The software for setting up models for the printer, MakerBot Desktop just got an upgrade last week.

The interface is a little different, but provides a little more control, including a clearer way of adjusting the undercut angle for which supports can be generated.

And setting the left extruder for the raft and supports is not obvious to the eye. In the ‘Multi-Material Printing’ section, there are fields for Support Material extruder and Raft Material Extruder. ‘0’ sets to the right extruder, ‘1’ sets to the left extruder.

Does it make a big difference? So far it looks like ‘yes.’ Creating smooth spheres has been a chronic problem – the top surface is usually fine but the underside os always rough. I reprented a particularly difficult model yesterday and got much better results than with the previous version…

It may not be obvious from the photo, but the newer print is definitely less janky than previous. No changes to the model, just better control of output settings.

And likewise, because it is doing a better job building supports, there are fewer problems with the pegs on the underside of this object. A little more tweaking and that last peg can probably be fixed.