Beginner's Guide to Fit and Tolerance in Fusion 360 - Get the Perfect Fit from Your 3D Printer / CNC
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- Опубликовано: 1 сен 2022
- In this video I break down the concept of part tolerance and explain the major types of part fit. In Part 2 I show you how to make a Fit Gauge so you can quickly identify the right fit parameters for your machine.
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If I had a dollar for every time some 3D printing/maker RUclipsr used the word “tolerance” when they meant “clearance” I would give them all to you as thanks for this clear explanation. I hope the algorithm spreads this around for all to see!
This is a really nice comment :) Thank you!
This made me giggle while simultaneously yelling "YES!"
Bonus word of consistent un/misusage: VARIANCE.
My brother in law is a PhD Structural Engineer and used to be a college professor. Other than his lesson on this subject, you’re the first content creator in this space who correctly explains these concept in an easy to follow way. Thank you. Thumbs up and subscribed.
Thanks!!!! Very nice of you to say!
Printing a fit block is a good starting point. However, there are few variables that this video/lesson does not address! In addition to different materials (PLA, PETG, ABS ... ) and nozzle sizes, there are a few more factors that come into play! Shrinkage is one of your biggest variable and it is highly dependent on the amount of material deposited. 20% fill will have considerably less shrinking than 100% fill. Along these lines, large and thick parts will shrink more than small parts. Bottom line here is that it takes time and many tries to get a good idea how your parts come out of the printer. I use calipers to measure the difference between design vs printed dimension. You can quickly create a table (or graph) that will show the relationship between %fill, size, print temperature and so forth.
With the exception of all the fast moving and zooming, this is a well put together instruction video. Thank you for sharing!
This is a good point. A 0.6mm clearance may result in a good fit in one part and one material in one nozzle size, but a poor fit in another part, or another material, or another nozzle size. Even print orientation may have an impact.
I suppose if you wanted to, you could create a variety of fit blocks for different materials, part sizes, in-fills, and nozzle sizes to help you dial in the right fit for what you intend to make.
Been 3d printing for a few years and this is the best explanation I've seen on the topic. Great stuff, subbed and will be learning more from you.
this is a great video. I don't know how this doesn't have more views.
It’s because RUclips wants you to watch shuffle dance reels instead.
A really good video with good teaching and demonstration... Thanks!
sometimes things can be so easy...but I needed this video 🙂. Thanks for this!
Dawg, bless you, more people need to see this
This is a great resource for makers like myself who aren’t engineers by trade. Thank you for sharing! 🍻
Wow. Excellent, well-thought-out, loads of preparation, coherent video which anticipated my questions during the video and answered them. Thank you!
Very usefull! Looking forward the next video
Very easy to watch and straight to the points of learning. Excellent. Subbed. Would love to see something on various designs for joining 3D printed parts. Particularly when the basic ones aren’t a good solution.
Hi David! Thanks for the sub! Great suggestion! I’ve got a few Halloween themed vids in the works but part joining is on the short list after that!
Excellent video! Thanks
Thanks for the video, very helpfull.
I don't like to add the tolerances in using sketches as it not only makes the sketches insanely complex, but it becomes really difficult when you have a part with many complex faces. If I'm not being lazy, I'll add a parameter called (PRINTEROFFSET) or something and then use the face offset tool to add that where I need. If I am being lazy, I just select the faces I need and offset them using the tool.
The parameters solution is ideal in many ways because if you get a new printer or dial it in more, you just have to change it to the new tolerance and all your parts will update. Having to manually edit each sketch would be a nightmare.
This is exactly how I do it as well! With parameters it is absolutely a night and day difference for tuning tolerances and finding that near perfect fit. Especially when 3D printers have monstrous amounts of variables in play when it comes down to tolerances.
How are you guys handling it when you have a shared design because every printer is calibrated a little differently?
@@chiefgeek2020 I just put in a tolerance that I know works for me and let people know that some sanding/adjustment may be required based on their printer. There isn't much else you can do.
yes this is a good practice you explain, I'm not familiar with F360 but with SW you can then create "Configurations" with each having PRINTEROFFSET set differently and call them Clearance, Sloppy, Super Sloppy, etc... and you can switch between with one drop down.
you can create a parameter where you only change the tolerance and ill change every tolerance at the same time.
Very good explanation 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Great video!
If only I had professors like you in college.
Converting the bodies to components would make it much easier to see the different sections in the section analysis.
This was a great video
these are good videos man
Great video. I just did that on my Ender-3 printing ABS at 0.2mm layer height and 0.44 layer width, in my case 0.1mm was the best fit, the walls barely touch and the piece holds itself when I turn the whole thing upside down, the 0.15mm one the piece falls when I turn it upside down. I think I could go as low as 0.05 but I'll stick with 0.1 to account for discrepancies in more complex shapes.
Great content thanks, if you have some similar practical understanding about datums, and reading geometric control frames I'd be very interested.
Expansion or contraction in 3D printing is related to your nozzle size (among other things). A good rule of thumb for a .4mm nozzle is to allow for a .4mm expansion of material.
Great tip! Based on personal experience I agree.
Thnx, I now visually understand I was focussing too much on the shaft and forget to take the hole into count, so it's actually double.
Will try to apply this to blender and tinkercad.
Most of what you note in your video can be addressed in the slicer parameters rather than modifying your designs (tolerance fits). You can also adjust for things like material shrinkage which will throw a lot of the fitment done in the design out the window.
Heyo! Technically speaking, you are correct, a lot of what I'm explaining in this video “could” be done in the slicer and I've been really impressed but what slicer programs can do and how much they have evolved over the last few years. But, as Dr. Ian Malcom says (kinda lol), “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should”. In my opinion the slicer method is a solid ‘hack’ if you are using someone else’s CAD / don’t have the ability for to modify the CAD file BUT it has limitations as complexity increases. Let’s say for example you have an assembly that needs to snap together in one area but have a working slide or rotational hinge in another… for something like that I’m going to need to have localized control over fit offsets. I also work across platforms so I can’t always rely on a slicer. When I'm CNCing for example it’s important to understand the underlying principles to get everything to work / program toolpaths properly. Overall I think if the slicer is working for your applications keep using it, but if you want to have more control over what’s happening ‘behind the curtain’ I recommend integrating the offset principles into your modeling process :). Cheers!
Congrats dude, very well explained and produced. Any chance you could share the stl file with the test blocks?
When 3d printing you need to factor in shrinkage , I had a big problem with tolerances while printing with CF petg
Hey this is a great video! I am now designing a computer chassis in Fusion 360. I have studied this "tolerence" topic before and I found that the "transitional" tolerence of my Bambu Lab X1C printer (with PETG material and 0.4 Nozzle) is 0.3mm. So I created a "Tol" (tolerence) parameter in my Fusion 360. I added/subtrcted this "Tol" to the dimension when I design something like dovetail connection of two boards. So my questions are:
1) Is my way of resovling the tolerence issue like above right? If yes then I am going to do this to every part of the components where I see there is tolerence issue. Correct?
2) I know that there is setting in printer called "Horizontal expansion" (Cura) or "X-Y hole compensation" (Bambu). Should I use them to resolve the tolerence issue instead of doing it in Fusion like #1 above?
3) If I want to share the STEP file with others (not the Fusion file) should I put a note there and tell the user the tolerence setting I have so that the user can adust on their own?
Sorry for many questions above. 🙂 Appreciate your time and effort!
Graciass!!!
Can we get this model or do we have to create it ourselves. This doesn't seem to be a tutorial on the model but more of an educational on the principle. I would love to have the model to print out on my resin printer to see what mine is as I have no idea and I think I've been butting my head up against this already and just was aware of it. Thanks in advance. 🙂Thomas over at The Model Hobbyist
Sir make vedio on tolerance stack up analysis......and also on how to apply gd&t
I use Horizontal expansion in Cura
This is a really helpful video. Do you suggest having a fit block for each nozzle size on your a FDM printer? I'm guessing each nozzle size would be slightly different. I tried making a threaded connection for the first time today and I did an offset based on a RUclips video recommendation, and it didn't work. I'm using a 0.8mm nozzle for faster prints where quality of finish isn't important, and I'm guessing that's not what most folks use since it isn't the default nozzle size.
Hi Brian, my general recommendation is to have a fit block for every ‘setup’ that you run…I also tend to run most things on draft and have found that I have to use different offsets than when I run things with a higher finish… especially if you are doing a very specific fit like threaded connection.
This is a great video but people should start by calibrating their printer. Teaching Tech has a great calibration guide.
Also, the tolerance will likely be tighter when bridging for a slot, perhaps for inserting a nut.
Really solid points! For this vid I wanted to keep it simple / focus on what you can do on the software side but yeah it might warrant a future vid to explain that tolerances can change based on the print quality, print direction, support / bridge features, and calibration. Thanks for the suggestions!
ok cool and where is the print fit gauge model ? why didn't you post it in the video description?
I find that my printers tolerance is directly proportional to my flow rate for the given filament and I have to tune the flow rate differently for every filament.
Based on your explanation it has me curious to know if the tolerance should be different for every layer height/width and if so it sounds like this is something that should be handled in the slicer.
Yes, and nobody talks about it
Yes, it's a calibration issue mainly.
GD&T has definitely been a learning curve by trial and error.
Great content. Wouldnt the offset be dependant on the filament type and printing settings too?
Hey Alain! I can only speak to my personal experience but I’ve found only minor variations between filament types in terms of fit and I rarely deviate from my 0.5mm (clearance )| 0.4mm | 0.3mm (interference) guidelines on the Makerbot. For more complex objects you may seem some variation when you change the print settings but the great thing about about the gauge is that you can quickly print it out in draft and high quality to dial it in for your printer!
It will depend on filament, printer settings, ambient temperature, the form and size of the part (like holes of different diameters require different clearances, and dependence is not linear). When I make size-critical parts, almost each time it requires test print and further adjustment of clearances.
If you only 3d print you can use the slicing tolerance in your slicer instead.
What amount of offset do you think is allright and whats not? i mean... if i need to offset 1mm, i think, i really have to take another look at my pinter hadware/calibrtation....
Thanks for this video. Does a new block need to be printed for a 0.2mm nozzle and a 0.4mm nozzle?
Hey patty, yes since each machine/setup has its own variance, you would want to test each setup individually… they may be close enough that you could use the same settings but you would want to test to make sure
@@practicalalchemy407 Gotcha, thanks! Where would you place the Z seam? Sharpest corner or random?
Hi there. Did you post part 2 where you show how to make the fit gauge? Maybe I missed it but I cannot find it.
Hey Orlando, there isn’t really a Part 2 video. The intent is for you to use to model this block in your preferred cad program and print it out on your machine so you can evaluate what offsets you should use when modeling
Do you find that there are different tolerance offsets for different Axis? ie for a particular printer, are the X and Y direction offsets identical, and what about tolerance in the Z axis?
Hey Adam! Personally I haven’t see a ton of variance in the Z direction vs the X/Y with the Makerbot but technically I would think about the Z axis as a different “tool” with its own unique issues. You can use the same principles to evaluate your Z axis by varying the heights of the extrusions in the gauge until your happy with how your Male and Female parts mate in the Z axis.
Would you chamfer the edges for wood working?
If you are cncing I don’t think the chamfers are necessary since it would require additional tool paths / bit change But you will need to dogbone the corners of your female part to account for the radius of your bit
Hello, Fusion beginner here; Is there a way to create a parametric function for the printer tolerance? i.e. If I want to tackle a large project with 2 printers that have different tolerances; can I set up that final offset extrusion cut as a parametric function and change it depending on which printer I'm exporting to?
Hi Patrick, yes! You can absolutely do that, in fact I cover this exact topic in my ‘Beginner's Guide to Designing with Fit Video'
@@practicalalchemy407 awesome thank you!
Hi can you share the stl for the tolerance fit test ? Thank you
Isn't the offset making the gap double in your test block? I mean, when you offset a certain amount 0.5 for instance, aren't you making a 1 clearance. 0.5 on each side?
Personally I find that it’s easier to think about each face individually but I think what you’ve said is perfectly valid if it’s easier for you to conceptualize that way.
Can you provide files to follow along?
Not to nit-pick, but the "divergence" you refer to at 2:29 isn't technically the tolerance. This divergence from the platonic ideal geometry is generally called error. In your example, this theoretically perfect cylinder is impossible to produce by any process - it can only be approached to a greater or lesser extent depending on the process and material. This is why you apply a tolerance to achieve a desired fit.
Hey Peter! This is great feedback! Much appreciated! I made a mental note that I had jumbled up some terms while I was recording that section and I missed it while I was editing but I love the way you just explained that should have used ‘divergence’ and ‘error’ I’ll have to go back in and add a card to correct! Thanks again!
What about round objects? Need to make a different template for round ones too? The rectangular template is just for rectangular shapes. Odd shapes will have a different printing behavior. Then size also affect printing tolerance. There really no one size fit all solution for FDM printing. We are at the mercy of the manufacturer's accuracy
The accuracy of a printer in xyz is an absolute value. I think the template is good if its not too litle compated to the nozle size. If you break it down a round shape is also just an combination of x and y position. If you go deeper into gd&t theories than this value here are neather the tolerance nor the clearance but lets keep it simple. One specific printer one template and you have a very practical guidline. Good video, thankyou.
This is well said and I appreciate your comments! Like you say this intended to be a quick and practical way to understand and work with your printer, rather than an exhaustive breakdown of GD&T theory.
14:58 Depth (against the layer lines) dont work the same way. Mostly depends on your z offset and the way you "squish" the first layer
A point you forgot to mention about your clearance gage: this works only for a specific layer height. Different layer height = different clearance required to achieve the same fit
You shouldn't have any squish out.
@@saltwaterrook4638 Right, but that wasn't my point. When you set the "first layer height" value on your slicer, this theoritical value is used for the calculation of the remaining layers, so that the total height of your print matches your model.
But there is no way for your slicer to know the real, actual height of that first layer, as it depends on your z offset. The height of the following layers only depends on your z motor calibration, and is not related to the extrusion
@@sergeb7945 false.. again. You shouldn't have z offset. Z offset is for people that don't know how to tram a bed. Also, your machine knows exactly where it's at. That's what the MCS (machine coordinate system) is. It has to know where it is lol. You clearly don't know how this all works.
You must do your CAD design to true dimensions! At least when sharing only stl files. It is everyones own responsibility to know ones printers ability and account for this in the slicers XY hole and XY contour compensation settings. Needless to say, one will end up with all sorts of problems if printing an stl file, that was created by someone else, already incorporating this persons compensation in the CAD file, based on tests, filament brand, type etc. and then this stl file will be loaded into my slicer, with my settings. Say I know I need 0,05 XY hole compensation, but the author needs 0,1 effectively I get an offset of 0,15 which will render the printed parts useless. Wasted time and filament is the result, not good.
Hey Parken! Appreciate your comment and perspective! As someone who doesn't really buy or sell STL files I'm pretty new to the concept of using the slicer for CAD compensation. That said I agree with you, that really comes down to 'Design for Manufacturing' ... if your manufacturing method is 3D printing and your customer is buying an STL file you should design your files to account for that. In fact, I would take it a step further and say that if you are designing parts for STL download/sale, you should design them so that the components that require complex fit or high accuracy can either be removed, printed separately, or somehow adjusted (like a screw) so that the end customer isn't, as you say, wasting time and filament. In fact... I think you've given me the topic for a new video!
It could be explained in 2 minutes not 17 :D
Different stokes for different folks…
If your tolerance is .6 you really should be focusing on tuning your printer. Mine is consistently .2.
I wasn’t sure what you were referring to when I first read your comment and then I looked at the thumbnail for the vid and realized only the high side of the fit gauge is in the image :) hahah yes agreed 0.6 is aggressive.