18 ms·

3D Printer Auto Bed Leveling Mesh Visualizer

93 points by macinjosh 3y ago

nycdatasci 3y ago
Context?
- mardifoufs 3y ago
  A 3d printer bed is never actually flat, especially since 3d printers are cheaper and the tolerances are usually pretty loose compared to a super flat, precisely ground CNC bed for example. One of the biggest issue/pain point in 3d printing for a while was to adjust the bed to make jt flat, or at least as flat as possible so that you can actually print without massive issues on the first layer. The process used to be manual, tedious and hit or miss (due to drift in the screws, or thermal expansion) etc. Nowadays most new printers come with a sensor that probes the bed at multiple points (say in a grid of 4x4), then using for example a lagrange interpolation you can get a mesh that represents how flat your bed is. Then, using the visualisation you can either manually adjust the bed (with screws that rise or lower a certain corner), or even just let your printer compensate for the deviations. That is, the printer moves the Z axis even when it is still printing on the same layer to make the print surface "virtually" flat (not always ideal if the Z axis stepper is trash, or if the deviation is too wide, or if there's too much vibration). That means that usually, the issue of bed levelling is mostly solved for newer printers! Some printers also just use the nozzle itself as a probe, combined with a load cell. But those are usually on the higher end. The most common way is just a small probe of known size that sticks out and then calculates how much it extended before reaching the bed. (Some even use a pretty high res lidar to make sure the first layer is fine, even in some sub 900$ printers).
  - NegativeLatency 3y ago
    Or an inductive sensor: https://help.prusa3d.com/article/p-i-n-d-a-superpinda-sensor-testing_2091 https://help.prusa3d.com/article/p-i-n-d-a-superpinda-sensor...
    - mardifoufs 3y ago
      Yep, having that by default since I think 2018, is one of the reasons prusas have a reputation of being super easy to use. It's way better than even a bltouch. Nowadays it's a lot more common thankfully though I don't think other big players use inductive sensors. Even prusa is now using a load cell that apparently will be used for much more than just bed levelling (the load cell could be able to tell if filament is stuck, because the motor will push without extrusion leading to a variation in load for example). Very exciting times in 3d printing honestly (and I say that as someone that is pretty "bearish" on 3d printing usually)
  - lawn 3y ago
    It's often not the bed that isn't flat, but that the rest of the printer itself moves and expands.
    - mardifoufs 3y ago
      Yeah or the bed itself is fine, but it's on a bad bed support. That's why even a perfectly flat glass bed plate can be completely uneven since the structure itself is crooked! Considering that quite a few printers are self assembled too (with basically no torque specs, and users that have little means to build it accurately), it's just compounded even more.
    - zokier 3y ago
      3D printer made of Invar/Kovar next? :)
  - dotnet00 3y ago
    There are also issues like even if extremely flat, the way most printers mount the bed, it's going to bend measurably simply from expanding upon heating up and the distance between the mounting points not expanding the same amount.
    - londons_explore 3y ago
      As long as you always print with a hot bed, that effect doesn't matter - just calibrate it when hot.
      - Mashimo 3y ago
        You mean "As long as you always print with the same bed temperature"? Because there is a difference how your bed looks from 60 C for PLA to 110C for ABS.
        londons_explore 3y ago
        Just do the first layer at 110 for all materials. PLA actually adheres far better at 110C, but obviously you need to cool it down before building too many extra layers on top. Slicers have a setting for "Bed temperature initial layer" for exactly this reason.
        Mashimo 3y ago
        I find it easier and faster to just print PLA at 50 - 60 C bed and use probes for mesh and z level. I never heard of anyone printing PLA with 110C first layer.
        Baeocystin 3y ago
        I usually start my PLA prints at ~80C for the first layer, dropping to 65C for the rest. I first tried it because I was playing with PEO plates that had an iridescent pattern I wanted to strongly embed in the layer, but it turns out to be a good general pattern overall. Really reduced the amount of support material I need on certain prints, which is a big plus.
- NegativeLatency 3y ago
  Kinda neat to see a scaled up visualization of the vertical height differences of your printer bed. https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G029-ubl.html https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G029-ubl.html
- shadycuz 3y ago
  Some 3d printers have automatic bed leveling. Which is a process where the printer will touch the print bed in many places with a probe. This allows the printer to detect peaks and valleys, which it can then compensate for. The website above allows you to visualize that data.
- flatline-84 3y ago
  3D printers can do a variety of "bed mesh" leveling, which is where they probe the bed in a grid pattern and then can compensate for any deformities in the bed via software. This ensures that the first layer (arguably the most important) for any print is perfectly flat and level. This visualizer takes the output of the bed mesh calibration sequence (where each point is a z-offset, usually from what the printer has defined as 0 based on the end stop) and graphs it so you can see your bed deformation. Most Klipper frontend UIs already have support for this though
- Doxin 3y ago
  For a 3d printer the distance between the print bed and the nozzle when printing the first layer is very important. If the distance is too big the print doesn't stick to the bed and you end up with spaghetti. If the distance is too small either not enough plastic comes out so your print doesn't stick; no plastic at all comes out so your print doesn't stick; or the nozzle digs into the printbed, damaging it. Since the thickness of layers in a 3d print is around 0.1-0.3mm the margin for error is rather tight. Since no one is going to invest in precision ground printbeds you need to get that precision by some other method. One of those methods is to probe the bed height at various points before printing, and driving the Z-axis to correct for that during the print. The linked tool can be used to visualize how nonflat your printbed is given a set of such probes. The default example seems to have a ±0.25mm error, which isn't amazing but should be usable with mesh leveling and not at all without.
  - feiss 3y ago
    This is neat, today I learnt. Can an Ender 3 do mesh leveling?
    - wvdp 3y ago
      Yes look for the cr touch. But make sure that you have a 16 bit main board. All v1.x boards don't support it
kayson 3y ago
Octoprint has a plugin (Bed Mesh Visualizer) that does this.
smcleod 3y ago
Klipper's frontend (Mainsail) has this built in. https://docs.mainsail.xyz/ https://docs.mainsail.xyz/
- flatline-84 3y ago
  There's also Fluidd https://docs.fluidd.xyz/ https://docs.fluidd.xyz/
cassac 3y ago
Prusa Link/Connect also has this.
- antirez 3y ago
  Are you sure PrusaLink has it? I've an MK4 with latest firmware and I can only see the usual temperature graph and file browser, and that's it. Not that the bed visualizer would be so useful with the MK4: this printer (like the XL) really does not have leveling issues.
- yokoprime 3y ago
  I think you're confusing the control screen with leveling mesh visualizer. Prusa Connect does not have this, Prusa Link is even more bare bones.
numpad0 3y ago
IME, ABL is not that important. Personally I spray bed with a hairspray and tweak leveling screws while first layer is going on[1], that's just fine. Old Marlin ABL also has bug/tendency to report erroneous tilt towards the last corner it measures, I suspect due to Z axis missing step from microstepping. Ultimately it was too finicky for me without resorting to closed-loop drivers, which also almost completely solved the leveling problem. 1: I know it is a big flat NO to touch a robotic equipment in operation, unless said robot is specifically designed to be almost completely incapable of applying any force to any parts of a human body, but I'm smart and I consider my printer a co-bot so it's okay(it's not okay. A better solution is needed).
- dotnet00 3y ago
  ABL is not that important if you don't mind babysitting the printer. But it's an amazing quality of life improvement otherwise. Especially if you're printing stuff that needs precision. Manually leveling an ender 3 was tolerable to me for about a month while learning 3d printing and figuring out if it was something I would be into long term, but over the course of a year I went from that, to trying various ABL sensors and bed replacements, to now a custom built Mercury One.1 with 3 point kinematic auto bed leveling, and it's such a night and day difference in terms of usability. It physically levels the bed and automatically determines the z offset, so I don't have to do anything when using different print surfaces and when operating at different temperatures/in an enclosure. Heat expansion is pretty noticeable (I've destroyed pei plates with the nozzle by calculating z offset when cold but attempting to print when hot), and while sticking your hand under the bed of a printer printing PLA is not that dangerous, with ABS the bed is at 110C, not at all worth the risk, so autoleveling is very helpful. It makes it so much easier to just submit a print job, forget about it and find it finished perfectly, without involving any finicky adhesives.
  - lvturner 3y ago
    I'm with you, adding an auto bed leveler was the single biggest upgrade on my 3D printer, for the type and printing I do and the frequency I use, it's really just made it fire and forget (I'm sure I could improve it /even/ further) where as previously I felt I had to re-level after every print.
bbbbbenji 3y ago
I've also made something similar. It was originally for the Prusa Mini, but I've updated it with a beta that accepts an arbitrary array of probe points: https://bbbenji.github.io/PMSBLM/beta/ https://bbbenji.github.io/PMSBLM/beta/
Mashimo 3y ago
Title needs [2019] It's something that is build in on most UIs now days.
m4rc3lv 3y ago
This is really cool!
picadores 3y ago
So that is two layers of filler to create a perfect bed to print on?
- Mashimo 3y ago
  ~0.6mm, two layers of you use 0.3mm, people often use 0.2mm layer height though. But I think mesh bed can handle this.
  - picadores 3y ago
    How does the printer compensate for precision loss do to movement? In industrial robotics, there is the concept of measuring the inprecissions in the machinery at any given point (direct measurement) and compensate that via variables in the robotic matrice. Is there something similar for printers?
    - Mashimo 3y ago
      I'm not sure. But in the end you are laying molten plastic on top of each other. Even with a perfect flat print surface you will have slightly uneven extrusion that will be noticeable on top down lighting. Silver cubes with direct lighting https://github.com/lord-carlos/mk3-upgrade/blob/master/assets/images/20190525T190444.jpg?raw=true https://github.com/lord-carlos/mk3-upgrade/blob/master/asset... Same cube with top down light: https://github.com/lord-carlos/mk3-upgrade/blob/master/assets/images/skele_602_silver.jpg?raw=true https://github.com/lord-carlos/mk3-upgrade/blob/master/asset... What we have is Pressure Advanced. Where we stop extruding (as much) right before a corner. And we do that by doing some test prints with different values and eye balling it. Also some firmwares like klipper have some math in it to compensate for heat expansion over time of the printers frame. Or something like that.
    - numpad0 3y ago
      Most hobby printers do not compensate at all. There are input shaping to reduce vibration, and hacked together closed-loop upgrades, personally I haven't heard of any more sophisticated controls.
RoseyWasTaken 3y ago
ABL has been recently improved with the Beacon 3D probe (https://beacon3d.com/ https://beacon3d.com/), I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet, as my cheap induction probe has been working reliably ever since I mounted it. But, the Beacon 3D along with mesh leveling and selective leveling area are my favorite recent innovations in 3D printing.
- stavros 3y ago
  Does it work well? All I want is a reliable first layer, as that's what causes 99% of my failed prints.
  - TaylorAlexander 3y ago
    Look in to the Prusa Mk4 which uses the nozzle itself with a built in load cell to probe the bed, providing perfect offsets every time!
    - stavros 3y ago
      Ah, damn, that's great! Not CoreXY, but I'm sure someone will put this on a CoreXY printer, and then no more bed leveling!
      - TaylorAlexander 3y ago
        Oh someone has put this on a CoreXY: ;) https://www.prusa3d.com/product/original-prusa-xl-3/ https://www.prusa3d.com/product/original-prusa-xl-3/
        stavros 3y ago
        Ahaha XLent.
      - jyxent 3y ago
        The Bambu Lab CoreXY printers have force sensors in the bed for leveling using the nozzle: https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/x1/maintenance/replace-the-heatbed-force-sensor https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/x1/maintenance/replace-the-heat... Vorons also have a nozzle probing design: https://github.com/VoronDesign/Voron-Tap https://github.com/VoronDesign/Voron-Tap

93 points by macinjosh 3y ago

nycdatasci 3y ago

Context?

mardifoufs 3y ago
A 3d printer bed is never actually flat, especially since 3d printers are cheaper and the tolerances are usually pretty loose compared to a super flat, precisely ground CNC bed for example. One of the biggest issue/pain point in 3d printing for a while was to adjust the bed to make jt flat, or at least as flat as possible so that you can actually print without massive issues on the first layer. The process used to be manual, tedious and hit or miss (due to drift in the screws, or thermal expansion) etc. Nowadays most new printers come with a sensor that probes the bed at multiple points (say in a grid of 4x4), then using for example a lagrange interpolation you can get a mesh that represents how flat your bed is. Then, using the visualisation you can either manually adjust the bed (with screws that rise or lower a certain corner), or even just let your printer compensate for the deviations. That is, the printer moves the Z axis even when it is still printing on the same layer to make the print surface "virtually" flat (not always ideal if the Z axis stepper is trash, or if the deviation is too wide, or if there's too much vibration). That means that usually, the issue of bed levelling is mostly solved for newer printers! Some printers also just use the nozzle itself as a probe, combined with a load cell. But those are usually on the higher end. The most common way is just a small probe of known size that sticks out and then calculates how much it extended before reaching the bed. (Some even use a pretty high res lidar to make sure the first layer is fine, even in some sub 900$ printers).
- NegativeLatency 3y ago
  Or an inductive sensor: https://help.prusa3d.com/article/p-i-n-d-a-superpinda-sensor-testing_2091 https://help.prusa3d.com/article/p-i-n-d-a-superpinda-sensor...
  - mardifoufs 3y ago
    Yep, having that by default since I think 2018, is one of the reasons prusas have a reputation of being super easy to use. It's way better than even a bltouch. Nowadays it's a lot more common thankfully though I don't think other big players use inductive sensors. Even prusa is now using a load cell that apparently will be used for much more than just bed levelling (the load cell could be able to tell if filament is stuck, because the motor will push without extrusion leading to a variation in load for example). Very exciting times in 3d printing honestly (and I say that as someone that is pretty "bearish" on 3d printing usually)
- lawn 3y ago
  It's often not the bed that isn't flat, but that the rest of the printer itself moves and expands.
  - mardifoufs 3y ago
    Yeah or the bed itself is fine, but it's on a bad bed support. That's why even a perfectly flat glass bed plate can be completely uneven since the structure itself is crooked! Considering that quite a few printers are self assembled too (with basically no torque specs, and users that have little means to build it accurately), it's just compounded even more.
  - zokier 3y ago
    3D printer made of Invar/Kovar next? :)
- dotnet00 3y ago
  There are also issues like even if extremely flat, the way most printers mount the bed, it's going to bend measurably simply from expanding upon heating up and the distance between the mounting points not expanding the same amount.
  - londons_explore 3y ago
    As long as you always print with a hot bed, that effect doesn't matter - just calibrate it when hot.
    - Mashimo 3y ago
      You mean "As long as you always print with the same bed temperature"? Because there is a difference how your bed looks from 60 C for PLA to 110C for ABS.
      - londons_explore 3y ago
        Just do the first layer at 110 for all materials. PLA actually adheres far better at 110C, but obviously you need to cool it down before building too many extra layers on top. Slicers have a setting for "Bed temperature initial layer" for exactly this reason.
        Mashimo 3y ago
        I find it easier and faster to just print PLA at 50 - 60 C bed and use probes for mesh and z level. I never heard of anyone printing PLA with 110C first layer.
        Baeocystin 3y ago
        I usually start my PLA prints at ~80C for the first layer, dropping to 65C for the rest. I first tried it because I was playing with PEO plates that had an iridescent pattern I wanted to strongly embed in the layer, but it turns out to be a good general pattern overall. Really reduced the amount of support material I need on certain prints, which is a big plus.
NegativeLatency 3y ago
Kinda neat to see a scaled up visualization of the vertical height differences of your printer bed. https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G029-ubl.html https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G029-ubl.html
shadycuz 3y ago
Some 3d printers have automatic bed leveling. Which is a process where the printer will touch the print bed in many places with a probe. This allows the printer to detect peaks and valleys, which it can then compensate for. The website above allows you to visualize that data.
flatline-84 3y ago
3D printers can do a variety of "bed mesh" leveling, which is where they probe the bed in a grid pattern and then can compensate for any deformities in the bed via software. This ensures that the first layer (arguably the most important) for any print is perfectly flat and level. This visualizer takes the output of the bed mesh calibration sequence (where each point is a z-offset, usually from what the printer has defined as 0 based on the end stop) and graphs it so you can see your bed deformation. Most Klipper frontend UIs already have support for this though
Doxin 3y ago
For a 3d printer the distance between the print bed and the nozzle when printing the first layer is very important. If the distance is too big the print doesn't stick to the bed and you end up with spaghetti. If the distance is too small either not enough plastic comes out so your print doesn't stick; no plastic at all comes out so your print doesn't stick; or the nozzle digs into the printbed, damaging it. Since the thickness of layers in a 3d print is around 0.1-0.3mm the margin for error is rather tight. Since no one is going to invest in precision ground printbeds you need to get that precision by some other method. One of those methods is to probe the bed height at various points before printing, and driving the Z-axis to correct for that during the print. The linked tool can be used to visualize how nonflat your printbed is given a set of such probes. The default example seems to have a ±0.25mm error, which isn't amazing but should be usable with mesh leveling and not at all without.
- feiss 3y ago
  This is neat, today I learnt. Can an Ender 3 do mesh leveling?
  - wvdp 3y ago
    Yes look for the cr touch. But make sure that you have a 16 bit main board. All v1.x boards don't support it

kayson 3y ago

Octoprint has a plugin (Bed Mesh Visualizer) that does this.

smcleod 3y ago

Klipper's frontend (Mainsail) has this built in. https://docs.mainsail.xyz/ https://docs.mainsail.xyz/

flatline-84 3y ago
There's also Fluidd https://docs.fluidd.xyz/ https://docs.fluidd.xyz/

cassac 3y ago

Prusa Link/Connect also has this.

antirez 3y ago
Are you sure PrusaLink has it? I've an MK4 with latest firmware and I can only see the usual temperature graph and file browser, and that's it. Not that the bed visualizer would be so useful with the MK4: this printer (like the XL) really does not have leveling issues.
yokoprime 3y ago
I think you're confusing the control screen with leveling mesh visualizer. Prusa Connect does not have this, Prusa Link is even more bare bones.

numpad0 3y ago

IME, ABL is not that important. Personally I spray bed with a hairspray and tweak leveling screws while first layer is going on[1], that's just fine. Old Marlin ABL also has bug/tendency to report erroneous tilt towards the last corner it measures, I suspect due to Z axis missing step from microstepping. Ultimately it was too finicky for me without resorting to closed-loop drivers, which also almost completely solved the leveling problem. 1: I know it is a big flat NO to touch a robotic equipment in operation, unless said robot is specifically designed to be almost completely incapable of applying any force to any parts of a human body, but I'm smart and I consider my printer a co-bot so it's okay(it's not okay. A better solution is needed).

dotnet00 3y ago
ABL is not that important if you don't mind babysitting the printer. But it's an amazing quality of life improvement otherwise. Especially if you're printing stuff that needs precision. Manually leveling an ender 3 was tolerable to me for about a month while learning 3d printing and figuring out if it was something I would be into long term, but over the course of a year I went from that, to trying various ABL sensors and bed replacements, to now a custom built Mercury One.1 with 3 point kinematic auto bed leveling, and it's such a night and day difference in terms of usability. It physically levels the bed and automatically determines the z offset, so I don't have to do anything when using different print surfaces and when operating at different temperatures/in an enclosure. Heat expansion is pretty noticeable (I've destroyed pei plates with the nozzle by calculating z offset when cold but attempting to print when hot), and while sticking your hand under the bed of a printer printing PLA is not that dangerous, with ABS the bed is at 110C, not at all worth the risk, so autoleveling is very helpful. It makes it so much easier to just submit a print job, forget about it and find it finished perfectly, without involving any finicky adhesives.
- lvturner 3y ago
  I'm with you, adding an auto bed leveler was the single biggest upgrade on my 3D printer, for the type and printing I do and the frequency I use, it's really just made it fire and forget (I'm sure I could improve it /even/ further) where as previously I felt I had to re-level after every print.

bbbbbenji 3y ago

I've also made something similar. It was originally for the Prusa Mini, but I've updated it with a beta that accepts an arbitrary array of probe points: https://bbbenji.github.io/PMSBLM/beta/ https://bbbenji.github.io/PMSBLM/beta/

Mashimo 3y ago

Title needs [2019] It's something that is build in on most UIs now days.

m4rc3lv 3y ago

This is really cool!

picadores 3y ago

So that is two layers of filler to create a perfect bed to print on?

Mashimo 3y ago
~0.6mm, two layers of you use 0.3mm, people often use 0.2mm layer height though. But I think mesh bed can handle this.
- picadores 3y ago
  How does the printer compensate for precision loss do to movement? In industrial robotics, there is the concept of measuring the inprecissions in the machinery at any given point (direct measurement) and compensate that via variables in the robotic matrice. Is there something similar for printers?
  - Mashimo 3y ago
    I'm not sure. But in the end you are laying molten plastic on top of each other. Even with a perfect flat print surface you will have slightly uneven extrusion that will be noticeable on top down lighting. Silver cubes with direct lighting https://github.com/lord-carlos/mk3-upgrade/blob/master/assets/images/20190525T190444.jpg?raw=true https://github.com/lord-carlos/mk3-upgrade/blob/master/asset... Same cube with top down light: https://github.com/lord-carlos/mk3-upgrade/blob/master/assets/images/skele_602_silver.jpg?raw=true https://github.com/lord-carlos/mk3-upgrade/blob/master/asset... What we have is Pressure Advanced. Where we stop extruding (as much) right before a corner. And we do that by doing some test prints with different values and eye balling it. Also some firmwares like klipper have some math in it to compensate for heat expansion over time of the printers frame. Or something like that.
  - numpad0 3y ago
    Most hobby printers do not compensate at all. There are input shaping to reduce vibration, and hacked together closed-loop upgrades, personally I haven't heard of any more sophisticated controls.

RoseyWasTaken 3y ago

ABL has been recently improved with the Beacon 3D probe (https://beacon3d.com/ https://beacon3d.com/), I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet, as my cheap induction probe has been working reliably ever since I mounted it. But, the Beacon 3D along with mesh leveling and selective leveling area are my favorite recent innovations in 3D printing.

stavros 3y ago
Does it work well? All I want is a reliable first layer, as that's what causes 99% of my failed prints.
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago
  Look in to the Prusa Mk4 which uses the nozzle itself with a built in load cell to probe the bed, providing perfect offsets every time!
  - stavros 3y ago
    Ah, damn, that's great! Not CoreXY, but I'm sure someone will put this on a CoreXY printer, and then no more bed leveling!
    - TaylorAlexander 3y ago
      Oh someone has put this on a CoreXY: ;) https://www.prusa3d.com/product/original-prusa-xl-3/ https://www.prusa3d.com/product/original-prusa-xl-3/
      - stavros 3y ago
        Ahaha XLent.
    - jyxent 3y ago
      The Bambu Lab CoreXY printers have force sensors in the bed for leveling using the nozzle: https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/x1/maintenance/replace-the-heatbed-force-sensor https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/x1/maintenance/replace-the-heat... Vorons also have a nozzle probing design: https://github.com/VoronDesign/Voron-Tap https://github.com/VoronDesign/Voron-Tap