Support infill suggestions?

[LePaul 321]

Here's one of those support prints that failed yesterday (after getting 3 in a row that went fine!) The support fails under that one segment , causing that area to wobble and either fall out or just get disconnected

[geert_2 557]

For objects like that, I think it would be a good idea to design custom support structures in CAD, while creating the model. It takes extra design time, but they will be easier to remove and give better results if well done.

Then you could also model your supports more like a tree, and consume less material. And you can design any necessary gaps, holes or other features into the support to make removal easier, and to increase or decrease stiffness as desired.

There has been a thread some time ago with several pictures of support suggestions. Maybe you could have a look at that? (I can't find it now, at this moment I get zero results when doing a search. Not sure if this is a compatibility problem with my browser (Pale Moon), or something in the search database.)

[valcrow 144]

There is an option, "support horizontal expansion" which can expand the little small areas for more reliable stickage. It may generate a lot of useless supports in your case though since this is a pretty big print, but try it out and see if it helps you. Triangle support is generally more stable I find than Zig Zag if you have it falling over all the time.

Regardless it looks like a pretty sweet print even with the small fail.

[LePaul 321]

If you want a failed one, I have plenty...they are pretty!

[yellowshark 153]

Yup Meshmixer is an alternative worth trying if you are still failing. It was free and probably still is. You will find it on the Autodesk site. I used it quite extensively a couple of years back; it is very easy to add and delete supports once it has auto generated for you.

[LePaul 321]

I downloaded it and just moving an object around is extremely difficult! I need to find some tutorials since the documentation isn't making it much clearer for me

However....last nights Cura print of the part was flawless! Sometimes it works....

[yellowshark 153]

There was a post here by @illuminarti a few years back where he referenced some articles on using Meshmixer that he had posted on the web, where were really useful. No doubt some searching will throw up his post.