On my printer, circular holes are consistently undersized even when the outside dimensions of the part are close.
For example, a 6 mm modeled hole ends up around 5.6–5.7 mm depending on orientation. I can compensate in CAD, but I would rather understand what is normal first.
Is the usual approach to calibrate extrusion/flow, verify dimensional accuracy, then use a small hole compensation value in the slicer or model?
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I’d check the slicer’s hole compensation before getting too deep into flow tuning, though. Some printers are just consistently small on circ...
I’d check the slicer’s hole compensation before getting too deep into flow tuning, though. Some printers are just consistently small on circles.
If the outside size is already close, the hole issue may be more about the machine’s pathing than extrusion overall.
That’s the part I’m unsure about too. I’ve seen people fix it with calibration, and I’ve also seen slicer compensation do most of the work.
The annoying answer is probably “both, but in order.”
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I’d start with a test cube and a test hole, then see whether the error is consistent across sizes. If the outside is good but the hole is al...
I’d start with a test cube and a test hole, then see whether the error is consistent across sizes. If the outside is good but the hole is always undersized by about the same amount, compensation makes sense.
If the error changes a lot with orientation, that points me somewhere else.
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Yes, that’s basically the usual order. Get extrusion/flow and dimensional accuracy sorted first, then use slicer compensation for the holes...
Yes, that’s basically the usual order. Get extrusion/flow and dimensional accuracy sorted first, then use slicer compensation for the holes that still come out tight.
Holes often print smaller than outside walls for a bunch of reasons, so I wouldn’t treat the 6 mm hole as a direct promise.
That’s been my experience too. External dimensions can look fine while internal curves still need their own correction.
I’d confirm the machine is behaving before I start compensating every hole in the model.