Simple Filament or Color Changes

Overview

Many existing examples show the use of contrasting colors to highlight text, symbols and more on a print. The X1C easily supports this in one of two ways:

• Adding a filament change at a specific layer

• Painting the text a different color to cause filament changes wherever needed

Because each of these options also exposes some neat tricks for even more advanced operation, each will be covered separately

Adding a Filament Change (or Pause!) at a specific layer

The simplest of all options, with your file loaded and sliced navigate to the Preview screen.

On the right hand side move the slider down to the point where you want to change to a new filament, and right-click the "+" icon to get the special menu shown below:

From "Change Filament" just select another loaded filament, and you're done. The slider will now change to multiple colors to show which layers will be printed in which filament:

You may also see a "Prime Tower" on the build plate now, as the machine will want to purge colors. This is completely unnecessary for layer-based filament changes like this, so be sure to fine the "Enable Prime Tower" option and disable it (the checkbox is shown enabled in the image below):

Now when you print the file, the X1C will automatically change to the second filament, giving you the highlight with no manual labor.

Additional options

You'll also see two other options in this menu:

• Add Pause

• Add Custom G-Code (DO NOT USE!)

Using "Pause" does exactly what you'd expect - it pauses at this layer. The most common use for this is to add non-printed components into a pocket, where the top of the component is at least the distance of one layer below the current layer - do not, under any circumstances or for any reason, attempt to add components that would be flush with or protruding above the current layer. This could severely damage the machine, and your privileges will be revoked as a result. In your design, a good rule of thumb is to ensure the pocket depth is equal the height of the component plus at least two layer heights. When in doubt, print out a design that stops at the top of the pocket height and test inserting your component to be certain.

As you can tell from the note in red, do not use the "Add Custom G-Code" option on MakeIt Labs printers. There is too high a risk of error and machine damage.

Painting different colors

A more powerful option is the Object Painting function in Bambu Studio. This allows you to use a variety of brushes to "paint" a selected object to get the effect you want... change the color of letters, add stripes to a zebra, paint a figurine... the list goes on.

This feature can be useful if the portion you wish to paint is on the same layer as other parts of the model that should remain the same color. For example, if the text is in a frame and you want the Frame to be one color and the surface of the text to be another. In this scenario you would:

• Select the object

• Select the Paint Bucket icon from the menu 

• Select the Filament color you want to use to paint

• Select the Paint Bucket "Tool Type" to "fill" a bounded area (the surface of the letters

•  Click the Faces of the letters you want to paint

Now just the top layer of the text will be painted a contrasting color.

If you wanted all of the letter bodies, including the sides, to be that color as well, you would simply click on those other faces of the letters to make sure all exterior surfaces had been painted.

Alternative to "Add Filament Change" - Paint By Layer

Instead of the previously shown "Add Filament Change" method, you can paint by layer in the Paint tool to achieve a similar effect. One reason to do this is if the layers should always be a different color using the "Paint" options embeds that color information in the model. That way if you share the file with someone else and they open it, it already be prepared for multi-color printing.

To use this feature, select the Object, select the Paint Can icon in the toolbar, then select the "Layers" looking icon for the "Tool Type":

You can now drag the white selector bar on the object to set the range, or manually type it into the boxes. This would allow you to create multiple striped layers and more.

If you have any errors while painting, use the "Erase all painting" button to start over. Remember that some Tool Types also paint inside the object structure so experiment and see what happens when you slice the file.