[SOLVED] Ticket #4121 - Text in AMF files comes out in reverse while STL is correct

[bowcoastie]

Hello All,
While working on some signs to print on a 3D printer, I found that the text was coming out in reverse when I exported an AMF file for processing in CURA. After much frustration I exported the same file in STL format and it worked correctly. I have searched the forum and bug tracker and found no reference to this issue. Unfortunately I went ahead and made a bug tracker entry for what I perceive to be a bug but I guess I should have posted the issue in the forum first; my apologies.

Does anyone else have a problem with text coming out in reverse when exporting an AMF file vs an STL?

Thank you for your great project and any help.

The bug tracker entry where I gave example files here: issue #4121

My system information:
OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.16131 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-18
Hash: 3129ae4296e40ed20e7b3d460b86e6969acbe1c3
Python version: 3.6.6
Qt version: 5.6.2
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/UnitedStates (en_US)

[openBrain]

Hi bowcoastie, welcome.

Indeed the bug reporting process requires to post here first. This can look weird, but actually it allows community to confirm and identify bugs, and eventually narrow down the cause.
Could you please provide your FreeCAD file so we can try to reproduce?

[bowcoastie]

Hello openBrain,
I posted the files over at bug tracking but will do so here as well.
The Jpeg showed what I see in the Cura slicer. The bottom example in the jpeg is the STL export file as where the upper example is the AMF export. Both came from the same FCSTD file.

Thank you for taking the time to look at this as it caused me a great deal of frustration.

Cheers,


Bruce

[openBrain]

Hi Bruce,

Actually there is a mapping problem in your file. You can see that with the Std DependencyGraph.
Your ShapeString is mapped to a Pad face, which is not allowed as Pad is an internal Body feature and ShapeString is out of this Body.
You can fix that in 3 different ways :

1. Use Part WB functions only => No special problem
2. Use PartDesignWB functions only => In this case, ShapeString will be created out of the Body. You have to manually drag it into the Body, then map it correctly and finally use Pad function
3. Part/PartDesign mix => This is what you did. To fix, before mapping the ShapeString, you have to change the Display Mode of the Body to 'Tip' (instead of 'Through'). This will expose Body as a Part object, where you can then correctly map your external ShapeString

Note that for stability consideration, this is never advised to map anything to faces and you should prefer mapping to base planes.

I attach the file fixed with method 3 (which isn't the best but the quickest). I don't know why you extruded twice the ShapeString but I let them both.

Could you try to export and tell if it fixes the problem ?

[bowcoastie]

Hello openBrain,
Thank you ever-so-much for helping me with this problem. I exported the file you sent as both an AMF and an STL and both of them show the text in reverse (screen-shot attached).

As per your suggestion I tried the same exercise using just the PartWB functions, solution 1 (file attached) and get the AMF files with the text backward and the STL file with the text correctly displayed.

I then tried suggestion 2 using only PartDesignWB functions only and received the error message "Unsupported sub-shape type" when I tried to pad the text. I tried this but could only pad the shape-string by selecting the 3rd choice, create a cross-reference. Both of the exported files (AMF and STL) had the text backward. I have included this file as well.

I could not try the third suggestion as I couldn't figure out where to change the display mode of the body to tip. I tried doing a search for on how to do it but came up with many unrelated items. Would you explain how to make that change?

Thank you again for taking the time to look at this with me.

[chrisb]

I couldn't figure out where to change the display mode of the body to tip.

At the lower left switch from Data tab to View tab.

[chrisb]

I had a look at the PartDesign example. It seems you didn't follow the advice given. You should drag and drop the shapestring into the body before padding it.

Bildschirmfoto 2019-09-14 um 23.49.46.png (30.48 KiB) Viewed 1693 times

But that's not the point here: The stl is exported correctly in both cases. The amf file is in both cases shown reversed in Cura. I wonder if someone has an alternative amf viewer to exclude Cura as the culprit.

[chrisb]

The mirroring effect can be seen without ShapeStrings as well and is easier to reproduce, because there is no need of font files. The lower image show the iamf file in Cura.

Bildschirmfoto 2019-09-15 um 00.22.33.png (25.45 KiB) Viewed 1688 times

Bildschirmfoto 2019-09-15 um 00.22.12.png (47.67 KiB) Viewed 1688 times

[bowcoastie]

I had a look at the PartDesign example. It seems you didn't follow the advice given. You should drag and drop the shapestring into the body before padding it.
Bildschirmfoto 2019-09-14 um 23.49.46.png

But that's not the point here: The stl is exported correctly in both cases. The amf file is in both cases shown reversed in Cura. I wonder if someone has an alternative amf viewer to exclude Cura as the culprit.

Hi Chrisb,
Thank you for looking at this. When I look at the model tree, the shape string is in there under the body at least as far as I can tell. How else does one know whether an item is part of the body other than in the model tree?

I'll retry the method suggested with the changing the body to tip.

Thank you again for looking at this.

[bowcoastie]

The mirroring effect can be seen without ShapeStrings as well and is easier to reproduce, because there is no need of font files. The lower image show the iamf file in Cura.
Bildschirmfoto 2019-09-15 um 00.22.33.png
Bildschirmfoto 2019-09-15 um 00.22.12.png

Hi Chrisb,

I'll download another slicer to see if this is a problem with Cura.

Thanks