I'm a 5axis tool and mold guy. This is interesting watching the 3d printing technology evolve and cross over to my world.

I hope that non planar is the next big thing in 3d printing. it has so much potential!

I didn't have much motivation to continue work on it the past weeks, but I have a demo video on my channel of a proof-of-concept "slicer" that doesn't just do non-planar top surfaces, but handles collision detection between non-planar surfaces and other printed parts. A Benchy slices within a few seconds and will contain a few hundred non-planar surfaces, as the algorithm can also do really tiny spots and stacked non-planar surfaces. It's a complete from scratch thing, so it unfortunately doesn't even produce gcode yet, but the concept works remarkably well and with some more time put into it I'm convinced will open the way to non-planar printing that just works on any model instead of being a crazy niche thing for two hand-picked demo models.

I think the way forward here is incrementalism: for making this a mainstream feature focus on TINY slopes that virtually every printer and even regular dirt-cheap brass nozzles will support. Limit amplitude of vertical moves ~1mm so you basically clear every print head out there by default. You cut the # of visible steps by 5-10x on most prints, it's a huge impact already. Benchy roof goes from many steps to just a couple, very obvious improvement with no need for special hardware. Future printers will add support to expand the limits here, as a sale-able features they can market once slicers can justify supporting the feature (which they will because now every printer can use it without needing a radical redesign to make the functionality catch on at all).

Hardware takes a lot of the spotlight with 3D printing, but it's truly amazing what software can do too.

Hopefully one of the 3rd party print head companies will pick up on this and make one specifically for non-planar. Once suitable hardware is available, I think the community will figure out the software side, they have not let us down yet. This is a gamechanger for sure and thanks for pursuing the challenge.

This is a masterclass on how to make a technical video on a subject that engages those who are new, while informing those who have deep understanding of the topic. Thank you

Thanks for the update. I will check back on this in another 10 years.

The ironing option is the best idea. Print normally and then do a non planar ironing pass

"psiberfunk... hes so hot right now!" an unexpected but very appreciated line 😄

“Making software from source is not fun” I feel seen and validated haha. Love nonplanar videos, thanks

Thanks for the great content! The perfect printer to test it would be a rat rig, with it's 3 separate Z axis, that could be used to actually tilt the print bed to make the part perpendicular to nozzle at each point.

Airbrush nozzles are supposed to have a little rubber o-ring in them to make them seal, they WILL not work for this unless you can find one with a 300c capable o-ring...or whatever temp your material needs, probably PLA only at best. Voron machines with tap would probably work well with this, but I think we're gonna need to modify the stealthburner to move the vents, because standard they don't have much room... The reason the nonplanar layers are starting with a flat plane above is, from what I can tell, that they're basically using something like a physics engine and letting a plane fall within certain constraints (perhaps calling it raytracing or interpolation would be more correct). It's pretty neat as an idea to accomplish a single surface. I'd love to see it done on a voron trident with the rock-able bed because you could literally angle the bed as needed to be essentially a simulated 6 axis.

With a triple z axis motor machine to tilt the bed this could do some even more amazing things I bet.

Great to see this content, as I've been very curious about the state of non-planar printing lately. One thought: at 6:15 you suggest that a traditional nozzle might be providing an ironing effect. It's possible, but the other thing that jumps out at me with the long thin nozzle is thermodynamic effects. The long thin airbrush nozzle will cool much faster along the length, and will have more surface area, making the tip much cooler than the base, at least as compared to a short nozzle. That's going to change every dynamic in the system: flow rate, retraction, cooling after extrusion, etc. even on planar prints I would be shocked if such a big change in nozzle geometry didn't screw up everything in your slicer settings.

this is the gateway tech for viable FDM printable keycaps IMHO

We need to get this on Orca slicer

Wooooo, was hoping to hear more about this. Just looking at the past 10 years, there are so many possible improvements in slicerspace.

Come on man, there's reasons why we all do this stuff on Linux.

I reported the vertical travel bug years ago when it was still slic3r. Nobody believed me, and I'm not surprised to see it's still there. Have not used slic3r or any of its variants since. Other slicers just work while Slic3r based sliders just do wacky wacky things. Would love to see this get picked up in Cura and Orca though. ✌️

Fantastic research work!! Congratulations!! (I'm brazilian, Ayrton Senna was a hero here. Thanks !!)

Thanks for your efforts to improve the process, by involving the community and keeping all informed of progress.

There's quite a few issues here that could be solved just with software. A few things I see that would help with this, either directly or indirectly would be to add plugins to prusaslicer. This could allow for rapid prototyping of the software. For the stair stepping issues, if a similar technique to vase mode or even scarf seams were applied to the layers beneath the nonplanar top layers it could completely eliminate them. I really do enjoy seeing your in-depth videos on topics like this. You've got a large influence on how the future of 3d printing looks.

Thanks for pushing this tech! Always thought it was a great technique that needed explored further

This was an awesome application for the airfoils! Also, love the Senna sweater!

Have you tried the Revo Belt Nozzles? Those seem perfect for nonplanar 3dprinting. Also what you said about it being slow is soooo true. But now we have a modern base for people to work on, which is great.

Really looking forward to more progress on non-planar printing - It seems like such a smart solution to low angle differences between layers

Fantastically informative and well done. Thank you sir.

Great video, one of the best I've seen on the subject. At this point, it's easier to print model in ABS and chemically smooth it. Eventually, they will figure this out. One thing that might work (?) is use a turbo nozzle in a standard heat block. That would give you the extension and mass you need in the nozzle to keep the filament at the proper temperature (maybe :).

Great job! Thank you again for your work in all of this :)

Thank you so much for doing these kinds of detailed videos! Going through all of that would have driven me nuts. I'm happy to let you deal with it, and then just tell us what works. LOL

Great progress, thanks for the update!

Excellent progress chaps. You've my utmost respect 🤘

THIS. Been on my mind for a long time. Thanks for all the work. It is just not there yet. Hope the community and manufacturers can do something further about it (I'm sure some do the research). For a dome type top layer, only thing I can find that works for me is to put the print at a (45+) angle. it is better but not perfect (and have other issues). I really want to see this happen, and it will (my prediction).

Love your genuine enthusiasm in learnig, developing and progressing this technology (and others) along. I’m not a machinist by any regard, yet what about machining a nozzle instead of modding or connecting pieces together to form whats needed? Meaning, a nozzle that will protrude further toward the bed and keeping similar dimensions to account for heating snd smoothing etc? I have a buddy who is a machinist and will ask him to take a look at your video - thank you again for all you do and contribute across the board!

Loved the video and the review... I was really anxious to have non-planar on my slicer (Cura) so i could play around with it... but yes, i enjoyed the "paint" feature that you suggested, also we could be able to select the layer number it would be printed, to avoid those high walls around it...

The top can be smoothed if you setup a printer with dual software one being grbl then fusion 360 could generate a 3d finishing pass thinking it's a endmill when in reality its smoothing with a nozzle

so happy my sovol sv08 is on order for this!

This looks super promising. Great video!

This is nuts I’m totally here for it!!!!!!! Great job guys!!!!!!!

Thanks, we'll done for all the good work. That's something we certainly would use. Best regards, Annie

This is probably the most relevant development in 2d printing this year. If it already works in a limited capacity in prusaslicer, i have high hopes that in the next iteration, or the one after it will be officially incorporated as an experimental setting option.

This is so cool! Certainly plenty of optimization left to be done and features to be added. It actually ends up looking like carbon fiber weave in a lot of cases. I'd be willing to bet it has strength benefits as well as just looking nicer. I would think using a Volcano style nozzle with a pointy angled tip, like the Sovol long nozzles, in a standard thread depth hotend might give you the best overall angles and clearance, other than those troublesome air brush nozzles.

Unlike you I am running Linux, so I could try to build a version of one of the slicers to try this on my Enderwire (Ender 3 Pro Switchwire Voron conversion). The fast Z hop of the coreXZ might be ideal for this!

Love the vids. Keep it up👍👍

It's my hope that the Superslicer developer includes this in a future release.

This will be amazing for making molds in one go.

FANTASTIC Work !!!! I'm building a Chocolate printer inside a Mini Delta and will test it with some Non-Planar files ASAP !!

So fun to see this develop. I wish I had the competence to contribute to the project. I’ll be happy to test it on my trident once the 3z axis is fleshed out.

That was great. Thank you.

Awesome news, can't wait to see it in orca!

This is really cool!

Awesome. So much potential.

Very cool, and a big step forward for FDM printing in general! I would love to be able to use nonplanar printing to build up vertical structures within the print to overcome some layer adhesion issues.

This is crazy awesome! The ironing idea is brilliant! I think I'd even prefer it to non planar in some cases.

I can't wait for manufactures to work out the kinks with non-planar printing. This could bring a lot of new excitement to the 3D printing hobby.

To truly solve this, you want an ironing toolhead (or two, possibly with different profiles, depending on how fancy you feel), which don’t extrude, they’re just irons, and are mounted with 2 degrees of freedom (or for a less capable approach, they could just rotate), on a multi-toolhead device like the PrusaXL. Because they can articulate, and they don’t need to extrude, they could smooth almost any surface - not just the top one.

Non planer movements would probably benefit most from thick layer lines when using traditional nozzles. I think this would give you more molten material to act as a buffer zone for some geometries And then maybe sanding and buffing the tip slightly rounded. This may give you the capability to potentially iron your print while slightly reducing the appearance of the nozzle scraping the print.

I've been thinking about non-planar printing for a while, and I think some kind of ironing/milling would give a better finish. Imagine having a head on the XL that was essentially a 'hot ball nose endmill', that would come in and smooth the steps in a single finishing top layer. A mix of additive and subtractive machining... I'll call it, Fusion Melling! (A mix of melting and milling.)

Good subject material. I'd been thinking about how this sort of stuff ahs been coming along lately.

Nice! I guess it works best with filaments like ABS since that does not need cooling and works pretty well with 'overheated nozzles' that can therefore be longer. And ofcourse... just print without using ABL to have even less stuff in the way. Other types of nozzles that can be extra-long could work fine too I guess. Very nice to see this developing! I hope that other slicers will implement these features too. About modifiers.... in Ideamaker you can turn all things in the slicer on and off on layerhight. Does this excist in Prusaslicer and such too, so you can only turn the non-planar-printing on like about one cm from the top of the surface? I guess that would really make the slicing easier and faster to do.

You said exactly what I was thinking. When using Cam, for cnc, vcarve for example , you would have to do a roughing pass with an end mill and then switch to a ball mill and do a finishing pass. I think while printers are still 2.5D that's going to be the best bet. Any of us can make a nice ball end nozzle too, with a drill and sand paper.

Nice update as usual. I look forward to testing this on my BX1C. Afterall, it's just code....someone will figure this out and hopefully be rewarded for doing so.😉

I'm excited to see where this goes. Would LOVE to test this on my bambu labs P1P

Fantastic keep it up

happy to see my old contribs for building on ubuntu are still in there

I think one of the main issues with the air brush nozzle would be the lack of thermal transfer to the tip, so the very tip wouldn't be warm enough.

I think this will be great in small amounts just for those slight angles on parts. The community is probably just going to get it to be a default feature at some point to fix those very shallow angles that look odd when printed

Getting more accessable!

I love that this is finally getting some attention. Truly printing in 3d is something SLA printers can't do. I'm excited to see this finally become a thing.

Amazin, Thank you

It'd be perfect not only for non-planar smoothing of top surfaces, but it could be handy to some kind of non planar "inter-locking" of regular layers - so the regular layers would be more stiff. Just some - 2 or 3 layer height jumps over the model (not applied on outer shells to hide this) to create "locks" between layers. You'll end up with more robust model which will (possibly) not break along the layer lines so easily.

I hope Prusa research sees this contribution from the community and it can be included in the official version, the differents technics of 3d pritning have a lot of explore

Just gets better and better... 👍

Crazy interesting tech that has huge potential..!! I’d like to see you perform some strength tests. 🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼😎🍀☮️

Wouldn't the Revo Belt nozzle be an optimal compromise for non-planar 3d printing? As it is made to be used in 45° angle to the surface, it provide much more clearance than normal nozzles without the downsides of airbrush nozzles. For bed leveling: There is a quite old system using simple membrane switch attached to the nozzle (practicly the same as used in cheep keyboards). A soft foarm clamps it to the nozzle. A quite simple

I actually contributed to the original slic3r fork that had non-planar slicing (some library bullshit, it would not compile until I changed a few lines).

To get more nozzle clearance you should try the Melt Zone Extender from Triangle Labs, it screws into a normal V6 heat Bock and a V6 nozzle screws into the end, basically like adding a spacer in between the nozzle and heat block. They are made of plated copper so conduct heat well and as the name suggests they are meant to increase the melt zone and allow higher flow rates.

Building software from source gets much more pleasant if you have a full Linux installed (and actually use it and gain some experience in using the command line). It's a bit of a learning curve, sure, but it pays off. Yay to celebrating the open source community with a video, but the best way to get in to it is really to get involved on its homeground. Ideally done in an open-source operating system.

This is a pretty interesting use of non-planar for smoother top surfaces, but I'd like to see more of non-planar being used for steeper overhangs without support material

3 things i wanna see being mainstream for printers and it's slicers in the next years: 1. Non-planar 3d printing 2. Vase mode for everything then just a vase 3. AI based slicers for desktop printers that help with many problems and being intelligent on the sliceing.

I would truly love to see low level non- Planar in the Prusa slicer, because that would be awesome. Just subtle stuff but something.

Cool Video. While the airbrush nozzles look pretty cool a much more approachable version is getting an E3D Revo Belt Nozzle. It's not as pointy as the airbrush nozzle but it is so much more plug and play and if Accessibility is a concern going with Revo and Belt Nozzles is the most sensible choice.

Very goooood!!!!

Thanks for the video. I was curious about the airbrush nozzle and even got one thinking about using it to do non-planar 3D printing. I think for now is not worth the effort.

Non planar seems like the obvious option for top layer ironing, why it's conspicuously absent baffles me. Once it's available in OrcaSlicer, I'll give it a try.

Might have been mentioned, but if you have an IDEX printer, you can use one hotend do the bed leveling while the other does the non-planer printing, or use a toolchanger.

Thanks 👍

Awesome!

Hi Michael, WRT Nozzle, I think the inconsistency of the super thin airbrush nozzle may also be due to its much lower heat retaining capacity, I.e the nozzle is so thin that the tip temperature is very inconsistent. e.g. it may heat and cool too quickly/inconsistently, especially the thread lock acting as an “insulator”. Also with varying feed rates faster filament flow will cool the nozzle or a bit of draft or cooling at the tip will have a much greater temperature variance effect in a needle thin nozzle resulting in blockages that clear once the nozzle heats again.…have you considered machining the original nozzle on a lathe to make it a bit more “pointed” ?... so its still one nozzle, but with a higher angle. I regularly use a lathe to modify/make drone parts. I think it would work.

if you are doing higher temp filaments with the airbrush nozzle; consider using plumbing solder. Higher temp, and doesnt carbonize. The nozzle will be permernantly brazed on. careful with the flow temp, as cheap brass melts pretty good, and might need some pickling or abrasive to ensure the tip seats. Electronic solder is an option if you under-temp your nozzle tip, but PC and nylon's melt temps make it impractical.

Triple motor Z would be great for this but probably requires more logic. Bed tilt would minimize the need for clearance around the nozzle. Or, at the very least, improve clearance

3:30 what a great commercial 😊😁👍

I think the main limiting factor that you'll run into is actually the bulk around the nozzle. If you could find a way to make the nozzle longer (stick out more) you could get some wickedly deep plunges

Yesss!!!! Finallllllyyyyyy

I often thought about having a 3d printer mounted in a rotating assembly so that it could rotate the whole printer to change the direction of the effects of gravity on the object you are printing to eliminate the need of supports or print lines that would normally be floating out in space but if you rotated the whole printer 90 degrees then your printing completely vertical. Just an idea.

Love the zoolander line. My wife and I still quote that movie constantly.

Dynamic line heights (similar to how arachne utilizes dynamic line widths) would be an interesting solution instead of this non-planar "blanket" put on a conventionally built base. A 5 axis toolhead would mostly eliminate the need for this special nozzle and most of its problems. Keeping the toolhead always perpendicular (more like parallel to the normal vector of the actually printed point of the current 3d layer) would make extremely strong parts.

I don't really get why the solution is to use criss-crossed top layers and "drop"/ "drape" them onto the model. You could just create traditional layers, and in the top of the model take the contour lines (and the criss-crossing solid fill) of those layers and change their height by up to 0.999 layer heights (or maybe up to 0.499 layers up AND down) so that the top of the extrusion line coincides with the top of the model. Yes, you don't get that impressive looking criss-cross texture over the whole top surface of the model, but it would be just as smooth as the "draped criss-cross layers" in an aerodynamic sense. And it would avoid almost all of the problems: - It should work with basically any nozzle. You may need to take all those extrusion lines that sit at heights measured in fractional layers, cut them up and re-sort them by elevation, but with that hack it would be possible to ensure that your nozzle never extends beyond an existing layer. Which would even solve the problem of the nozzle potentially colliding with existing extruded material. - Working with any nozzle also means that the nozzle doesn't have to stick out more than usual, so the usual bed leveling solutions will continue to work. - It's entirely based on traditional layers and extrusion lines, the add-on just has to come in once those are created and offset the z-coordinates. - Since the z-coordinates are offset by at most 0.999 layers, the extrusions can't be more than that much off from what they should be (and it should be trivially easy to sanity check that). No "the non-planar layers extend to below the base plate" kinds of errors. - No hops straight up and down in the z direction, at least not by several layers ...I'd wager to say even though I don't know why the slicer gets the impression that it need to include them. - No noteworthy vertical travel during extrusion means that you use the nozzle as intended (extruding in line with it's bottom surface), so you shouldn't get those problems seen at 12:05.

CoreXY heatbeds with individually driven 3 point support would not only improve heatbed leveling but would also allow for non planar printing with fewer clearence issues.