3D Chat GPT

 I'm an inveterate user of Chat GPT and have learned something new about it.

As I've explained before, a CAD programme will produce what's called an STL file, which is then passed through a slicer programme to turn the object into line-by-line instructions for a 3D printer, called a Gcode file.

Now a friend in America sent me a Gcode file for an 8 switch backing plate for my GT6. On printing it I discovered that it had been printed on a larger print bed than on my Creality Ender 5 printer, meaning one end was cut off and couldn't be printed.

What I needed to do was rotate the backplate by 45 degrees about its centre, which would then allow the full object to be printed slantywise from corner to corner of the print bed. However, I would need to STL file to accomplish this in a CAD programme. Unfortunately my friend had lost the original STL file.

No.1 Son, who is a contractor programmer and knows Chat GPT better than me, told me I can upload the Gcode file to Chat GPT and instruct it to perform the necessary rotation and present me with the resultant file.

Now you have to be very precise in the instructions, as any ambiguity could result in something awful - like a portal to Hell opening up and swallowing you. The first time I asked Chat GPT to perform this function is rotated the object 45 degrees around x-0, y=0, which meant the object wasn't even on the print bed. I had to instruct GPT to find the x/y centre of the object and rotate about that point.

Bingo! it printed at 45 degrees, meaning it printed the entire backplate.

I haven't tried it yet, but I dare say I could instruct Chat GPT to produce a Gcode file for anything I want, without having to first design it in a CAD programme, providing the instructions were precise and unambiguous.

In another story, I was printing a latticework Klein bottle - a non-orientable surface, somewhat like a Mobius strip. The print was destined to take 15 hours. I started it at 9am and by the time I went to bed it hadn't completed, so I paused the print. Pausing stops the printing, but the CPU fan keeps whirring and the print bed stays warm.

Hay was out at some friend's house and came home after I'd gone to bed and fallen asleep. When she got home she heard the fan whirring and noticed that the print had stopped, so she switched the whole machine off, as she thought the fan would keep her awake.

Over 12 hours of printing wasted!

Now the printer does have a power supply recovery routine. I tried it, but very shortly after starting up the filament started spooling all over the place, as the heat in the bottle had dispersed and the printed filament wouldn't stick.