Color change at height: Explanations and why I do it this way! (Patreon)

Hello friends!

I often receive the following message via my private messages: "There is a problem with the Bambu Lab file, the purge tower is present on the plate but the colors are not applied to the model."

This happens when the plate in the project looks like this:

When in fact, they expect to see a file that looks like this instead:

Truth: Both versions are good, but have major differences in the process as well as in the final print. Some of you already know that, but for the beginners and other users who are not familiar with color change at height, here's a quick explanation. We're going to take a quick look at it.

Both versions side-by-side look like this in the slicer:

What's the difference between both plates?

 The one on the right is made with color changes at specific layer heights (and you will need to slice the plate to see the applicable colors), while the one on the left is made using the paint tool on the regions of the model that you want to change color, and you can see them without slicing the plate.

When possible (in other words when a complete layer must have a different color than the previous one) I use color change at height (right one) for several reasons.

The first reason is, as you see in this image, that when using the paint tool, the slicer does not apply the color to the entire layer as shown in this photo, which generates unnecessary color changes:

On the other hand, if we use color change at height instead, the entire layer turns out to become black and no unnecessary color change is required on that layer. We understand the difference very well when we look at this photo and compare it with the previous one. You will also notice that the colors are applied to the slider on the right rather than to the model.

That being said, let's now look at how this impacts the print! You will be very surprised!

Let's take our two images again and compare the result of the slice:

BEE PRINTED WITH THE PAINT TOOL:

0.12mm layer height.

Printing time: Over 6 hours

Filament used: Over 115g

BEE PRINTED WITH COLOR CHANGE AT HEIGHT:

0.12mm layer height

Printing time: Less than 45 minutes

Filament used: Less than 10g

This is an incredible difference!!!

You can also use the paint tool with the "height range" option, but again, I have had situations where the slicer makes unnecessary color changes in the center of the model and I don't know why...

On the other hand, with the method of color changes applied to the slider bar in the preview, it is impossible to have unwanted color changes.

Here's an example where the paint tool with the height range mode will cause some waste of time and filament. I just made the test with the same file/settings has the other pictures above, but with the height range option. Despite the fact that it is supposed to be a plain black layer, some yellow was added on one layer:

So this is why i'm using color change at height most of the time.

You'll cut your printing time drastically, and you'll use a tiny portion of filament compared to the paint tool.

For the same amount of filament, you will print 10 bees with the color change at height version, and only one with the painted version.

The main reason?: Because the paint tool generates useless color change when a layer should be all of the same color. So the next time you open a Bambu Lab file and you see the purge tower on the plate without seeing the different colors on the model, tell yourself that this is not an error, and that the colors are applied to the preview slider instead of being painted on the model. This will result in a faster print, with less filament consumption.

If you wanna make you own color change at height on a different model, here's a Youtube link on how to do it. Look at the first example he is giving.

The second one is for the same result with the paint tool, but like i said above, the paint tool may cause some problems. So i strongly recommend to use the first example in the video, with the colors applied to the preview slider bar for a perfect result each time.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQmkcdXLMHU

Hope this will help you and that my explanations are clear!

Have fun my friends! And keep printing!!! Pascal