shoe

Ok, let's settle on guidelines. I was hoping there would be some recommendations. Let's say you go up to 5 layers top/bottom and 6 walls and line multiplier of 2 with 10% infill. So if you want to get it stiffer, is more walls or a bigger multiplier better. I was hoping somebody did such tests.

Well. Amount of filament. Print time. Whatever metric you want to use. I don't want to waste time and money (PLA, electricity). Common wisdom is to increase the outer shell (top, bottom, walls). It seems infill plays almost no role in "strength" and "stiffness". Maybe I am mistaken. But maybe beyond a certain wall count (e.g. 6), this rule doesn't hold true and it makes more sense then to increase infill to get better strength/stiffness. Those kind of rules I was hoping for. For example, for every two walls increase infill by 10%. Rules like that.

Hi, I want to print a 200mm x 120mm x 10mm plate. I want it to be as inflexible and stiff (no bending) as possible. What are generally the most optimal settings..? Should I increase the wall-count and top and bottom layer count? What should the infill look like? Should I play with the infill multiplier? Is there a rule of thumb as to best determine all the parameters for a given amount of filament I want to use for printing the plate? Cheers, shoe

Yes. That's what I wanted to find out. How to gain the maximum "stiffness" for a part, given a certain amount of Filament (weight). Fully solid should result in maximum stiffness. Let's say, this needs 200g of Filament. What settings should I use to get maximum stiffness with 80%, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 30% of 200g Filament. My hope was that there is a table that shows me somehow the importance for each parameter. For example it could be, add infill until you reach 50%, after that adding walls makes much more sense. Or a general rule, like for every 10% extra infill, you add an extra wall.

Thanks for your help. For the CNC the most important aspect is that the parts don't twist. They need to be inflexible. Flexibility in the parts leads to 'play', which results in a not very accurate CNC. That's what I meant with sturdy.

When is the retraction an issue? During printing Infill? Why is increasing the multiplier better then increasing the infill density? "In tension?" What do you mean? Isn't driving a car over a block something like "tension"? Did you ever experiment with "overlap"? For example "infill overlap"? Very detrimental to a prints "sturdiness" is how much print elements "overlap". Not only within a layer, but also between layers. Things like a slightly blocked nozzle (you wouldn't probably notice if it is not extremely blocked) can lead to much worse overlap. Especially between layers. In an extreme case you notice, because a print only have 50% of its calculated weight. But something like 10% you wouldn't notice.

I want to print my own CNC. Parts should be very sturdy. Is there a recommendations table how to increase wall and bottom/top layer count and infill? For example I doubt it makes much sense to increase walls to 10, have on bottom/top layer and leave infill at 20%. Is there a recommendations table how to gradually increase those 3 parameters to get sturdier and sturdier printed parts? I Cura's default infill is Cubic. Never used anything else. I noticed if you go with infill above 50%, Cura automatically switches infill from Cubic to Lines. What is the reasoning behind this? Is Lines better above 50% or does Cubic not increase sturdiness above 50%? I am confused. What would you recommend for my CNC parts? Cubic 50%? Or is 75% much sturdier?

No. I already do my best. My printer is as level as it can be and I clean the bed regularly. Still, after a few prints not leveling the bed (no, I don't level before every print) and a few prints not cleaning the bed (no, I don't clean before every print), it will not stick 100% optimally at one little place in the entire print. Usually this little "no stick" is at a corner and does only rise to the level of a little imperfection at the bottom of the print. Most people wouldn't notice. I do and usually I stop the print in that situation and level and clean accordingly. It would be MUCH simpler if I didn't have to wait up to 45 min. (full build plate) for the first layer to finish entirely before I knew for sure, that there would be no imperfection. But at the moment I have to wait. Just printing the 1st (or all) outer walls would just take a few minutes. It would safe filament and time if I decide to stop the print. I mean there are new features with every new version of Cura and in almost all cases you could argue that the feature is unnecessary if people did everything 110% perfect in 3D printing. This is such a stupid accusation. Cura for the most part should (and actually is) striving to make 3D printing as fool proof as possible. Bravo! This is how it is supposed to be. And detecting problems EARLY is the biggest help one could get. And the feature I suggest would help detect 99.9% of the 3D printing problems as early as possible. How is this a bad thing even if many users are probably not innocent of causing the problems. Why have seat belts and air bags if most accidents are human error?

I did do that to preview the print order. But with the following settings: uncheck "infill before walls". check "outer before inner walls" it still prints the first layer of every object completely (walls and infill) before moving to the next object. See attached screenshot of the first layer. As you can see, every object is finished before moving to the next object. I want to print 1-2 walls of every object before doing the rest of the walls and the infill. I haven't found a setting yet to do this. Very strange because this seems like such a no-brainer setting to have. Do you think I should open a feature request? Am I the only one who would love to see such a setting?

I just read the documentation of: "infill before walls" (was already unchecked for me anyways) "outer before inner walls" Both options don't seem to do what I want at all. Or am I missing something here? Pity that Cura doesn't offer what I want. There seem to be many optimizations that could be done JUST for the first layer that would help immensely.

Thanks! I will check it out. So even with this setting it will print separate objects on the print plate fully and not just the wall of every object? If I import cube.stl and then ring.stl, using your settings, it will print all the walls of both stls first or will it finish one object after the other? No doubt the nozzle distance is the main problem. Still, sometimes it is also definitely some microscopic "dirt/grease" from my fingers pulling of prints or dust. When I quickly clean with Isopropanol or put my glass bed in the dish washer, it always prints perfectly. Doesn't mean the Nozzle distance isn't the main culprit. Just means, despite the suboptimal nozzle distance it managed to print well since it was super clean. Nozzle distance always is a compromise for me. Either some parts of the print bed are too close or some are too far away. I can use my full print surface with my compromise adjustment but I need to keep it super clean, otherwise a few areas don't stick well. It is always the first layer and 99% some corner. But just the tip of the corner. The flanking sides are rock solid stuck to the bed. Maybe I should look into printing corners (FOR THE FIRST LAYER) super slow. Does such an option exist? What I still don't fully understand is why some parts (usually corners) lift up but other very close corners don't. It seems random and not necessarily related to how optimal the nozzle distance is at that position. I know the principles why this happens but I think there are still some unknowns we don't understand yet.

is there a setting in Cura to print all the first wall of all models/objects/parts on the print plate, before printing anything else (the other walls and infill)? Sometimes I have to abort a print, because a single "model/object/part" on the print plate didn't print correctly. Usually the FIRST wall printed doesn't stick properly. So far, I have to monitor the full initial layer to be sure all the initial walls stick, because Cura often prints the complete initial layer of an object and then moves on to the next object to print its entire first layer. So I have to wait until the last model to be sure the initial walls stick properly. It would be better to print all the initial walls (or just the initial wall) of all objects before printing the remaining walls and filling out anything else. Is this possible?

Looks amazing! Cura, please take notice! I would be great if you had your fork on Github. Just downloading dropbox archives seems kinda dodgy ;)