The core of FDM technology is extruding melted plastic, where each layer is laid on elevation of the previous, already cooled down and solidified layer. There has to exist something to lay the new layer on, otherwise the plastic merely drips down and sticks to whatever it hits on the way.

A 3d printer is capable of successfully press without whatsoever additional support construction up to a certain bending. This angle varies depending on the material and printer used, merely a good rule of thumb is to try to continue the overhang below 45°. If there are larger overhangs or even sections starting in mid-air (for example hands of a continuing man figure), you have to generate supports. Supports will work as scaffolding nether these problematic sections and will ensure that each layer has something to be placed upon. This is unremarkably done with a single click in your favorite slicer past selecting "Generate supports".

In that location are ii types of supports often existence used in 3D printing:

  • grid supports
  • tree supports

Lattice supports

Well-nigh slicers used for FDM 3D printing use lattice supports and Slic3r and PrusaControl are no exception. In Slic3r yous tin can farther specify where supports should be generated past adjusting the overhang threshold or selecting to create supports using the "on build plate but" pick. These options are quick and piece of cake to fix. We are planning to further aggrandize these settings and allow for calculation manual supports direct in Slic3r. You tin can look to see these changes in Slic3r 1.41 and later releases.

There is a very expert reason why most all slicers use lattice supports –they are universal. Information technology doesn't thing what blazon of overhang the model has, lattice supports will exist able to support it. Yes, they might waste a chip more of filament than is necessary, merely that is a modest price to pay for a successful print.

Tree supports

Only what near tree supports? They are most commonly used in SLA and DLP 3D printing, when nigh every print needs supports. But you can utilize them for FDM printing too. Hither are a couple of thepotential advantages of tree supports:

  • Ability to manually adjust supports
    • Set which areas should be supported
    • Freely add or delete any part of the back up construction
  • Possible shorter printing times
    • But not always – heavily depends on your model
  • Waste less filament

When should you lot use tree supports

The tree supports come with one major disadvantage when supporting overhanging, apartment areas. Each arm of the growing tree construction always supports only one point of the overhanging surface. But if the overhanging area isn't flat, but is pointy instead, this disadvantage turns into an reward. Now the back up will have a smaller contact area with the model and go out a less noticeable marker on the surface finish.

The slicer tends to generate an excessive amount of supports. This is when opting for tree supports is corking, because you lot know that y'all need to support only ane or two overhangs of your model.They are likewise actually handy when the model has no flat areas to be placed on the bed and therefore no obvious print orientation. In this case, traditional supports would create a huge grid underneath the whole model, just tree supports will organically grow and only increase in the area where they're needed.

An example where using tree supports is a poor choice

How to generate tree supports

We'll use Meshmixer to create tree supports and so we'll export the model with the newly created supports. You can and so import the model with supports to your favorite slicer and generate gcode usually.

Nosotros've been using Meshmixer in our previous tutorials, and we'll go on to do and so. It'south gratuitous, easy to use, and powerful software for editing and repairing 3D models. It'due south available for both Windows and Mac (no Linux support though). Developed by Autodesk , information technology includes features similar airplane cuts, hollowing, adding custom supports and much more. In your typical workflow, it will fit in as a step between creating/downloading model and slicing . Y'all tin download Meshmixer here .

  1. Open your model in Meshmixer
  2. From the top carte du jour selectView – Show Printer Bed
  3. SelectEdit – Transformand movement the model to the middle of the print bed
    • This stride is important considering Meshmixer won't generate any supports outside of the print expanse
  4. If you want to print the model on a different calibration, scale the model now, again by using theEdit – Transform. It'due south better to calibration the model at present, because an boosted change of scale later in slicer would also affect the generated supports, resulting in either besides thin and weak supports or too thick and hard to remove supports.
    • Change theScale X (Scale Y and Scale Z) to the desired value (1 = 100%, i.5 = 150% etc.)
  5. SelectAnalysis – Overhangs
    • You can now accommodate theAngle Thresh and come across a live preview of areas of the model that should be supported
  6. Click onGenerate Back up to encounter a preview of the support structure
    • Every time you make changes to the support settings yous'll have to click on Remove Back up and Generate Support to refresh the view
  7. Adding and removing supports manually
    • You tin can create a new support by left-clicking and dragging from an overhang to the ground or from an existing support to the ground
    • Hold downwardly theShift key to ignore intersections of the back up strut or any other warning and force Meshmixer to generate the new support (use wisely)
    • You can also click on an existing support to generate a new strut going downward to the build plate
    • CTRL + Left click on an existing support to remove it
  8. When you're happy with the back up construction you can export the model and the support structure together as STL past simply clickingDoneand clicking on theConsign button in the left menu
  9. Alternatively, you can selectConvert to Solid to create a separate mesh from the support structure. This will allow you fix different settings in Slic3r for the supports and for the model itself
    1. After choosing Convert to Solid chooseEdit – Split shells
    2. Export both the model and the supports equally private STL files
    3. In Slic3r first load the STL with the model
    4. Double-click on the model and cullLoad part…, select the supports STL file
    5. When the STL loads, you tin overwrite some of the settings by clicking on the light-green plus icon

Removal of tree supports should be quick and easy

Summary

Tree supports volition be a good addition to your 3D printing skill set. You volition find a good use for them probably simply from time to time. But, if used properly, they can save you lot print time, filament and even fourth dimension to clean the print from supports. If you're unsure nigh when to utilise them, but stick with practiced old slic3r supports. Or attempt the h2o-soluble supports with our Multi Material ii.0 Upgrade!

Links for STLs used in article

Knight of Egypt by Zorum