CURA caliper

[MambaRoja]

Is there any way of measuring the sliced 3d model in CURA? It would be useful to measure the sliced model to determine if it needs to be enlarged or shrunk for a specific dimension. I have printed some screwdriver bit holders that were too tight for example: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4703894 In the comments people had enlarged the item 103-105%, I would like make a reasonable change without wasting filament! Do other slicer programs have that feature? Thanks

[Ender5r]

There is. If you click on an object and then look at the icons at the left of the screen, you will see 1 that shows 2 "vases", 1 small, 1 large, 1 black, 1 white. If you click it, you will see a popup to the right of the icon. It will show the current X, Y, & Z sizes. You can change them by percentage or by actually typing the values you want.

[MambaRoja]

That only gives me the X,Y, Z of the object dimensions, but I cannot measure the socket IDs

[Ender5r]

I'm not aware of any slicers that can do that. And, BTW, it's 3D printing: get used to wasting filament; it's part of the process.

[MambaRoja]

Thanks, I guess it is just wishful thinking. If one designs an item using Fusion360 or the OpenSCAD can the dimensions be specified or modified?
It is just not the filament, it is the time spent printing the trial and error!

[Ender5r]

Yes, CAD software does allow specifying dimensions. In fact, most of the ones I've used require them. And, yes, printing trial & error prints does take time, but that's also part of the process. Remember, what you're doing is manufacturing.

If you watch this video, you will see that the creator actually modifies the model just so it's possible to more quickly produce a test print of the hinge mechanism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okgvaI06ntU

[MambaRoja]

Thanks for the link!

[Alan]

One work around is to throw the STL in Tinkercad and edit out all but the top 1 cm (could also remove the outer parts of the handle to speed things up even more) and then print that as a test. I did this when printing some custom fan shrouds to make sure the bolt holes lined up.

Cheers