Best Practices

Best Practices

• Building After A Failure

  This strategy describes how to construct the prevailing portion of a part that has failed during a build. This could be due to machine failure or even power loss. Generally, this will be a superior option if a part build fails, it is a lengthy duration build or is too long to start over from the beginning. This procedure will allow you to construct the remaining portion, then glue the pieces together which saves build time and material usage.

   

  Process

  1. Open Insight, click “Open” from the File menu and unearth the Job Folder (ssys_[filename]) for the part you’d like to build. Load the .SJB file (Stratasys Job File) from that folder.
  2. Click “Setup” from the Support menu. Delete the existing supports from the part (these will be recreated later).
  3. Dictate the layer height at which the part stopped building
     1. If the failure was because of a machine problem, the layer height will be showcased on the User Interface screen, and in the Details screen beneath Insight Status
     2. If the part stopped building because of a power failure, the
        method of finding the last layer will rely on which
        the machine you are running
        1. On a Fortus system, after powering the machine
           back up and executing an Autohome XYZ
           the operation, guide through the following menus
           on the user interface screen: Modeler Status ->
           Machine State -> System Status. The top line in
           the resulting screen will read “Last Layer Built”
           followed by a number. Use this number as the
           Range Top in Step 4.
        2. On the Maxum system, users will require to follow the
           “Recover a Part” procedure to find the last layer
           built
  4. Click on “Display Options” from the View menu
     1. Enter the amount of the last layer built in the “Current layer number” field (Fortus), or enter the height of the last layer built in the “Current Z” field (Maxum). Click on the icon to set this as the top of the range.
     2. Enter the height as the last layer built in the Range Top field, and enter “0”
     3. Click on the View Range of Layers icon to display the selected range
  5. The curves now visible represent the portion of the part that has already been built
     1. Select “Delete…” from the Edit menu. Ensure
        “Curves” is chosen at the top of the delete operation
        page, then click in order to select all the visible curves.
     2. Select the OK button to remove all necessary geometry.
     3. Go back to the Display Options operation and click to
        show all the layers; the remaining geometry is the
        a portion of the part that still needs to be built.
  6. The remaining portion of the part now needs to be moved to
     the bottom of the build space.
     1. Select “Move, rotate, copy…” from the Edit menu, then
        click on “Move to origin” under Action on the upper
        right side.
     2. Click again to select all visible geometry, then click on
        OK to move the part to the bottom.
  7. Click on the Main toolbar to produce a new support structure. Furthermore,
     click on the button in order to generate toolpaths, and then save this
     job with a new name (such as “[filename]_top”).
  8. Remove the completed bottom portion of the part from
     the build chamber of the machine and insert a new
     foundation sheet.
     1. Send the newly created .CMB file from the Status
        application on your workstation to your Fortus system
        just as you would any other part.
     2. When this part is completed and the supports have
        been removed, it can be glued on to the previously built
        bottom section.

  Last Updated: Dec 10, 2018

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