use psyco if it is available and run about twice as fast
• Note: The Python Imaging Library is no longer needed.

Where to get it

Skeinforge can be downloaded from:

• New File storage for downloading Skeinforge There is also RSS Feed available Here is the latest "release" version of the Skeinforge with the history of all releases since Nov 2009
• Fabmetheus Blog Enrique's Blog
• Axion Here is the "night build" - untested version - use at your own risk

File Formats

3D File formats that can be opened and converted to G-Code by using Skeinforge

• .stl Stereolithography The "standard" format for 3D printing
• .gts Gnu Triangulated Surfaces an alternative (superior?) format
• .obj Wavefront 3D OBJ
• .svg Scalable Vector Graphics
• .xml Extensible Markup Language
• .gcode Wikipedia
• .bfb G-Code in the Bits From Bytes format bfb blog

Overview

Skeinforge Overview

The Skeinforge overview has links and brief descriptions. This is similar to the page displayed when the help button on the Skeinforge window is clicked.

Install

A simple guide ???

Installing skeinforge shouldn't be too difficult...

Download and install Python 2.x Link to Python Download don't worry about tkinter etc it usually installs with Python. (there is a version on the page that includes a windows msi installer, you can accept the default install folders)

Download and install Psyco Link to Psyco Download this speeds up the running of skeinforge.(again you can accept the default install folders)

Download Skeinforge Link to Skeinforge Download Unzip to a folder (without spaces in the path -usually into the root of c:\) Open the skeinforge folder and find the file "skeinforge.py" (a good idea is to place a shortcut to this on the desktop) ... double click to run it.

If all is OK Skeinforge should run ... You need to select the "extrude" profile type and then the appropriate material (ie ABS, PLA, etc)

Settings

The default settings in craft, analyze, fill, raft etc are OK for a first attempt at printing, but you might find that changing these to settings on the Polymers page of the wiki give better results. Oh, and to get Skeinforge to process the stl file click the "Skeinforge button", browse to your STL file and open it. A gcode file will be created in the same folder as the STL file. copy stl file to SD card and off you go  :-)

I would advise reading the "operation manual" that can be downloaded from the V3.0 section of the BfB website Operation Manual I hope this helps, good luck.

Updates

Skeinforge is updated regularly by Enrique check regularly on the [1] here new versions are attached to information about the updates. It is usually best to be running the most up to date version of Skeinforge as there are frequent bug fixes and improvements to its functionality.

Version Numbering

There is now a date string in version.txt in the folder skeinforge_utilities in skeinforge_tools. The version date string is added in the content of the gcode output.

How

To Run Skeinforge

Guide to generating gcode with Skeinforge

To Run Skeinforge in a script

To have Skeinforge craft a single stl-file using the last profile that was selected, simply run:

python skeinforge.py file.stl

To run multiple stl-file you could use (Linux):

for file in ../objects/*.stl do ; python skeinforge.stl ${file} ; done

To Search for Skeinforge Info

Skeinforge Custom Search Page

The Skeinforge custom search page searches only this wiki, the fabmetheus blog and the Skeinforge tutorials on the web. Search for a term on that page, and many of the results will be Skeinforge pages.

Also, there are skeinforge tagged pages on thingiverse.

To Troubleshoot

If there's a bug, try downloading the very latest version because Skeinforge is often updated without an announcement. The very latest version is at: http://members.axion.net/~enrique/reprap_python_beanshell.zip

If there is still a bug, then first prepare the following files:

1. stl file
2. pictures explaining the problem
3. your settings (pack the whole .skeinforge directory with all your settings)
4. alterations folder, if you have any active alterations files

Then zip all the files.

Second, write a description of the error, send the description and the archive to the developer, enrique ( perez_enrique AT yahoo.com.removethispart ). After a bug fix is released, test the new version and report the results to enrique, whether the fix was successful or not.

To Get Information

The best place to get information is by asking at the skeinforge forum.

Comments and suggestions are welcome, however, the developer won't reply unless you are a contributor. Likewise, the developer will only answer your questions if you contribute to Skeinforge in some way. You could also contribute articles to demozendium on any topic.

If you contribute in a significant way to another open source project, that will be considered also.

This policy is in place because there are far more questions than the developer has time to answer, any time answering questions is time taken away from development.

The developer reserves the right to make any correspondence public. Do not send any correspondence marked confidential. If you do it will be deleted.

Tools

Below is a description of each of the Skeinforge tool settings. For suggested settings for speed, feed and temperature etc please see the individual materials PCL, PLA, PP, HDPE & ABS.

Note that since September 08 2009, Skeinforge got a functionality to work with cutters so the part of the config that we are interested in is located under CRAFT, and you have to select Craft Type = EXTRUSION in the Profile menu. Also Skeinforge moved the analyze plugins out of the craft section and right to the front page

Analyze

Clairvoyance

Open the G-Code file with an outside program

Comment

Add comments to the G-Code

Interpret

Convert file to fabmetheus xml.

Skeiniso

3D view of the output G-Code

Skeinlayer

Layer (2D) view of the output G-Code

Statistic

Statistics about the print

Synopsis

Export profile as a CSV or ZIP file.

Vectorwrite

SVG export of each layer

Craft

Alteration

Adds the start and end files.

Bottom

Controls the height of the lowest layer.

Carve

The most important plugin to define for your printer.

Chamber

The chamber tool allows you to control the bed & chamber temperature and holding force.

Clip

Clips the ends of loops to prevent bumps from forming.

Comb

Moves the extruder around inside holes to prevent stringers in those holes.

Cool

Make pause between layers or print layers slowly if they are small - helps solve the heat build-up when printing small layers.

Dimension

5D option for Skeinforge.

Dwindle

Reduces the feed rate and flow rate at the end of the thread, in order to reduce the ooze when traveling.

Export

Final touch to the file before it is saved.

Fill

What to fill the object with.

Fillet

Rounds the corners slightly in a variety of ways in order to reduce corner blobbing and sudden extruder acceleration.

Home

Home the tool at beginning of each layer.

Hop

Raises the extruder when it is not extruding.

Inset

Infill settings.

Jitter

Change where every layer starts in order to prevent a ridge from being created on the side of the object.

Lash

Compensates for the backlash.

Limit

Sets limit on feed rates.

Multiply

The multiply tool will take a single object and create an array of objects. It is used when you want to print a single object multiple times in a single pass.

Oozebane

Control oozing.

Preface

Some general settings like home, positioning, units (mm vs inch), etc.

Raft

Raft settings and support settings are here.

Temperature settings have moved to Temperature. However Raft still has to be activated for temperature to work.

Scale

Scales the output

Skin

Smooth the surface skin.

Skirt

Give extruder extra time to extrude properly and put a baffle around the model.

Smooth

Smooths jagged extruder paths.

Speed

Speed panel - extrusion speed, head movement speed while printing, while orbiting, max Z speed...

Splodge

Turn on extruder "a bit earlier".

Stretch

Stretch is very important Skeinforge plugin that allows you to compensate for the fact that holes are smaller then they should be.

Temperature

Set temperature for the entire extrusion.

Tower

Extrude a disconnected region for a few layers.

Unpause

Speed up a line segment to compensate for the delay of the microprocessor.

Widen

Widen walls which are less than a double perimeter width wide.

Wipe

Define a wipe path.

Meta

Description

Description of your profile.

Polyfile

Directory or file choice.

Profile

Cutting

Sets the cutting profile for the Skeinforge chain.

Extrusion

Sets the extrusion profile for the Skeinforge chain.

Milling

Sets the milling profile for the Skeinforge chain.

Winding

Sets the winding profile for the Skeinforge chain.

Help

Menu items to open help, blog and forum pages.