Calibration of Engine for RapMan Basic

For effective use of the Engine for RapMan, it is essential to calibrate your RapMan before starting with normal operations. The calibration can be started in the context area after clicking on the RapMan section in the project tree by clicking on the Configuration button ("...") in the tabsheet.

After that, the extruder of a RapMan is visualized in the screen. Options for the configuration are made available in the tabsheet. In the machine settings, you can specify the machine you are using. In a dropdown menu, you can select RapMan 3.1 with one extruder head, RapMan 3.1 with two heads, BFB 3000 with one, two or three heads or a customized machine. If you have a machine with more than one extruder head, you can specify offsets in X- and Y-direction for each additional head. Simply enter the distance of these extruders in the machine. This is necessary to coordinate the extruders. If you click on "Print test part" in the tabsheet, you can test, if you have entered the correct distance, as a little box is printed, for which every contour is alternately printed by another extruder head.

To calibrate the first extruder for the use of one material, open the dropdown menu of Extruder 1 to choose the material and color for which you want to calibrate the RapMan and then click on the "Calibrate" button. Available materials are ABS and PLA in various colors. It is necessary to conduct a calibration for every material you want to print.

If you have a machine with more than one extruder, the additional extruders are also visualized in the screen. You can tick a box to use any extruder for support material.

Choose a material and click on "Calibrate".

For machines with more than one extruder, each color has to be calibrated separately for each extruder

Then, the RapMan settings in the context area will be replaced by calibration options. The screen will contain only the print platen, with little boxes on it containing the outer contour of either a number or a letter (character). These boxes will be printed for the calibration. By clicking on the button "Print calibration part", you can save the calibration part on your SD card. Then, you can insert the card into your RapMan and print.

If you want to change the default settings before performing the calibration print, click on the button Expert settings. This will open a window in which various settings can be adjusted for various parameters of the calibration. The calibration print will automatically combine these settings differently for each printed box. In general, for a first calibration, this should not be necessary.

When all settings are specified and the calibration part is printed, click on the button "Enter measured values", to compare specified target values and actually measured values.

Calibration parameters

You can insert several calibration parameters. These are the parameters you measure at the actually printed part.

First, select a character in the screen or in the dropdown menu, which will be marked green.

Then, conduct about three to four measurements at different sections of the frame of the respective box, which has been printed. Take care that you do not measure any irregularities in the frame. Memorize the minimum value, rounded to the nearest 0.05 mm:

Below the dropdown menu, the print speed and target width, with which the respective box has been printed is specified. Use the slider to adjust the box "Measured width" to the minimum value of your measurements or manually enter the minimum value. Then, click on "Auto", so the extruder speed is automatically adjusted and in future, the target width will be printed. If you click on "Change", the extrudor speed can also be changed manually.

At primary calibrations, the measurement of the frames and the calibration of the extrudor speed must be repeated for every character, because they are all printed with a different combination of print speed and target width. From this data, the netfabb Engine will automatically deduce the correct calibration for the RapMan.

To go on with the calibration without losing the inserted data, click on "Apply Changes".

For subsequent recalibrations, you can put together a selection of characters to be printed. To select more than one character, simply hold Shift and left-click on the character you want to add to the selection. Then click on "Print calibration part" and confirm the action.

Finally, to permanently save your calibration to your disc, click on "Save to Disc and exit calibration".

Tutorials

Netfabb Studio Tutorial - Engine for RapMan Calibration