this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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On multicolor printing, why does the prime tower have to be as high as the current layer? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by Trail@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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Recently bought an A1 mini with AMS, which has been generally great. I have been printing various things, but was thinking if the wasted filament during color changes could be further reduced.

I was wondering, if the color change happens on a high layer, why does the prime tower need to be built as high in order to flush when the color change happens? Is it not a good idea to have the prime tower not generated up until the color change is needed, and then start building it on the plate directly?

This would imply z axis movement whenever the color changes, but is it bad for some reason? It would take slightly more time, but the filament change already takes plenty of time so I assume it is not a factor of the already printed model cooling or so. Could it be something like we want to avoid unnecessary Z axis movements to avoid alignment mistakes maybe with the current layer, if the z movement is not considered precise enough?

Or it is just considered that the aavings of building a shorter tower any not that much comparatively? Anyone more knowledgeable has any thoughts?

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[–] insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe 14 points 2 days ago

My guess would be it's the "safe" option especially if avoidance calculation isn't actually being done (also may not even work well with diff printer configs, multiple models). And yeah, slow Z travel.

Though I haven't done 3D printing in a while (I should have kept it simple) so I don't know. I would probably try to use some other print as a purge if possible, either via infill or just something that doesn't matter (utility or will be painted anyway).