Reducing STL file size

[Jim Smith]

I've been playing with some shapes exported to STL that our public library will print for free but they have a 2 hour cap. The attached is the latest one it's a generic solid, & exported at low quality & that just takes it down to 2 hours. Any tips on how to reduce the size/time? The VW file is only 370kb & the STL file is 432kb.

 

[PVA - Admin]

Well the size of the STL file doesn't have much bearing on how long the print takes, you would normally increase layer height, extrusion width, or print head speed to decrease overall print time. The only way to make it smaller directly via the STL is to scale the object down or hollow out large portions of it.

[Kevin McAllister]

That's a tiny STL file. As Jim says it's all about the printer setup in this case. Those would take about 20 minutes and give a decent result on my Makerbot Replicator 2. One thing that helps STL file size is choosing binary file type when exporting, but that's for much larger files. 

 

Kevin

[AlanW]

@Kevin McAllisterNice toy to have  "Makerbot Replicator 2" Just watched a video on it. Hobby item or do you use it for model stage props?

[Kevin McAllister]

1 hour ago, Alan Woodwell said:

@Kevin McAllisterNice toy to have  "Makerbot Replicator 2" Just watched a video on it. Hobby item or do you use it for model stage props?

Mostly for printing models of stage sets and some prototype stuff. 3d printing is a pretty fun technology.

KM

[Jim Smith]

Thanks, I'll mention this on my  next project.

Jim, the pieces have walls only 2mm in thick and a 4mm base.  I'm pretty used to getting a file as small as possible as I used to export VW files to a turret punch that had a maximum memory for jobs of 20k.

Speaking of a Makerbot, when asked what I wanted for a birthday present, this was at the top of my list; kids got me gear for my Bicycle instead!

Watching it at work reminds me of the 1980's when the office I worked in got a pen plotter. When a job was running people like me would take our coffee break to watch it work.

Edited July 19, 2017 by Jim Smith