Feb 12, 2018 | By Benedict
3DPrintingDB, a new 3D printing website, is aiming to make printing easier by providing a repository of aggregated printing settings for well-known 3D printing materials. The repository contains settings for filament types from individual brands.
Getting started with 3D printing can be difficult for many reasons. Every 3D printer is different, which means that, until you get to know your machine inside out, establishing its ideal settings can be a challenge. And that’s not even factoring in the additional problem of materials: every filament behaves in its own way too, which means a PLA from one brand might behave quite differently to a PLA from another brand.
This uniqueness among 3D printing products means that makers often have to refer to the opinions of others just to get started. 3D printing forums like the 3D printing subreddit and RepRap board contain a wealth of information about printer-specific and filament-specific printing settings, but trawling through these sites for information can be a slow process. Moreover, there are obviously many printers and filaments whose ideal settings have yet to be discussed in detail.
3D printer user [Pheneeny], an active contributor on Reddit and Thingiverse, has devised a solution for 3D printer users. A new website, 3DPrintingDB, aims to collate and aggregate filament-specific 3D printing settings for every material on the market. Users are able to submit their preferred settings, and the site provides visitors with an average of these user-provided numbers.
The site keeps it simple by listing eight settings for each filament: print temperature, bed temperature, ideal build surface, fan power, retraction level, printing speed, and the option to list further build surfaces that either work well or work badly. Users can upload their own settings and suggest new materials to be added to the database, but Pheneeny will retain control over which materials are added in order to avoid duplicates and formatting anomalies.
At present, the site won’t deal with settings for particular 3D printers, instead aiming to provide a general idea of ideal settings that will work with the average machine. While this might seem restrictive, Pheneeny points out that many kit-based printers will end up different from one another (with different off-the-shelf parts etc.), which makes the provision of specific settings less relevant and ultimately less accurate.
Now you might be thinking: okay, sounds good, but aren’t there already filament directories that exist to provide the same information? The answer is yes, but with a caveat. Filaments.Directory, for example, has a comprehensive list of 3D printing materials, complete with a lot of information about every material listed, including the option to submit printing settings.
The problem is, not a great deal of 3D printer users have actually done so, and many of the “settings” sections for these materials remain blank. By devising a database with the sole purpose of providing settings, Pheneeny thinks the new 3DPrintingDB site can quickly build up a database of recommended settings and end up functioning as a more useful resource for the specific issue of filament-specific printing settings.
We reached out to Pheneeny, who told us that the goal of the site is simply to “to make it a little easier to start printing with new filaments.” New filaments are constantly being added to the database, and users who want a new material added can leave feedback.
Posted in 3D Printing Materials
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Would be better to Launch such a site only if it's ready. I visited it now, tested 2 Filaments but get only empty pages with "No data". It is not that wise to publish empty sites... the visitors will come once or at max twice... and then the favorite entry is gone
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