LeapFrog Creatr-HS User Manual

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1

Dear Customer,

Congratulations with your very own Leapfrog
Creatr HS! In this document we will help you

get started with your rst print and with all the

prints to come after that. Also, we would like to
help you get acquainted with the Leapfrog 3D
Printers Ecosystem. We will be by your side
when you are setting up your printer and help
you with any questions you might have during
printing. We will also cheer you on when you
are making your amazing and value-added
prints.

The Ecosystem: tips and tricks, installation
video’s, and support

You are now ofcially part of The Ecosystem: the place where all Leapfrog 3D printer users gather

to help each other and to interact with the Leapfrog 3D Printers support team. Here are a few valu-

able tips on what you are able to nd there.

The Ecosystem can be entered through creatrhs.lpfrg.com. The Ecosystem is constantly growing in
content and users. Here are some of the most important things you can nd:

• Installation and support videos, as well as the manual for all the printers

• The latest software settings for all materials (posted under “knowledgebase”)

• Solutions for the most common issues

• Our forum, where users help each other and where you can post your amazing prints (every

once in a while, we will highlight a few in our newsletter and on our website, we will always

mention you of course!)

• The Leapfrog 3D Printers support team: if you have any questions you can just submit a ticket
online (“request help”) and we will get you on your way.

Are you all set to start?

To get started you need the following items:

• Your Creatr HS

• At least one lament

• Print stickers

• Your Materialise Creatr license key that you received with the Leapfrog 3D Printer

•

We will keep you up to date on our social media platforms (left page) about print settings and other

Leapfrog 3D Printers news. You are also invited to share your prints on our pages.

Now let’s start,
Happy printing!

The Leapfrog team

The ecosystem

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Table of content

1. Making your very rst 3D print – Quick Print Guide

1.1 Unpacking your Creatr HS and nding the right place for it 4

1.2 Getting to know your printer 5

1.3 Plugging in your Creatr HS 6

1.4 Preheating the printer 6

1.5 Loading lament 6

1.6 Checking and adjusting the bed 7

1.7 Printing 8

2. Preparing for your next print

2.1 Removing your print and replacing your print sticker 9

2.2 Changing lament 10

3. Creating your own printable le: from STL to gcode

3.1 The 3D printing workow – from idea to print 11

3.2 Installing Materialise Creatr 11

3.3 Materialise Creatr software overview 18

3.4 Materialise Creatr workow 19

3.5

Prole editor 25

3.6 Congure Printer 30

4. Frequently Asked Questions

4.1 How can I solve the issue of the print not sticking to the bed? 31

4.2 What should I do when I cannot get my lament to go through the lament

guiding tube? 32

4.3 What can I do if my lament does not come out of the extruder? 32

4.4 My print surface is very rough, how can I solve this? 32

4.5 Where do I go with my other questions? 32

5. Glossary of 3D printing vocabulary

5.1 3D printing vocabulary 34

5.2 Getting to know your printer 36

Making your very rst 3D print – Quick Print Guide

4

1. Making your very rst 3D print

– Quick Print Guide

We know you cannot wait to start 3D printing! In this guide we will take you on the easiest journey

from box to print.

This section contains the following information:

1.1 Unpacking your Creatr HS and nding the right place for it

1.2 Getting to know your printer

1.3 Plugging in your Creatr HS

1.4 Preheating the printer

1.5 Loading lament

1.6 Checking and adjusting the bed

1.7 Printing

1.1. Unpacking your Creatr HS and nding the right place for it

Unpacking your Creatr HS carefully, according to the following steps, ensures that the machine

stays calibrated (although in some cases decalibration might occur during transport). These steps
you only have to follow when your brand new Creatr HS arrives at your doorstep for the rst time.

Before you start, make sure that you have cleared a spot where you want to place the printer. We

advise you to nd a place at room temperature, where there is no draft (for example next to a win­dow) and where the printer cannot get wet. Choose a surface which is sturdy (so the printer cannot
move) and supports the weight of the machine. It is useful to have another set of hands to help out,

the machine is quite heavy.

STEP 1: Cut the tie cords and lift the top of the box from where the handles are.

STEP 1: Cut the tie cords and lift the top box.

Making your very rst 3D print – Quick Print Guide

5

STEP 2: Pull off the tape from the plastic bag wrap on the top of the printer and push the plastic

down and away from the printer.

NOTE: Do not grab the Creatr HS by

the top cover as this can damage it.
Lift the machine from the bottom.

STEP 3: Place the printer in its new location and
make sure it sits rmly on all four rubber feet.
If necessary adjust their length by unscrewing

the feet slightly.

STEP 4: Remove three sets of tie-wraps with a
cutting tool: at the front of the carriage, in the

corner of the carriage and in the back of the
printer.

1.2 Getting to know your printer

1. Printing head and extruders

2. Filament guiding tube

3. Filament drive unit

4. Axes

5. Print bed

6. Print bed levelling knobs

7. Display

8. Quick release knob (back)

9. USB port for USB stick

10. USB port for connecting to the computer
(back)

11. Belt (inside the printer)

12. Z-sensor adjustment knob (only to be used
when bed levelling cannot be achieved using

the print bed knobs!)

Large image including close ups on page 36.

STEP 2: Remove plastic wrap

STEP 4: Cut the tie wraps at the front and back of the carriage and in the back of the printer

The Creatr HS

1

2

4

5

6

79

12

11

3

Making your very rst 3D print – Quick Print Guide

6

1.3 Plugging in your Creatr HS

OPTIONAL: If you want to use the printer con­nected to your computer, use the USB cable

supplied with the printer, insert the USB-A (at
rectangular connector) cable in your computer
and insert the USB-B (square connector) cable

in the backside of the Creatr HS.

In this Quick Guide we will use the stand-alone

modus, therefore the cable does not have to be
plugged in.

NOTE: If your printer has a USB-A
(at rectangular) backside connec­tion, make sure you only use the USB-A cable with the built in FTDI chip that is included

in the box. Any other USB might interfere with the communication.

STEP 5: Plug the power cord in the outlet and turn on your Creatr HS.

1.4. Preheating the printer

Before you start loading your lament, it is necessary to preheat your printer. Heating your extrud­ers will make sure that your lament will melt and feed through. You are also preheating your print
bed. This will make sure your print will stick to your bed.

STEP 6: To preheat, scroll to the preheat icon

on your screen, and push the button. If the co­lour of the icon changes, your nozzles and bed
are preheating.

1.5. Loading lament

The Creatr HS is compatible with a wide range
of 1.75 mm laments. All laments provided by

Leapfrog 3D Printers are of high quality and are

thoroughly tested by us. For every lament, we

also provide standard settings for Simplify3d

(to be found in The Ecosystem).

STEP 7: Unpack your role of lament and cut

the end into a sharp point.

OPTIONAL: connect USB cable to port

STEP 6: Preheat

STEP 7: Cut to a sharp point

Making your very rst 3D print – Quick Print Guide

7

STEP 8: Home the printer so you can reach
the bottom where the lament has to be fed
through. To do this, select the home icon on

your screen and press the button to start hom­ing.

STEP 9: Make sure your nozzles are preheated
to at least 180 degrees Celsius. Place your role
of lament in the bottom of the printer. Start
feeding the lament through the hole.

STEP 10: Once you reach the lament drive

unit, pull out the quick release knob on the

back, and feed the lament through further

until they reach the printer head.

TIP: If you have problems with
feeding your lament, there is a
possibility that your lament has
trouble to pass the lament guiding

tubes connection. Take the top connections out

by turning them counter-clockwise. Manually
feed some lament while pulling the quick re­lease knob, and put the connections back. Put

the lament guiding tubes back in place.

STEP 11: On your screen, select the lament

icon and push the button.

STEP 12: Select your extruder and press “Load”.
After a few seconds, lament should be owing
out of the extruder. Remove the printed la­ment once the extrusion is nished.

NOTE: Do not touch the bed or the tip of the extruder with your ngers, this is very hot.

STEP 13: To go back to the main menu turn the button counter-clockwise.

1.6. Checking and adjusting the bed

Each Creatr HS is carefully calibrated before it leaves Leapfrog 3D Printers’ headquarters. How­ever, during transport, calibration might get shifted. Calibration means that your extruder is at the
correct distance from the bed to print smoothly, and that your bed is exactly levelled. Here is ex­plained how you can slightly adjust the calibration during printing. If a full recalibration is neces­sary, the steps described in Chapter 3.9 should be followed.

STEP 8: Home the printer

STEP 10: Pull the quick release knob

STEP 9: Feed lament in hole

STEP 11: Select lament icon

STEP 12: Extruder ‘load’

Preparing for your next printMaking your very rst 3D print – Quick Print Guide

8

In the next paragraph you are going to start printing. During this print you can manually adjust the
bed while printing. Check if the bed is levelled during the rst 2 or 3 layers of the print and verify if
the lament is adhering well to the bed.

• If a corner of the bed is too far from the nozzle you observe lament being extruded too loosely
in this area of the print bed, causing your print not to stick.

• If a corner of the bed is too close to the nozzle the extruder scratches through the print sticker,

or (almost) no lament comes out of the nozzle.

You can manually adjust the four corners of the bed where necessary during printing by very care-

fully turning the bed levelling knobs. Only turn it slightly! Usually not more than a quarter of a turn

is necessary. Looking from the top, slightly turn the knob clockwise in the corner where no lament
is owing or where the nozzle is scratching the print sticker. Turn the knob counter-clockwise in the
corner where the lament is not pressed enough onto the bed and comes loose easily.

If these steps are not sufcient to successfully calibrate the printer, it can be recalibrated using the

computer, which is explained in Section 3.

1.7 Printing

STEP 14: Surf to creatrhs.lpfrg.com and click on ‘Demo Print Downloads’. Select the single extrud­er print.

STEP 15: Insert your USB stick in the front USB port of your printer.

STEP 16: On your screen, select the USB stick icon and press the button.

STEP 17: Find your le, select it and press the
button. It can take a few seconds for the les to
be displayed if there are many les on the USB
stick. The printer will now start to heat up to
the required heat encrypted in the le. Once it

hits that temperature, it will start printing!

TIP: The rst layers of a print are always the most difcult and it is best to carefully ob­serve them. Slight adjustments to the level of the bed during the rst print layers might

be necessary to obtain a successful print.

Calibrating the printer.

STEP 17: USB port and display in one screen

Preparing for your next print

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2. Preparing for your next print

In this chapter we will take you through the processes of preparing your printer for your next print.

We will take you through the processes of replacing your print sticker, exchanging your lament
and we will offer you to methods of calibrating your machine: manually and through using Simpli-

fy3d.

2.1. Removing your print and replacing your print sticker

2.2. Changing lament

2.1 Removing your print and replacing your print sticker

The print bed of the Creatr HS is made out of glass to ensure that it is as at as possible. However,
it is sometimes difcult to keep your print stuck to it. To make sure that your print sticks to the bed,

you need to apply a print sticker. You can re-use your sticker for prints over and over again as long
as it is not damaged. Even when it is damaged, you could opt to place your print on another section

of the bed where the sticker is not damaged yet (in order to learn how to do this, revert to Chapter
4 where we cover the Materialise Creatr software).

TIP: Removing your print from the bed: You can use a putty knife to make it easier to
remove your printed object. If the print still sticks on the print bed, heating up the print
bed to 40 degrees Celsius (see quick start) can make it easier to remove prints.

STEP 1: Check whether your print sticker is damaged or not. If it is damaged in one place, you may
also position your print on a different, undamaged area of the bed (you can do this while slicing your
print in Simplify3d).

STEP 2: If the print sticker is damaged and you cannot position your print on an undamaged spot,

remove the sticker by lifting one of the corners of the sticker and pealing it off. If you remove it too
quickly, the sticker is more likely to tear.

STEP 3: Remove the sticker glue by applying sticker remover or glass cleaner on the print bed. Be

sure to remove the whole sticker and all of the sticker glue so you will end up with a clean glass
plate. If residue is left behind, this could affect your print quality.

TIP: Use some abrasive soap with your putty knife on a cold (non-heated) print bed.

STEP 4: Apply the new sticker by placing the sticker on your print bed. If you are satised with the

position, take of the small part of the sticker. Use a plastic card to apply the sticker, work from the
inside to the outside and avoid air bubbles. Take off the big part slowly and use a plastic card to ap­ply the sticker, work from the inside to the outside.

Preparing for your next print

10

2.2 Changing lament

If you are ready to use a different role of lament for your next print, follow these steps to remove
your current role of lament.

STEP 1: Preheat your printer by selecting the

preheat icon in your screen and pushing the
button. Make sure the nozzle which contains

the lament you are about to exchange heats
up to at least 180 degrees Celsius.

STEP 2: Select the lament icon in your screen

and enter this menu by pushing the button. Se­lect the extruder from which you want to re-

move the lament and select ‘unload’. The drive
unit will retract the lament.

STEP 3: Pull the quick release knob on the back
and pull the lament out all the way from the

feeding hole on the bottom. Make sure you roll

up your role of lament carefully and that the
end cannot get loose. Tangled lament can af-

fect the print the next time you use it.

STEP 1: Preheat your printer

STEP 2: Select ‘unload’

STEP 3: Pull the quick release knob.

STEP 4: Apply the new sticker