Designs for abs vs pla

I usually design based on the machine I have vs the materials I use. I mostly design in abs.

How do I design for the pla users? I can’t apply the same formulas cause shrinkage isn’t the same. I haven’t thought of this since I started about 6 years ago so no longer fresh on what all I did.

Should I simply release “pure form design” , meaning sized to how it should be sized? How does this work?

Unless you have a very specific reason for ABS, PETG is in my opinion a much better material to use and has very similar strength and temp characteristics with less shrink, stink, warp, and peel.

I do use PLA most of the time though.

I would say design with “standard tolerances” and most people/designs can scale if they need to. ABS really is the only one I think shrinks enough to matter for most designs. Early on the first PET filaments shrunk a bit, but the newer PETG seem to hold really good tolerances. For most things I leave a 0.2mm-0.4mm gap for a tight fit and more where it doesn’t matter as much.

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