Types of Printers

The Invention Studio mainly employs ~24 Bambu Lab X1E printers, supplemented by a few Ultimaker S5‘s and S3‘s. For more advanced printing needs, we also have a Markforged Mark Two.

This page gives information about our “standard” Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers. Information about our resin printers is here.

There are also professional 3D printing services available through the G.W.W. School of Mechanical Engineering.

How to Print

If you want to get something printed at the Invention Studio, there is an easy 4 step process to create your parts!

Usage of our printers, including the filament, is 100% free like the rest of the Invention Studio, for personal, class, or research projects.

Along the way while creating your first part, you will naturally learn the fundamentals of 3D printing as a Prototyping Instructor guides you through generating your STL, slicing your part, sending your G-Code to the printer, and picking up your part.

1. Generating Your STL

There are countless proprietary file encoding systems to store information about a three dimensional object, but thankfully there is a universal standard that all 3D printing workflows use as their starting point: the STL.

STLs consist of many triangular faces which approximate the outside surface of your 3D part.

If you are getting your design from some online repository of files, like Thingiverse, the files will almost certainly be delivered in STL format.

If you are designing the part yourself in Solidworks, Fusion 360, or any other CAD software, the STL file format will be available in some export or save-as menu. Make sure to check your settings when exporting to an STL. Solidworks, for example, defaults to 10 degree angular resolution, so a circle is approximated to 36 faces, which is not much when creating a wheel! Be careful with too fine of an STL though, as the slicing times scale with the number of faces in the part.

2. Slicing Your Part

In a broad sense, slicing is the process of turning your generic STL file into machine instructions that the 3D Printer can understand.

3D printers operate by extruding material in a 2D layer, and then shifting that layer downwards and building another layer on top of it.

These discrete layers come together to make a complete 3D shape. Slicing turns your 3D STL model into a set of 2D “slices” that the printer can actually produce.

Since all of our printers are Ultimakers, we use Ultimaker Cura, their slicing program. It is free to download on your machine, and we have it set up on our computers at the Studio.

3. Sending Your Part

To get your G-Code from your computer we use a website called 3DPrinterOS. It is set up with Georgia Tech’s Sign-In system, so you don’t need to create an account!

You simply upload your part to the website, and then “print it” to our queue.

You then ask a PI to move your print onto a printer, and they will help you find a printer with the right filament and nozzle combination to get your print completed successfully.

Note, because we believe that engaging with the 3D Printing process is valuable, you must be at the Flowers Invention Studio to get your print started. We do not begin prints that are just submitted online.

4. Picking Up Your Part

Once your part is finished you will get an email from 3DPrinterOS. A PI on shift will remove your print and put it in one of the bins outside of the main entrance to the Hub.