By Ryan Dunn

Colorado State University

Zmorph Dual Head User Manual for Printing: Name Tags and Room Numbers

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Table of Contents Preparing the Zmorph for Printing ................................................................................................................ 2

Using Voxelizer to Print your Door Sign ........................................................................................................ 7

Uploading an STL file to Voxelizer ............................................................................................................. 7

Slicing Mesh in Voxelizer/Print settings .................................................................................................. 10

Generating the Gcode for Printing .......................................................................................................... 15

Starting A Print On the Zmorph .................................................................................................................. 17

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Preparing the Zmorph for Printing

1. Mount the Zmorph Dual Head Extruder. See Zmorph user manual for specific details.

a. Place extruder head onto the gantry. Do this by placing the nozzles through the

open hole, and hooking the back of the tool head onto the gantry and then align

the front connection screw hole.

b. Fasten the connection screw to a wing nut with a 3mm Allen wrench, this fastens

the dual head extruder to the printer’s gantry system. Be sure that the

connection screw is secure and there is no play with the tool head. (See Figure 1)

c. Plug the left extruder (extruder one is the left extruder) into the back left

connection port. (See Figure 1)

d. Plug the right extruder (extruder two is the right extruder) into the back right

connection port. (See Figure 1)

Figure 1: Mounted Extruder Head

2. Now turn on the Zmorph printer by flipping the power switch on, this is located on the

back right side of the printer.

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a. Once the printer is on, the following menu will appear.

Figure 2: Startup Menu (NOTE: NOT THE MAIN MENU)

b. With the > symbol on the . . option, hit enter twice to get to the main menu.

Figure 3: Main Menu

3. Define the Dual Head 1.75mm extruder as the tool head.

a. On the main menu of the Zmorph’s LCD screen (Located on the front bottom

right of the printer), navigate to the Select Toolhead option and press OK.

Figure 4: Select Toolhead Tab

b. Then Navigate and select the Dual Head 1.75 tool head. Once selected, a >

symbol will appear in front of the tool head.

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Figure 5: Selecting Dual Head 1.75

c. Navigate up to the Back option, press OK, and return to the main menu.

4. Pre Heat for Material

a. Off of the main menu, navigate down to the Filament Menu and select OK.

Figure 6: Selecting Filament Menu

b. Once selected, a menu will appear which allows you to preheat the printer.

Select the appropriate preheating settings, which is dependent on the material

being used. In this case, will use Preheat ABS 245.

Figure 7: Selecting the ABS Preheat

c. After selecting the preheat settings, a light should appear on the left side of the

heated build plate. This means that the build plate is warming up, along with the

nozzles.

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d. After selecting the preheat option, navigate back to the main menu and select

the Info Screen option to see what temperature your bed and nozzles are at.

i. H= Extruder One (the Left Extruder), Q= Extruder Two (the Right

Extruder), and B= The bed

ii. Figure 8: Info Screen

e. If desired, you may adjust the individual temperatures of each element in the

Adjust Temperature tab seen in Figure 7.

i. It can be advantageous to set bed temperature to 110 Celsius to help

the filament stick (for ABS).

5. Loading Filament into the Extruder Head

a. Once the printer is up to temperature it is now time to load the filament into the

extruder head.

b. The dark Green ABS is to be loaded into Extruder One (Left Extruder). In the

filament menu, there is an Extrude/Retract tab, navigate to this tab and press

OK.

c. Once selected you now have the option to extrude 5mm, retract 5mm or feed

said extruder. It is extremely important not to Feed H (feed the green filament).

This will cause the filament to strip and then buckle causing failure!

Figure 9: Extrude/Retract Menu

d. Feed the filament through the top of the extruder head until the filament hits

the driving gear. Once it is aligned and in contact with the driving gear,

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incrementally press the Extrude H 5mm option until you visibly see filament

coming out of the left nozzle.

i. Note, you may need to load the other filament as well before the gear

can drive the filament.

e. Once the green ABS is loaded and the nozzle is primed, move onto loading

Extruder Two (the right extruder)

f. Load the white ABS filament into the extruder head and repeat the previous two

steps, except now it is for extruder Q, not H.

6. Calibrate the printer

a. On the main menu, there is a Calibrate tab (see Figure 6), navigate to this tab

and select OK.

b. Once on the Calibrate tab, select Home to Center. The printer will now calibrate

its self.

c. If the Z Height is too high or low, adjust the end stop knob on the left side of the

printer, located by the vertical lead screw stepper motor. Adjust the knob and

select Home Z until the nozzles are at an adequate height.

i. Rule of thumb, you should be able to slid a piece of paper under the

nozzle and feel some friction.

The printer is now ready to print.

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Using Voxelizer to Print your Door Sign

Uploading an STL file to Voxelizer

1. Open Voxelizer____BE SURE TO HIT ENTER AFTER ANY SETTING CHANGE

2. Before uploading any STL files, go to the voxel editor tab in the upper left of the screen.

a. In the preset drop down menu select dual head 1.75mm

b. Select object selection mode and show advanced boxes (they should become green

once selected.

c. Go to the project tab and match all of the settings in the picture below.

Figure 10: Preset settings for the project

3. All files must be STL files in order to 3D print. This can be done in your CAD save as menu

when selecting file type.

4. Now go to the scene editor tab in the upper left corner of the screen, then go to the file menu,

then select import, and then select 3D model (.stl). Navigate to your STL files and then hit Okay.

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Figure 11: Importing a 3D model

5. Once in the scene editor, you can type in the mesh rotation command to make your sign lay flat

on the build plate. Select the mesh by clicking on it with the left mouse button.

6. Select your room number with the left mouse button, then select the center mesh button, and

then select the mesh position z box and type 4. The units are in millimeters. This is only done for

the numbers.

Figure 12: Mesh Transformation showing the Numbers as selected, and having the mesh

position Z at 4mm

7. Then select the room number backing and select center mesh.

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8. Once the room number is aligned, you need to select both the room number and the room

number backing. Do this by selecting one entity (it will become green once selected), and then

while simultaneously holding the Ctrl key select the other entity.

9. Once everything is selected, move the room number around to the desired print location. The

farther left the entity is the better, however be sure to leave a gap of about 10mm from the

edge.

a. Once this is done you can repeat the previous steps, and print more than one room

number sign. We will do one for now.

Note: Do not print more than three room numbers per print, the green ABS will most likely fail.

Figure 13: Example of mesh location (multiple signs)

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Slicing Mesh in Voxelizer/Print settings BE SURE TO HIT ENTER AFTER ANY SETTING CHANGE

1. Once the mesh is set up in the proper location to print, click the voxelize button in the bottom

left of the screen.

2. This will now bring you to the voxel editor tab. This can also be selected by clicking the tab in the

upper left of the screen.

3. The part should appear blue on the screen. Be sure the Object Selection box and the Show

Advanced box are selected, having a green box next to them

Figure 14: Sliced Room Number Sign

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4. Right click one entity (the number backing), then select apply preset, then navigate to dualhead

1.75mm and then select that option.

Figure 15: Applying Preset for Room Number Backing

5. Then select the other entity (the room numbers) and do the same.

Figure 16: Applying Preset for Room Numbers Figure

6. Now select the Room number backing with the left mouse button and type in the following print

settings. Once selected, there should be a green cube around the entity. Be sure to match every

drop down menu as well, for example infill type - honeycomb

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Figure 17: Print Settings for Room Number Backing

7. Once all of the print settings match exactly, select the numbers (there should be a green cube

around the entity once selected). In the general tab, define this entity as extruder 2. It is the first

drop down menu in the general tab, labeled extruder. Once selected as extruder 2, the numbers

should show up bright green.

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Figure 18: Showing the Room Numbers Selected as Extruder 2

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8. Now match all of the print settings for this entity to the pictures below.

Figure 19: Print settings for Room Numbers

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Generating the Gcode for Printing

1. Once all of the settings have been completed, it is now time to generate the Gcode. This is the

code that the printer reads to actually conduct the print.

2. In the bottom left corner of the voxel editor, there is a button that states Generate Gcode.

Select this button.

Figure 20: Showing Generate Gcode button in bottom left of the program

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3. Now select the Gcode Display tab in the upper left corner of the screen. The screen should look

similar to the picture below.

Figure 21: Image Showing Gcode Display Tab

4. Next, export the Gcode to your micro SD card. Select file, Export Gcode…, and then navigate to

your desired folder on your micro SD card. The SD card is located on the right side of the LCD

screen of the Zmorph. Pull this out and plug it into your computer to upload Gcode.

Figure 22: Image showing export GCODE… option

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Starting A Print On the Zmorph

1. Before starting your print, check to see if your printer is up to temperature and your filament

is loaded into the nozzles.

2. Once you have your Gcode loaded onto your micro SD card, you may push it back into the right

side of the LCD screen of the Zmorph.

a. A new menu should appear like the one below when you plug your SD card in.

Figure 23: Pop Up Menu When You Plug in SD Card

b. If the screen does not show the menu like the one above, you can access the SD card

from the main menu. Off of the main menu navigate to Play, then ext/, and then to the

folder you placed your Gcode file in. Once the Gcode file is found, navigate to the file

name and press OK. Your print will now begin.

i. Figure 24: Play Option on Main Menu

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ii. Figure 25: ext/ Option to Access the External SD Card

iii. Figure 26: Folders Displayed that are on the SD Card

You are now finished, watch the first three layers of the print to ensure the print will not fail.