PVA support setting

[geniusdesignlab 0]

Hello,

is there anyway I can adjust the support area when I using PVA as support? when I enable support with Extruder 2 PVA, I see many useless support as added. Is there anyway I can manually remove these useless area?

[bagel-orb 61]

There's no way to manually remove support, but you could try tweaking the Support Expansion Distance.

Note that what you think is useless support may actually be usefull after all. Tweaking your support might result in a failed print...

[neotko 1,417]

It looks like useless ut the main thing is that PVA has a very poor adhesion to PLA so in order to make sure the pva stays there and you get a nice print, you need a lot of PVA to print it correctly. So, yeah, looks useless but isn't.

Some day when new support materials come to market you might be able to just print much less support material, but for now, you need quite a lot if you compare to what you might be use to when using just pla. Ofc, in exchange you make sure the pva stays there and the print succeeds.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

I play with the settings in the PVA extruder to set things like stair step height to decrease time and waste as well as other settings like % of infill, % of support (I have gone as low as 8% support as the 'interface' between the support and model can still get what it needs).

I enable towers and conical support to minimize amount until it is about to come into contact with the model. I've gotten some interesting spires and such doing this.

I am learning which model types require more support for a cleaner bottom balanced against the materials I am experimenting with (PETG with PVA as a quick example).

I am also finding that the printer does an excellent job of overhangs and bridging unless it is too extreme.

I printed an overhang test (several) and found that it can handle up to 65° in angle and still have a decent bottom. If the bottom is hidden or not of import, I have pushed it to extremes beyond 65° (up to 85°). It's all in the torture tests.

Here are a couple that will test your overhangs. And, make sure you test different filaments as they do behave differently. Some test not only overhangs, but are good for fine tuning detailed prints as well. Fidelity is just as important as ability to overhang or bridge in some cases.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40382

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1564848

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:704409

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1879347