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1. Move around the microscope until the feature is visible. Ensuring the features are near center of the substrate as possible will prevent bubbles from forming and being moved around the lens.
2. Make sure Center Cursor is on, there should be a dashed blue line on the microscope display. If it is not there, click Center Cursor.
3. Move to one edge of the feature, roughly center, in this case the lowest point of the hole, keeping this in the center of the crosshairs.
4. Move up 1000um on Y by inputting 1000um in the step size box and clicking the up arrow for stage adjustment. Note that in this case picking the Y axis is arbitrary and the X may be used just as easily as a starting point.
5. Realign to the top of the hole, generally 10um increments are sufficient. Record the total distance added or subtracted from the initial 1000um.
6. Move to the new Y center point by inputting half the net distance travelled in Step Size then click the down arrow once e.g. ((1000um-distance correction)/2).
7. Move right on the X axis by current value in Step Size.
8. Align the edge of the hole as with the Y axis. If the center appears to be misaligned with the Y axis, adjustments can be made now to align on this axis.
9. Continue to move side to side and up and down in order to verify that the sample is centered.
10. Record the X and Y coordinates of this center point.
11. For multi-part prints, it is necessary to comment out any instance of FindInterfaceAt  or CenterStage in the _job.gwl and _data.gwl files
    1. In lieu of CenterStage, a new center point can be added manually via the GoToX  StageGoToX and StageGoToY commands, typically in the _job.gwl file.
       1. Formatting is StageGoToX number where number is the X coordinate of your new center point.

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These substrates were printed via an SLA process at 50um layer height and subsequently polished to a 3um finish.

Multi-Part Printing (Under Construction)

The Nanoscribe is capable of printing multiple parts in a single job, assuming they use the same objective. In general, each individual part is sliced with its own parameters and then a master job.gwl file calls these individual parts.

Some editing of _job.gwl files may be required, particularly to generate the master file. The commands which are very useful in generating this file are:

• include *_job.gwl : Always include the job file and NOT the data file. The job file will automatically call the data.
• Pause: Introduces a pause before beginning the job. The user must click "Continue" or "Abort" before proceeding.
• var $i : This syntax declares the variable i. Any other string can be used as long as is is not a command and follows the $ symbol every time it is called.
• CenterStage: Brings the stage to the center position, the same coordinates where the automatic interface finder determined the center
• StageGoToX #/ StageGoToY #: These commands can move the stage to a desired X or Y position where # is an X or Y coordinate.
• AddZDrivePosition #: Adds some value, #, to the current Z height in microns.
• ShowVar $i: displays the value of the variable i. Useful for outputting things like loop number, or other hardcoded variables to ensure they are still correct
• MessageOut "text": Displays the text within the quotes in the Message Center. Using this one can output current status (i.e. MessageOut "Printing job 2 of 3")
• for i = 0 to 1: Basic For loop syntax. The lines between the for statement and "end" will run while i increments by 1 (by default)
• end : Ends the For Loop

Applications

• Microfluidics
• Micromechanics
• Biomedical Engineering
• Micro-electro-mechanical systems
• Mechanical metamaterials
• Micro-optics
• Photonic metamaterials and Plasmonics

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