How to Angle your Resin Print for the Smoothest Surface Possible. Real life use of trigonometry!

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There is a lot of advice out there about how to angle your prints to improve your printing, but honestly most of them are totally wrong. And it really depends on what you are printing. In my case I’m printing tanks with lots of big flat surfaces and I need them to be as smooth as possible. So I discovered how to use trigonometry to calculate the best possible angle to use in order to get the flattest surface on the print.
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These are some of the printers mentioned in the video.
Anycubic Photon Mono: geni.us/AnycubicPhotonMono
Anycubic Photon Zero: geni.us/AnycubicPhotonZero
Elegoo Mars Mono: geni.us/ElegooMarsMono
Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K: geni.us/PhrozenSonicMini4K
Anycubic Photon Mono X: geni.us/AnycubicPhotonMonoX
Elegoo Saturn: geni.us/ElegooSaturn
Phrozen Sonic Mighty: geni.us/PhrozenSonicMighty
Prhozen Mighty Bundle: geni.us/PhrozenMightyBundle
Wash and Cure Stations: geni.us/ElegooWashAndCure and geni.us/AnycubicWashAndCure
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[@Cbtrainnut]

Very nice! I’m a beginner and I actually understood what you were saying. Learning new tech at age 66 isn’t the easiest thing in the world for me. Can’t wait to play with my settings today! Thanks for the explanation and sharing your knowledge!

[@pacificcoastminiatures]

Finally someone explained how to tilt models that are not miniature figures. Thank you! Will be using this when I print out some building details and vehicles for my model railroad.

[@mik310s]

I print boxes, stuff with straight sides directly on the base without any supports I find that gives me perfect sides on all sides and it prints much faster.

[@Scaleaton]

Finally I found the answer in this video what I am looking for. Thank you so much for this informative video!

[@evanlane1690]

Oh my God thanks for the tl;dr! I watched the whole thing, but I always wish video creators would do this. It makes this so much more useful as a long-term resource.

[@doktormalifiko5488]

Thought I wanted the tl;dr, stayed for the whole thing because it was so interesting. Great video. Thank you.

[@pogle63]

I remembered watching this video a while ago and I have posted a link to it on the Galaxy 1 group on facebook today (4/12/23), I tried this method on my Saturn printer and it did really work so hopefully others will find it useful too. I look forward to applying the same to my Galaxy 1 printer, although haven`t yet.

[@agepbiz]

This was interesting! Thank you for the insight. I have had this issue on a few prints but now I will try this

[@avengethisman]

Just started resin printing and still learning how it all works. After alot of research this video explains it very clearly and im not a smart person by any means but this just made sense. Im going to try it out right now on my next print thanks.

[@hillfortherstudios2757]

Very useful. I'm not sure why, but I was somehow picturing the granular structure of resin prints to be different from fdm. This was a great solution because it quantifies it. You got a new subscriber!

[@martinsivertsen7485]

Very nice video explaining this in a thorough and easy to grasp way.

[@TrueEliteGeek]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mike0rr]

Very interesting. I love seeing when the rubber meets the road when it comes to math and real life.

[@ozcanison]

Brilliant. As a shortcut, it seems if you set your layer height to the same as your pixel size, then you can always use 45deg.

[@johnprescottonline]

No idea if you'll see this, but how would you go about doing that? I have a M3 Max and I get crazy layer lines at .05 on flat surfaces.

[@mallarky129]

@@johnprescottonline M3 Max has an XY pixel resolution of 0.046 mm, so setting your layer height to 0.046 would get you flat surfaces at 45 degrees.

[@billclark5943]

Good point. If your printing a cube I think that will make all 4 sides pristine. I need to try it though

[@chiefbeats0817]

I discovered this as well when calculating! I feel like that could have made for a shorter video.

[@forrestegan]

So, without doing the calculations and based on this comment thread, if my pixel size is .018 (Mars 4 Ultra) then I need to set my layer height to .018? I don’t know if I can even go that thin for layer height, and even if I could wouldn’t that dramatically increase my print time (more layers, longer print time)? Of course, if you’re going for the highest level of detail, time to print needs to be ignored. I started out using .05 layer thickness but already considered going down to .03 for my prints. I think these layer heights are getting so thin that we’re reaching a point where you need a magnify glass or microscope to see the layer lines, even if we don’t optimize the angle. Not trying to be lazy choosing my angles; however, I may try some experimentation with some test prints to see if it really matters with my tiny .018 pixels.

[@luisdoria5689]

This is perfect, thank you! It completely answered all my questions about angles!

[@TheSlurton]

Thanks so very much you solved my resin warping problem. Had difficulty figuring out what you meant by Pixel Width but then listened to what you where saying a couple of times. I have an ANYCUBIC PHOTON M3 which has a 23 micron pixel size. So i set my print hight to .23 and rotated my model to 45 degrees and it came out perfect. Thanks again.

[@joeandrews1499]

A great hint when printing good-looking flat surfaces. Thanks!

[@AlexSiu]

This is gold! have to try this this weekend

[@45calshooter]

FANTASTIC VIDEO.... I'm new to resin printing (monoX) and wondered why people say "print at 30° or 15°". The equation was perfect (I understand that). The rest of the video is perfect 👌 explanation. I have subscribed and will be watching. Thanks for the time and effort you put into this video. Siskel and Ebert give it 👍👍

[@andrzejwilkoszewski7850]

Great video. I 'm impressed how clear the explanation was. I did some more research on physical dimensions of my printer. I found that single step of Z axis motor moves by 0.000625 mm. So, setting layer to 0.051 mm would require 81.6 steps. Printer would round it and proportions in Z axis would be wrong. So it's better to calculate angle correctly rather than change layer height to mach pixel size.

[@alexp7274]

Interesting point

[@phillipnewman9174]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! Would never of thought of trigonometry to solve such a problem.

[@dstark384]

Just came across this because I was having problems with sagging surfaces. I was trying to print things at a square to the bed, I wasn't thinking in the context of layering to make it smooth. Thanks!

[@amcreaken]

Really appreciate the TLDR type of setup of your video.

[@DIYGarage_SoCal]

Super helpful and solves my pixelation problem. Thank you!!

[@NADA-kv7ez]

Thanks for your video I had some layer lines on my resin prints, they weren't bad but I thought I would try this method. My calculations worked out to be the same as yours and I was surprised at the difference it made.

[@ChrisSchryer81]

Thanks for the video. I've been struggling with those artifacts for a while now.

[@breandanh4912]

With Chitubox, importing your sliced file back into chitubox will reconstruct the print with the layers that the printer will make. You can get relatively quick feedback showing how each layer stacks up.

[@forrestegan]

That’s great to know…thanks!!!

[@Tsunamiash80]

Finally an answer that makes sense! Thank you!

[@sideburn]

I’m new to SLA (Mars 2) and it’s been boggling my mind why all my organic shaped objects (miniatures etc) are coming out awesome but I have not been able to get a decent looking print out of a simple cylinder shaped container. Your video is showing EXACTLY how crappy my results have been. I can’t wait to try your method. Thanks!

[@bentalls85]

Hey. So have you tried the calculations? How did your flat objects fare?

[@sideburn]

@@bentalls85 yeah it works. 45 degrees. But it’s still not great.

[@217RockStar217]

I'm in the same boat Any and all flats or some what rounded flat surfaces are showing this layer affect. Being pretty noob I thought it maybe a lil bit cloudy fep, after watching this I've learned more But I've used 45 degrees in every print It's just not working out to get rid of lines at 45 Google mars 2 and Saturn pixel widths and they same the same .050 🤷

[@Pepino2012]

ELEGOO MARS 2 - They claim pixel size is 0.05 but based on my experiments its actually around 0.051. So use 44.43º instead of 45 for a layer height of 0.05.

[@modelracecar]

Super useful, made me realise there's logic to this hobby too.

[@abimanyuwddn]

SUPERBB. Thank you so muchh. I own photon mono. I know about 44.43 degree thing. I always did that. What I DIDN'T know is that you can change the layer height to 51 microns! I always thought that the printer can't do that (0.001 mm Z axis step). This is mind blowing. The option is always there but I didn't realise that until I saw this video. Now I can make the perfect cube like you did! thank youu

[@MrElwood1985]

Bro i'm not even kidding, this is the most usefull video i've seen on YT!! Probably because i'm into SLA printing but that doesn't matter hahaha

[@hauleroid]

That was awesome and answered all my questions. Thanks a lot!

[@Patmouchon]

Thank you for this great video, very easy to understand!

[@logcabingaming3710]

Incredible! Some suggested this video when I was searching to why my straight edge prints were warping and sagging! Guess what….I’m also printing tanks 😂

[@GeorgMierau]

Great video indeed! I linked it countless times as a response to this question on Reddit :)

[@shirenai]

This video is a must see. thank you!

[@renaudpouge6843]

I tried this today with my SM4K : IT WORKS !!! Thanks for the explanations. The formula can even be improved for a smoother finish. After watching this very instructive video about the printing angles on 3D printers, I noticed that these parameters are all calculated for prints parallel to the pixel rows. many of my friends and I noticed that rotating the parts on the build plate gives smoother results. I took my old calculator (Yes... the 35 years old one I had at school) and after rotating the part by 45° on Z axis, the new formula is : H = layer height W= pixel width A= Angle A= Arctan (H/Sqr(2W²))

[@TrueEliteGeek]

OH. Good call. I hadn’t thought of that. Testing tomorrow.

[@AndreiUzun]

How was the test?

[@vikingcat2640]

Following.

[@TrueEliteGeek]

It wasn’t as good as I had hoped. And then I have had my printers running non stop on others things and haven’t gotten back to it.

[@user-xt3jn3no8t]

45° for SM4K?

[@maxmoors]

For me what worked the best for the past years from working with DLP printers is it depends a lot on the model. I used to do figurines at around 30-35 degrees and cube style parts at around 35-40 degrees on one axis x/y and around 15 on the other axis if I recall correctly This was for the Envisiontec Perfactory 4 printers btw

[@ekaterinaveil8059]

Priceless information ❤️❤️❤️thank you so much!!!!!

[@Wittmason]

Seriously great video. Thanks so much for sharing this info.

[@divencia]

This info is pure gold

[@LeadNavSystemsLLC]

Randomly came across this as we were trying to figure this out yesterday. Great video. We are running a Formlabs Fuse 1 SLS with Nylon 12 Glass Fill and we were "eyeballing" the correct angles in the chamber and playing with the "show" surface quality.You get big steps in any slightly angled X/Y as this machine in powder is a .110mm layer and the laser is at 200micron...so if my brain can still do math (questionable) we are looking at between 28-29 degrees... Appreciate the video.

[@sebastienfournier3672]

Verry informative video!

[@pseudo_goose]

That arctan formula would also work in the opposite direction - find the optimal layer height for a given inclination angle and pixel width. For example, you could print the cube in an "isometric" orientation (one vertex at the bottom, opposite vertex at the top, all faces inclined at the same 54.736 degrees. For a 51um pixel size, the ideal layer height would be tan(54.736)*0.051 which is 0.072. That should give you a cube where all surfaces have the same "perfect" finish. I'm not familiar with resin printing, so I don't know if that is a reasonable layer height. If not, then integer multiples (2x, 3x, 4x) and unit fractions (/2, /3, /4) of that value should also be pretty good at reducing artifacts. So 0.036 may also work

[@ingofm007]

Great video, very informative, have subscribed to learn more tips

[@AlejandroHernandez-qd5bj]

gosh i love this video. so so good

[@RicsPics-il5ec]

Great video and excellent description. You could be a tutor with your skills!

[@EastwoodFabrication]

As you mentioned this benefits models with flat surfaces. Could I request a video that goes over the anti-aliasing? Pros/cons. Thanks a lot :)

[@ozgultekin6100]

yea, i think this is where anti-aliasing would come in affect -- curious to see how well it works

[@VideoCesar07]

There's a pretty good one by dennis wang who explains and shows the effects of angle, anti-aliasing and image blur on some test prints that have multiple blocks at different angles to show the effect of each on the print. He also shows the effects on some tanks with some of the different settings. Video is pretty good and well explained and he took care to actually show the effects rather than "well, you can't really see it on camera but the surface looks worse/better."

[@realspacemodels]

Brilliant. Very handy! Thanks!

[@EugenAnanin]

Thank you for this great video!

[@KenAugustino]

Super useful! Cheers!

[@cosmic1969]

thank you, very great explanation if my curent problem

[@Acheiropoietos]

I quite like the striped patina of 3D prints - it catches the light in interesting ways. I always use epoxy filler and sanding if I need a proper flat surface.

[@bretthamelin8974]

Thanks. Gonna give this a try.

[@benjaminasherbowman]

Fantastic Video!

[@BillyAltDel]

Very informative. Thanks!

[@Penetralex]

Really good video. Thank you

[@gomzovoncel]

very adviceable, thank you

[@MatheusFP104]

Pure gold!!

[@garyspencer-salt4336]

Well done Sir

[@ihorMenshykov]

Superb!

[@sailtogether3236]

You are genious! Thank you!

[@Red-zv2xt]

thank you so much for this! I'm trying to print large swords and couldn't find any video that detailed angling square like objects with two flat sides!

[@patronza]

Nice. Because the Elegoo Saturn has layer heights and pixel width of both 50 micron, then the angle actually is 45 Degrees! It doesn't get more perfect than that!

[@ss220astro]

Good Info!

[@Skipp3rBuds]

For others out there that just want to calculate the layer height given an angle the formula is tan(perfect angle)*(resolution). Or in excel =TAN(RADIANS(Angle))*Resolution.

[@nathanb62]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!

[@xmetal280]

Math to the rescue! This was a really interesting and useful concept, thanks for sharing this with everyone. I often have flat surfaces on things I design so this will warrant some experimentation. Much appreciated.

[@totalmentekemado]

not all heroes wear capes.... thank you very much!

[@waltonchan3931]

Awesome video, you should try printing the nylon-like resin at different temperatures and longer post-cure times to squeeze extra strength out of the parts. I’ve heard a little extra UV and heat can increase strength and toughness a ton!

[@spongeknock7387]

Nice info cheers

[@l__bug__l]

Thank you !!!

[@AGreen-dg5jb]

Thank you for the explanation! I'm new and still learning. What resin and settings do you use for your Mono X?

[@bflynn2159]

What is the difference in the wrong angle and having to subtract 90 etc? When does that happen opposed to just typing in your correct angle? Awesome video btw!

[@KoolDesign]

Thanks 💜

[@jordidalmau4191]

Great explanations, your prints looks great. My prints with vertical flat walls 90° to FEP, like a rectangle for instance, have ugly lines-marks-stripes a cross the model. I'm using an anycubic photon mono and the model is at 45°. Faces at 45° look great Any advice, suggestion or comment is will be very appreciated.

[@dtj9923]

Pretty helpful video. Have you explored compound print angles and anti alias settings at all?

[@mystixa]

I suppose its just more simply put you want your layer height to equal your pixel size. Then the formula always works out to the perfect 45 degree angle.

[@Aaron.Jackson]

Nice concise usable information! Thank you. Do you have any plans to address anti aliasing? I can't make up my mind as to whether it actually helps or not..

[@jonathanballoch]

I bet this same logic can be applied to FDM, but in slightly different ways. excellent

[@This_Pleases_The_Nut]

Gonna try this out on the Saturn S, hopefully it works

[@SteffenRichter]

FYI: For the Photon Mono X the pixel width is 0.05, which gives you an optimal angle of 45° with the default layer height of 0.05: arctan(0.050/0.05) in degrees = 45

[@SeanArteaga]

Thanks! Hey, how do you know what the pixel width is?

[@TrueEliteGeek]

Most of the time it will be listed on the manufactures website either in microns, um, or mm

[@charlesmitchell487]

Exactly what I was looking for. Different topic - do you have a recommendation for resin? We just bought the pfrozen mini 4k. My daughter and I are just getting started and could use some help. Thanks!

[@Shtukka76]

Brilliant video! Thank you so much! But i a little bit confused about the axle. You applied the angle to different axles Y and X. So what axle I have to use?

[@Michael_Hill]

Really nice video, thanks for making it. I have a question though. Just got a resin printer (have multiple FDM printers) and haven't printed anything as I wait for the wash station to come in. I was wanting to try to print a cartridge shell I designed for a retro computer. It is a two piece shell that snaps/screws together. One side of each shell is completely flat. No crazy internal angles or anything. Should I still print it at an angle or can I print it flat on the bed? Someone told me that getting a large flat surface off the bed would be hard to do and dangerous for the bed of the reservoir. I look at it from a FDM point of view and I see a 45 minute resin print if I lay it flat, and a 5 hour print if I turn it at an angle. I was worried also that all those supports underneath it touching the flat cartridge surface would really make that smooth surface bumpy too, besides the long print time. Just wondering if this is something I shouldn't tackle with resin and stick to FDM. Any advice?

[@Pepino2012]

ELEGOO MARS 2 - They claim pixel size is 0.05 but based on my experiments its actually around 0.051. So use 44.43º instead of 45 for a layer height of 0.05.

[@federico9292]

really? that's maybe why 50 micron layer height, 50 micron pixel with, 45° angle still produces artifacts. it's 51 microns!! going to try that

[@San3djewelrydesignsmyanmar]

Thanks.

[@spinnetti]

Makes sense, thanks. If I got that right, I take the horizontal print size/the pixels which on the mars would be .047 mm, so I should shoot for the same layer height if I want to print at 45 degrees?

[@CaM203]

Great video! How can I find the pixel width on a Elegoo Mars?

[@Tsiphon]

I dont' know if you or anyone else will still see / comment on this...but what about compound angles (specifically to reduce the cross-section face). That is, rotate both in the x and in the y direction. Auto-orientation often seems to try to do this anyways. Would the literal best possible cube be rotated by the formula in the x and y direction?

[@kenengel620]

Why did you use supports on the flat cube? I print a lot of enclosures for electronics projects and I print right off the build plate. The biggest issue I have had with it is one you glossed right over. If you look at the bottom side of your flat cube in your video, you can see a big difference between the layers making up the bottom side and where it transitions to the vertical sides. I even sometimes get gaps and hole at the transition line. To help with this I started to make the higher exposed bottom layers include the entire bottom side of the model. That way there's better adhesion at the transfer line. As long as the side facing the build plate is flat it works great. I even have good results printing text and images into that side.

[@MikeG_23]

Great video. I have a question .. I have a mars 2 pro and should print rectangular models which I will use to create a silicone rubber mold .. To keep the details and surfaces flat, I should orient the model on both the x and y axes on the same degree or on the y axis should I orient it differently? If it comes out of the print bed, how could I behave? Thank you

[@MrBEnIbb]

Thank you interesting stuff! Does this matter with a 8k printer, since the pixels are much finer anyways?

[@greggrover8247]

The 0.04725 Pixel size is for the Anycubic Photon you will find .Where did you find calibration cube for a resin printer ? Keep up the good videos a big help to me .

[@eTraxx]

0.047 also for the Prusa SL1

[@noway8233]

Wow, very good -posible- explanation of whats happening to.me , i got a photon mono x , i think that making hollog with infill could produce yhis lines, but i need to test it, im thinking about all the yuotubers videos i saw before i made my purchase ,No One even mentiin this "isiues", or layer lines, they allways said "quality,well its a resin printer, its print perfect out of the box" Well we known now the true

[@digitalghosts4599]

Thank you so much for this video, the math makes quite a lot of sense! I have lots of prints that have large flat surfaces and they're thin. Given that I have a flexible build plate and it will be easy to detach, is it ok to print it flat without supports?

[@TrueEliteGeek]

It can be, but you are going to have to adjust the file because the bottom layer will expand when printing flat on the plate. It is called elephant foot and you have to narrow the file where it touches the plate to compensate.

[@jonkelly7908]

@@TrueEliteGeek ChiTuBox v1.8.1 has Tolerance compensation which can eliminate the elephants foot or put a 1 layer 3mm raft around the print, it is easier to remove than supports.

[@christiangottwald5758]

Thank you so much!!! what is the Pixel width on Phrozen Sonic mini (no 4k) ?

[@DjRoan_only_top_kizz]

interesting video Where can I find the pixel size of my Saturn Elegoo?? Thanks a lot!

[@nosalis]

very cool, looks like antialias might help with this quite a bit though

[@TrueEliteGeek]

It does. But AA isn’t great on these big flat surfaces.

[@raymondjayjohnson693]

Thank you. Could we have a follow on video specific to non-flat surface models. I do functional printing where flat is common, but most of my learning challenges are more "organic" shapes.

[@TrueEliteGeek]

There isn't really a calculation you can do that I know when there are going to be curves. But I do have one coming on how to hide as much as you can on those models.