Marks on 3D prints? Any thoughts?

[1sixthcollector]

Hi guys and girls, I have had a statue printed using craft cloud and it’s come out pretty good, but if you look closely the surface is covered in swirl marks. Is this due to a problem with the file? The material? The type of printer used?

Any help on finding a solution would be really appreciated!

 

[Ropen]

With stuff like that you can blend it with soft grit sand paper! Not too rash until it’s all smoothed out

 

[VashDStampede]

That is common with many resin prints. I’m still pretty new to 3D printing, but most prints using LCD screens and the like will come out with some pixelation which is most noticeable on curved areas. One way to reduce this prior to printing is using anti-aliasing and blur in the 3D printer software to soften the pixel edges and provide a smoother print, but even then it can still have some pixelation on the print.

Once printed, however, these pixelation “steps”can be softened by sanding the material itself or using sandable primer or sandable filler primer then sanded with higher and higher grit sandpapers to achieve the smoothness you want.

 

[robbiethepainter]

Depending on the angle of printing that can either be stair steps from not enough layers or voxels which is similar. Each pixel creates steps but going both directions on the x or y axis. Both can be decreased by any aliasing. Or using a higher resolution printer.

 

[1sixthcollector]

Thanks for the info I have spoken to a printer and hopefully they are going to produce me a copy that is a little smoother and then I will prime/sand it