Welcome to printer software v1.43. This release includes the following improvements to your print process:

Changes in how we print: None - printing behavior is not impacted by this release

Print preparation improvements:

Printer ecosystem improvements:

Additional improvements:

Note that certain printers (select M1s and M2s) that contain an older server configuration are not eligible to receive this software version, and must receive a no-cost server upgrade before this software update can be made available. Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions about the server configurations for your fleet of printers.

Carbon requires that customers update software regularly. With the exception of specified Version Lockable older version(s), Carbon does not support non-current software versions. If you require support but are running an unsupported software version, the first troubleshooting step is to move to a supported software version.

The following are supported printer software versions as of the publication of these release notes (May 2024):

Any feature marked as “BETA” in the user interface and/or release notes is considered by Carbon to be an Early-Access Technology. Early-Access Technologies may not be at the level of performance typical of a final product or feature offering, and such features may be altered or withdrawn by Carbon at any time and without warning.

This release contains no changes to printing behavior.

A variety of improvements make it easier to support parts in the Carbon Print Prep User Interface.

Click on an existing bar or fence support to see the dimensional parameters associated with that support. This functionality makes it easier to review parameters used in a successful or unsuccessful print to determine future supporting and printing strategies.

Parameters can only be viewed for new supports created using v1.43 (or later); selecting supports created using software v1.42 or lower will not display relevant parameters (with the exception of the Tip Diameter and Neck Diameter for Bar Supports, which are available for supports created prior to v1.43).

If multiple supports are selected that have different parameters, measurement fields will display “Multiple.” Select an individual support to see relevant dimensions.

Edit Support Locations

The start/end points of bar supports and the polylines of fence supports can now be edited. This allows you to more easily fine-tune support placement to meet the needs of your application.

Bar Supports

To edit the start or end point of a bar support, select a support, click “Edit Support,” and then drag the connection point(s) to your desired location(s). When relevant, base points can be relocated from the platform to a part surface or vice-versa.

Only one support can be edited at a time, and processing support edits on large, complex models may be slow. Press “Esc” to cancel a support edit if desired.

Note that when a support connection point is edited, the final connection point may differ slightly from the spot indicated by the cursor due to requirements of the back-end support generation algorithm. This effect is likely to be most obvious on steep part faces. If the result of a support edit is unsatisfactory, press “undo” and try again, or continue to adjust the support connection point until you are satisfied.

Trussed supports: When bar supports are trussed together, editing one element of the trussed support (eg, a single branch or the trunk) may have unexpected impacts on other supports involved in the truss, as each element is algorithmically dependent on the others. If you are unsatisfied with the results of a support edit, simply click “undo” or add/delete other supports individually until you have achieved the desired state. Note that in some cases, supports that appear to be unrelated may actually be interconnected based on the way the supports were initially algorithmically generated. When selecting a support to edit, note that any other supports that appear as red may be impacted by an edit.

Pre-existing projects created prior to v1.43: For pre-existing projects created prior to installing v1.43 that include support structures, support editing will not be available until you make at least one alteration to supports. Editing capabilities can be quickly enabled for such projects by deleting a support or adding a new support. To avoid an undesired change to your project, you can undo such a support addition/deletion and still maintain access to editing functionality.

Fence Supports

Fence supports can now be edited by adjusting the polyline that defines the fence. To edit a fence support, select the support, press “Edit Support,” and then edit the polyline as needed:

Click “Generate All” to regenerate the fence according to your edits.

Editing automatically generated fences: Fences generated automatically via Patch Supports can be edited, but because such fences did not have defined polylines prior to generation, a new polyline will be estimated for editing purposes. Depending on the shape of the fence, estimated polylines may behave in unexpected ways. If editing an automatically generated fence does not yield the desired results, consider deleting the fence and drawing a new polyline.

Pre-existing fences generated prior to v1.43: For existing projects that include fences generated prior to installing v1.43, the following caveats apply:

Easily regenerate supports after transforming a part

Prior to software v1.43, transforming a part (rotating, scaling, orienting, toggling between on-/above-platform part location) required that all existing supports be deleted as part of the operation. In v1.43, supports can easily be retained and regenerated after transforming a part. This workflow will reduce the need for manual re-work to reselect support points when editing a build.

When a part that has supports is transformed, an onscreen prompt will ask if you would like to regenerate supports. Select “Yes” to generate supports using the original support points and polylines; select “No” to delete all supports from the part. Roll your mouse over the prompt to see the locations of existing support points.

If you plan to regenerate supports, note that the functionality will no longer be available if you add new supports after the part transformation but before regenerating supports, or if you refresh/reload the page after transforming the part but before regenerating. Regenerate supports immediately after transforming your part to avoid accidentally deleting existing support points.

Note that regenerated supports are not guaranteed to be suitable for your altered part; after regenerating supports, review results carefully and add or remove supports as needed. Depending on the type of transformation performed, some supports may not be able to be regenerated (if, for example, a support point that previously was on a platform-facing surface is now facing away from the platform).

Pre-existing projects with supports generated prior to v1.43: Post-transformation support regeneration will not be available for older projects until you make at least one alteration to supports. Regeneration capabilities can be quickly enabled for pre-existing projects by deleting a support or adding a new support. To avoid an undesired change to your project, you can undo such a support addition/deletion and still maintain access to editing functionality.

You can now control the generation path of a new bar support at the time of placement. Click to mark a bar support point, then press and hold the “Ctrl” key to see a projection of the support path. Drag your mouse to the desired location, then click to confirm the support placement. Click “Generate All” to create your support(s). Multiple support points and/or guidelines can be placed and then generated in one operation.

Fence Supports are generated with embedded triangular vents to reduce resin usage and avoid creating unvented volumes. Previously, the orientation of triangular vents was randomized, and triangles might point in any direction. If vents happened to point toward the platform, the result could be an unnecessary difficult-to-print overhang. All triangular vents will now orient pointing away from the platform to reduce the introduction of unintended overhangs.

Print Plan Adjustments is an optional software feature available to some customers depending on use case. Contact [email protected] for access to Print Plan Adjustments.

Part Temperature

“Part Temperature” graphs now display Part Temperature in absolute degrees Celsius rather than as a percentage.

Keep in mind that the Part Temperature graph in Print Plan Adjustments will be blank for force feedback-enabled prints (L1, M3, and M3 Max), as temperature is not predicted ahead of time but rather is managed live during the print. For force feedback prints, temperature data can be accessed post-print via the Print Analytics dashboard (an optional software feature).

Slice Thickness

The “Slice Thickness” parameter can now be set to 0um (non-zero values less than 25um are still disallowed). If Slice Thickness is set to 0, the slice(s) will be skipped (not printed).

Keep in mind that the Slice Thickness parameter adjusts the thickness with which indicated slice groups are printed, but does not impact the original slicing of the file, which is governed by the slice thickness set during Print Preparation; plan model geometry accordingly if using this feature.

If the first slice (slice 0) is set to have a different slice thickness than the remainder of the print, any difference is corrected for in the first 1mm of print height to preserve the total STL height.

Certain Print Profiles are intended for use with indicated resins only, and should not be used with other resins. New limitations are in place for the following Print Profiles:

None of the Print Profiles mentioned above are available by default. These Print Profiles are typically enabled and recommended in response to specific printing problems. Contact [email protected] for assistance with these Print Profiles.

L1B1 EPU Default Print Profile is no longer a selectable option

As of July 2024, the L1B1 EPU Default Print Profile will no longer be a selectable option from the Print Profile drop-down menu. Use the Default print plan to achieve the same printing behavior and results, as all functionality of this print plan was added to the Default print plan as of software v1.41.

Existing projects that have the L1B1 EPU Default Print Profile selected will not be affected, but the option will no longer be available for new projects.

The incidence of projection errors due to light engine initialization failures for M2, L1, and M3 printers is reduced. A light engine initialization failure can occur when a light engine does not start up properly after a software update, when a printer is power-cycled, or when a light engine restarts automatically as part of overall system monitoring. Symptoms of such errors are typically egregious and obvious, and include situations such as an improperly scaled half-image, a missing half image, and black bars.

Note that projection errors due to light engine initialization failures are still possible on M2, L1, and M3 printers (the incidence rate is reduced, but not to zero), and that M1 and M3 Max printers are unaffected by this change.

For information on how to resolve a projection error, reference Projection Error.

Print records now include a “Print Again” button in the top right-hand corner. Pressing this button will queue another print of the project to the same printer where it was previously printed. The project will be resliced and a new print plan will be calculated for this print.

Example: The new “Print Again” button is visible in the top right-hand corner of the Print Record

This functionality replaces the prior “Reprint” button, which printed the project again using stored slices and the previously calculated print plan.

“Print Again” offers superior functionality to the former “Reprint” because new slices and a freshly calculated print plan are able to adapt to specific hardware factors at a specific point in time to create the same print result, and are less likely to result in a print-time error.

Prior printer software versions included a “Rate Print” feature that offered the opportunity to assign a print a star rating (1-5) and leave a comment. This feature has not been widely adopted other than to occasionally report a failed print. In such cases, Carbon prefers that customers contact us via the “Request Help” button, as the information reaches Support Representatives more efficiently. Accordingly, “Rate Print” has been removed from all post-print workflows so that “Request Help” is more readily accessible and there is no confusion about how to most effectively contact Carbon.

Note that when requesting help from Carbon, a checkbox indicates whether or not models will be shared with Carbon Support. The box is checked by default (models are shared); while you may opt to uncheck this box to protect sensitive models, this will limit the support Carbon can provide.

While the features described above are the most noticeable and impactful changes in this software release, there are some additional minor changes you might want to be aware of.

The following issues have been resolved with this release.

Update for v1.43.0-1616.59 Resolves a bug related to the automatic model deletion setting used by some high-throughout printers.

Update for v1.43.0-1616.60 Resolves a bug in which an attempted print that encountered an error before the print started could be erroneously removed from the printer queue.

Update for v1.43.0-1616.62 Resolves a bug in which printers did not display the “Preparing” screen during print preparation/processing after a user pressed “Start Print” at the printer for a project that was queued remotely (“project queued remotely” could apply to a print queued to any printer via the API, including automatically prepared prints, and/or a print prepared on Printer 1 and then queued to and started at Printer 2). While the print would eventually start despite the lack of the “Preparing” screen, the lack of the “Preparing” indication led some users to press “Start Print” multiple times, which resulted in a “Project busy” error.

While Carbon encourages customers to stay current with software updates to access the latest features and printing improvements, we recognize that some production applications have stringent validation rules and may be better served by a stable software version. For this reason, Carbon offers a Version Lock program that allows customers to stay on a single, specified version of software for up to three years, with full support.

v1.39 is available for Version Lock. If you are interested in placing your printer(s) on Version Lock, contact [email protected].

We love hearing from you about your workflow, your parts, and how we can improve. Reach out to the Carbon Support Team at [email protected] to share feedback.

Interested in receiving early access to new features and functionality? Contact [email protected] to be added to our Early Access user group.