Bambu Studio Inlays

 This is a basic tutorial on how to use Bambu Studio to create simple text inlays in 3d models.

First step - find a model you would like to add an inlay. I find print-in-place boxes are a really good, easy way to learn and play with inlays. In this tutorial, I'll be using this print-in-place box with Magnetic Closure as the base for the inlay

You can find the model HERE .

Once you've downloaded the model, open it in Bambu Studio.

Click on the model (select it), then click on the Move icon, or hit M to bring up the world coordinates for the part. What you are looking for is the Z height of the model. You want to write this number down someplace, as it will be the basis for knowing where to place your text within the model. In this example, the Z height is 9.05 , circled and highlighted in the screenshot above

Next, you want to click on the rotate icon (or R key) and rotate the model 180 degrees on the Y access. I do this primarily to make it easy to put the text on properly, you don't have to worry about what direction it needs to be in, etc...

Next, click on the Text shape Icon (or T key). The most important part here is the thickness - you want a thickness that is 2.5x the layer height you plan on printing. I will be printing at a .16mm layer height, so .16 * 2.5 is .4, so my thickness is .4 embedded depth doesn't matter as you will be changing the coordinates later. One thing to note on Fonts - I have found fonts with a lot of complex embeleshes do not inlay well. Try and find a font you like with nice crisp edges. Note I also had to change the angle to 90 degrees to ensure the font was going in the right direction.

Once you have your text the way you like it, change from "global" to "Objects" in the left menu section to look at all of the objects. You will now see a new object, "text_shape" which is a child of the box. Click on the text_shape to select it, then double-click on the colored "fila" box. This will allow you to change what filament the text shape will be using. In my case, I am changing it from brown (filament 1) to white (filament 2), which now makes the text much easier to see on the model, and allows you to choose any final filament color when it's sent to the printer.

Now comes the fun part. click on the "text_shape" in the left menu to ensure only the text you created is highlighted. Next, click on the move icon (or hit M) to bring up the World Coordinates. You want to change the Z height of the text to be one-quarter layer height more than the original Z height of the model. That was a mouthful... So, in this example, the original Z height of the model was 9.05. Our layer height is .16, so one-quarter of that is .04. I add .04 to 9.05 and get 9.09. So, I typed into the Z box 9.09 for the new Z height of the text_shape. This will ensure that no part of the text is printed on it's own layer.

Next, click on any part of the model to choose it, and hit the rotate icon again (or hit R) to rotate the entire model back 180 degrees, putting the text onto the bottom. Make sure when you rotate, you've only rotated on the Y axis, and haven't introduced any other axis movements. Finally, hit the move icon (or hit M) and look at the new Z height of the part. As you can see in the photo above, the Z height is now 9.13, which is an increase of .08 from our starting Z height of 9.05. This increase needs to be 1/2 or less of your layer height. Our layer height is .16, so .08 works!

Finally, it's time to slice the model with the inlay. This is also the final opportunity to check everything before it's sent to print. Once the model is sliced, use the slider on the right side of BambuStudio to slide it all the way down to the 1st layer it will print. You can see that it will be printing both the Inlay with Filament 2 and the bottom of the box in Filament 1 all on the first layer. If you only see text on the first layer, something went wrong - the text needs to be more flush with the bottom of the model, so you need to go back and check all the numbers and positioning. You should also see at least one more layer with the inlay being printed (layer 2, and maybe layer 3) - you want at least two layers of the inlay to make sure it 'pops', and there are no dark gaps between the printed lines.

Time to send it to the printer. Note, I am printing this in PLA, and my AMS has black filament, not brown filament in slot 1, so the print will come out black.

I am printing it on a PET print bed which has a carbon-fiber-like pattern on it. I purchased a few of these with different patterns on Alibaba. If you don't want to wait and don't mind paying more, you can find them on Amazon too like this one.

Once you have the basics down, you can start to experiment with changing other parameters. You will want to play with the temperature of the bed - the hotter it is, the more the lines will blend together - heat that baby up, but not to the point of risking spaghetti. if you want to hide the seams more, especially if you are using a carbon fiber-like pattern, changing the bottom surface pattern to "Hilbert Curve" makes it look significantly better. I have also found changing the wall generator from "classic" to "Archne" helps reduce the line size around the inlay. Other things to play with are the initial Z height, which can change the amount of filament that is "squished" in the first layer - this and bed temperature can be changed together. Also, the filament type can make a big difference. I have found ABS and PETG tend to look better than PLA since the first layer fuses together a bit better. Finally, the nozzle size makes a huge difference. I am printing this example with a .6 extruder hot end. This is way too large to do proper inlays - .4 is better, but .2 is the best. The smaller the nozzle, the tighter and more precise lines it can lay down for the first layer which will blend together nicely on the final print. 

Note, this is with a .6mm nozzle and NO optimizations. In the photo below, I adjusted the bed temp, line width, bottom pattern and wall generator type..

As you can see, it looks significantly better, even with the same size nozzle.

The next tutorial will be on using logos and other things you can find on the web for more detailed and intricate inlays.