Store Page
Space Engineers
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews

Space Engineers

Store Page
Space Engineers >  Workshop > Spite's Workshop
80 ratings
ISL - Small Ship Printer Basic MK 3
Description Discussions0 Comments122 Change Notes
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Type: Blueprint
Tags: large_grid, base, safe
File Size
Posted
Updated
598.898 KB
12 Jan, 2020 @ 4:01am
11 May, 2021 @ 11:19pm
11 Change Notes ( view )
Required items
This item requires all of the following other items
Created by
Spite
Offline
See all 316 collections created by Spite and other people (some may be hidden)
12,548 Unique Visitors
5,299 Current Subscribers
148 Current Favorites

Subscribe to download
ISL - Small Ship Printer Basic MK 3

In 1 collection by Spite
ISL - Small Grid Printable Ships (with Printer)
185 items
Description
An example set up for a small ship factory that is able to print all the ISL ships in this collection. Only the essentials to make the printer functional and user friendly are included, the idea being that you can attach it and cover it however suits your base/ship.


This time with two projectors and Brianetta's Projector Aligner script to make it easier to use.

When building in survival, the projector head will have to be added and welded separately. To do so:
  • Add a small head to the rotor and place a projector directly onto it.
  • load the blueprint for the projector head (linked under "required items" and line it up with the first projector and the rotor head.
  • weld.

Taking a blueprint of the multi-grid factory structure, and trying to project it onto a LG projector results in only the small grid part showing up. I am guessing this has to do with the number of blocks being more on the SG part than any of the LG parts. This is why the Projector head is a separate blueprint, which can be found under "required items".

Setting up a Projection:
Once all the parts are placed and constructed , enter the control seat (you may have to re-add some buttons to the toolbar) and press button 1 on the toolbar to take control of the RC block.

Use the mouse and keyboard movement controls to line up the merge blocks of the printer and projection.
Use the RC block toolbar to control the script:

Toolbar 1
1. Printer PB projector aligner - "up"
2. Printer PB projector aligner - "down"
3. Printer PB projector aligner - "apply"
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. Printer PB projector aligner - "build"


Controlling the Welder Piston:
Use the buttons in the control seat toolbar:

Toolbar 1
1. *RC* Printer Projection - control (for aligning the projections using Biranetta's script
2. Welders On/Off
3. Merge Block On/Off
4. Welder Piston - Reverse
5. Welder Piston - On/Off
6. Projector 01 - On/Off
7. Projector 02 - On/Off
8. Projection Arm Piston - Reverse
9. Projection Arm Piston - On/Off

To print a ship:
  • Once you have you projection lined up and are ready to print, extend the welder-piston.
  • When the piston is fully extended, turn on the welders and wait until they have finished building the first layer. The time this takes will depend on your world's welding speed multiplier.
  • Now that the first layer is complete, turn the welder piston off, then reverse its direction so that is it retracting. It should not yet move.
  • Turn the piston on then off again to retract slightly and wait for the next layer to be printed, then repeat until the ship is finished.
  • Once all blocks have been welded up, turn the welders off and climb into the ship (also add ice if it is a hydrogen ship). It should now be safe to turn off the merge block and fly/drive your ship/vehicle.
  • If the printer is high off the ground, and you have printed a rover, you can extend the piston that the projector/rotor is on to lower your new vehicle safely before detaching

A weird bug that I have experienced inconsistently, especially on dedicated servers, is that sometimes the ship merge block won't attach properly to the printer. if this is happening to you, just place 2 light armor blocks next to each other, one on the side of each merge block, then grind them off when the ship is finished (the merge block should stay locked when the ship is complete).
122 Comments
< >
Spite  [author] 25 Jan @ 7:24am 
Hi Spyglass, thanks for the PSA, I've had similar issues with a ship that uses different projectors for different weapon payloads, I think I might remove the second projector from this printer blueprint. Its easy enough to add for those that know what they're doing, and only confusing to those who don't yet.
spyglass 25 Jan @ 5:58am 
Spite, Great simple printer setup. Have built it many times in the past couple of years. I use it for the Myxini Tunnel miner and Phoebe almost every time.

However, the latest update to SE has another bug I haven't seen mentioned here. Besides the "Can't find blueprint" error, there's also a strange bug that allows a projected blueprint to be welded even if its projector is turned off! I have to make sure that only one projector has a blueprint and the other is empty, otherwise I wind up welding a monster merge of 2 ships. Seems to happen about 80% of the time. Just an FYI for others who may have experienced strange things.

For the "Can't find blueprint" error, I only get it when I'm building the projector arm, not when building a ship. And I just make sure the merge block is the last thing to build and then clear the projector before I complete the final weld on the merge block.
Spite  [author] 11 Jan @ 6:26am 
Hi fiby, no worries its nice to see someone getting use out of these old blueprints.

The 2nd projector is just so you can have a different blueprints saved at the same time, often if I play with a friend, then he will use one projector, and I'll use the other, so we don't interfere with each others plans.

So no need to use two at once, in fact I think that might cause lag.
fiby 11 Jan @ 4:17am 
Thank you, Spite, for your support; I really appreciate it! Just one last question: should I load the blueprint onto both projectors? Currently, I am only using one.
Spite  [author] 8 Jan @ 7:36pm 
Hi fiby,

It sounds like the issue you were encountering is that projections can't handle sub-grids, so anything on the heads of the pistons would have to be placed manually (unless you're using plug-ins).

The block you're seeing behind the welders is a set of conveyor tubes (the unarmoured ones) connecting the top and bottom rows of welders, so that both rows can withdraw components. With that in mind, you should conveyor up the back of the piston with the welders tot he rest of your base's cargo.
fiby 8 Jan @ 3:06pm 
The right piston didn’t have a rotor, but I followed a comment below and that issue is now resolved. The left piston came without welders, which I will add tomorrow. My only question now is regarding the image above shows a block behind the piston and welder. What is that? Is it critical? Could you also provide a view from the other side, please?
fiby 8 Jan @ 12:28pm 
Hi, totally confused how to install this! any video tutorial on this one?
Spite  [author] 5 Jan @ 8:34pm 
Sorry about that, it does feel like projectors have been getting janky since the last major update (to be fair, it could have been earlier, I took a long break from SE).

I'll be sure to add some images with cut-outs of showing the important bits for the next one.
BigDinkster 5 Jan @ 6:34pm 
Yep. then when i started to weld it out i found i could only weld the frames around the rc but not to rc it's self. I ended up placing and rc block there by hand and building it and it seems to work now
Spite  [author] 4 Jan @ 10:05am 
Ok, so I can't seem to replicate the issue you're describing, so let me first confirm that these are the steps you're going through:

1. Build a LG rotor, grind of the rotor head.
2. Use the "add small rotor head" button for the Rotor
3. Place a projector on the small rotor head, and weld up both blocks.
4. Add the "Small Ship Printer Basic MK 3 Projector Head" blueprint to the small grid projector you just built.
5. weld up the projection. (I think this is where you were getting stuck?)