Background/problem
I have been researching this idea but can't find anything that seems to accomplish it.
Consider the following: you have a layer skin that reaches beyond the perimeter/wall of a previous layer's wall, but you have infill. However, the next layer's wall pattern includes geometry that can not reliably be printed in open, unsupported space due to turns, etc. Essentially, it's not technically overhang since it's inside a solid model but with infill it becomes overhanging. Simply bridging between infill lines isn't sufficient since the walls aren't perfectly straight lines. Is there a way to "cap" or skin the infill between the infill lines on the layer just prior to the layer that will need the support? I realize that I could easily solve this by doing 100% infill but that's major material waste. "Gradual Infill Steps" is better but still has issues with very shallow angles resulting in still unsupported areas. I've poked around all the Cura settings, but can't find something that does the trick.
Here is a visual breakdown of the idea. For simplicity to reduce visual noise, I'm showing only the 2 layers in question, but these would be in the middle of a print. In the case of this example, they are layers 31 and 32. At this point in the model underneath this particular feature, layers 1-30 are just infill.
Layer 31: includes the infill lines with open spaces.
Layer 31: wall and skin "overhang" the infill's open space. While the skin lines would attach to the wall, at this point the wall is already collapsed in some places.
Here's another look but with "x-ray" to see the layer 31 infill lines underneath:
There are some sections that would basically be ok since they are fairly straight lines.
However, while not extreme, there are sharper turns that would stretch out straight - losing detail - or droop when adhered to the next infill line it contacts - causing more serious degradation if not outright failure of the print.
"infill capping" concept idea and outcome
Layer 31, but now with infill "caps" (solid yellow would be skin lines):
Layer 32, fully supported on top of the caps:
And again, layer 32, but "x-rayed":
Does such a concept or feature exist in Cura?
How challenging would this be to realize in a plugin?
Looking forward to the expert's and community's feedback.
Peter