MakerGear Forum

I printed the samples from m2 from the sd card just fine. But when i try to print something on pronterface by importing stl, the printer moves Z+ around 60% to the top, stops for 3 mins and slams to the bottom for the first link and secon link stays at 60% z-axis. The extruder starts printing in mid-air. Do i need to change slic3r settings or printer settings?
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:69525
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:230305

fingerthato wrote:try to print something on pronterface by importing stl

Both of those STL files are non-manifold: the marker has no bottom face (*) and the astronaut has self-intersecting faces and non-manifold vertices.

While it's obvious to a human how those model should print, bad STL files cause slicer programs to get tangled up in their shoelaces and fall over. Different slicers will have different problems with different models, so you can repair the model (perhaps with NetFabb or some such) or try various slicers until you find one that can handle whatever's wrong with the STL file.

Unfortunately, slicing a bad STL file will create bad G-Code that can do truly odd things to the printer. It's best to preview the thread paths on http://gcode.ws/ to make sure the slicing produced what you expected, before unleashing the G-Code on your printer.

(*) That's different from being hollow, as in a vase. The entire bottom face is missing, so you can peer inside at the back of the exterior faces. This can only happen in the realm of mathematical models; in real life or a correct model, you'd be looking at the front of the interior faces.