One of the foundations of Zortrax, on which the manufacturer based its offer in the first years of activity, was it’s own but closed ecosystem, which included a 3D printer, software and firmware as well as a palette of materials for 3D printing. This approach changed in mid-2017, when the company officially released the possibility of configuring 3D printing parameters in the context of external filaments of suppliers for M200 and M300 series devices. In subsequent products, this was not only continued, but even underlined, as in the case of the Zortrax M300 DUAL model or the 3D Inkspire photopolymer 3D printer.
Inventure was the last device in the offer that used only Zortrax’s original filaments. This was due to the fact that the 3D printer used materials enclosed in the form of a cartridge, which naturally limited the work with other materials. Now, however, this is changing! Updates just released in Z-SUITE version 2.11.2 and firmware for Inventure version 1.4.0 allow not only the official use of materials on spools (including from external suppliers), but also allows printing from only one printhead (by default, 3D prints have always been made of two filaments – building and supporting, from which the raft was created).
Inventure is equipped with a closed and heated working chamber. On the sides there are pockets for cartridges with filaments. Now you can print a set of holders, which, when installed in a 3D printer, will enable the assembly of a filament wound on a spool. Handle models can be downloaded from the 3D model library in Z-SUITE.
The “external materials” function has appeared in the software, where filament parameters can be set. Of course, you can also choose one of the Zortrax filaments supported by the 3D printer. Cartridges are of course still supported. Dedicated filaments supported by Zortrax Inventure in single and double head modes:
Regardless of 3D printing from filaments on spools, Zortrax Inventure can now work in single-head mode. On the one hand, this option was introduced to optimize the time and costs of 3D prints with simple geometry – in the previous mode, Inventure always printed the raft from the support material, like all even the simplest supports. At this time, you can opt out and print selected details using only one head. On the other hand, this opens the way to printing from materials that do not work well with water-soluble support materials, such as nylon.
Z-SUITE 2.11.2 also allows you to set parameters for raft and the first layer of the model and edit supports, which was not previously available for Inventure. In addition to printing speed and raft density, you can opt out of it at all, which is quite an interesting option, because Inventure has a smooth work table made of plastic – so there is no problem typical for users of the M200 Plus and M300 Plus models, where the tables are perforated .
In addition to the changes dedicated to Zortrax Inventure, the upgrade to Z-SUITE introduced a number of additional changes that increase performance and improve stability. The Model Rotation Optimization Tool for Zortrax Inkspire has been improved to provide smoother surfaces in the models. The new “Force Print” option allows you to start printing even if the material loaded into the 3D printer does not match the one with which the .zcodex file was prepared. Cutting time for models with a large number of details has also been reduced. A full list of changes in Z-SUITE 2.11.2 and Inventure 1.4.0 firmware can be found on the Zortrax website.
Finally, important information for Apple computer users: Z-SUITE 2.11.2 is optimized for both Windows and Mac OS operating systems up to the Mojave version. Using the software on Mac OS Catalina is not recommended.