Support Features

[Deve 5]

I am making a robotic arm and I wanted a 1x2mm rectangular path INSIDE of one of the long pieces for wires to go through. I need support turned on because of a saddle that is required. Is there a way in Cura to turn off support for just certain areas of the work, OR are there settings I can set so that the 1x2mm rectangle will be ignored? Thanks for a great product.

RectangleWiringHoleIsOnThe Ends.stl

[Brulti 177]

CURA now has a feature to block support in certain areas, you'll find it in the blog: https://ultimaker.com/en/blog/52572-download-ultimaker-cura-33-today

 

Basically, you select your model, then click on the support blocker icon, it will create a standard cube, then you click on the scale or move icon to be able to change the shape of the cube and move it where you want to block support in this specific spot of your model.

 

The cube it creates might be hard to see at first, but it is auto-selected when it is created, so you don't need to click on it to select it. Clicking it right after you create it makes it disappear.

 

Thus:

- click on support blocker icon

- click on move or rotate or scale,

- then click on the cube to do stuff with it. ?

[Deve 5]

Very nice Brulti! That is so timely! I hope this becomes a really popular feature that is expanded. 

 

For example, if you have a 200 mm long 20mm x 20mm long rectangle with a 3mm hole in the center, we want to keep that entire length of the hole unsuported, But since that same part has an overhang, we need to enable support. I think I have your new solution figured out. Basically, just add box over box over box until we get the coverage we need. I hope thats right. I do not know how smart this feature could become because I dont know if the hole can be identified by the software, but it would be nice to have it see the hole and allow you to choose the hole and select the entire hole. I know, its in the future, and I am not being critical. I am hopeful this works for this 2 day long print as it is. You guys ARE awesome. I couldnt be more appreciative of your efforts. THANK YOU!

[nallath 1,123]

11 hours ago, Deve said:

Very nice Brulti! That is so timely! I hope this becomes a really popular feature that is expanded.

That is the idea. Right now the UI is far from perfect, but it's better than it used to be.

[Brulti 177]

You're welcome @Deve.

 

You can change the size and shape of the box, as if modifying your model, instead of stacking the boxes on top of one another. That way you just need one box and not a dozen or so.

[Deve 5]

I have never tried modifying a model in Cura. How do you change the size of the Support Blocker blocs?

 

Also, just something to think about, if MOST of the model doesn't need support, and just one small area does, it would be nice to be able to hold down shift (or something) and the inverse happens. If I turn off support completely but select that area, it will support it using the support settings previously entered. Just a thought. Thanks for everything! 

[Brulti 177]

You can modify a model by clicking on it then clicking on the buttons on the left side that allows you to move, rotate and scale it. Quite handy to reposition it or when CURA interprets the file in mm instead of cm and you end up with a speck of dust at the center of the screen. ?

 

For the support blocker, it's a bit different:

- First, you select your model,

- Second, you click the Support Blocker button, which will create the square box of the blocker. DO NOT CLICK THE BOX, clicking it make it disappear.

- Third, you click on either the move, scale or rotate button, and you'll the relevant arrows thing appear on the support blocker square box. Now you can modify it the way you want.

 

It's a bit counter-intuitive, because you want to click it to make sure it is selected, but maybe they'll change that behavior in a next iteration of CURA.

 

Also, I love your idea of being able to invert the behavior of the box and use it to say 'Place support only there'!

 

 

[Deve 5]

That works nicely. Thanks. I do not know if anyone knows this, but if you put a support box out where you can see it all, then change the Z to 15 and the Y to 15 and the X to 100, you will notice that the box loses its rectangular shape. I would think you meant it to be squared. This is a feature that I will use on almost every print. Thank you!

[Deve 5]

Just so you know, if you add a bunch of support blocks and then save the file as a binary stl, when you close it and reload the stl file BAD things happen. The blocks turn into solids.

[Brulti 177]

Never tried it, but thanks for the information. I guess it's best to change the shape of one block rather than pile blocks upon each other.

[PapaSean 2]

@Brulti.. You are a genius. I have been looking and looking for tutorial on this feature and none explain it. I have searched and searched for info explaining this. 
This video steered me so wrong. I repeat this is the WRONG WAY. This video had me adding hundreds of support blocker blocks to the point that Cura stopped working. You can add multiple blocks if you need to block in different areas but I want to block the interior of a hollow part and.. well it was a mess. I cant believe no one has made more tutorials on this.

 

This video is the RIGHT WAY which you pointed out. It however is in German. What doesn't Cura explain this. 

I have found a bug that I will post. It seems the Blocker retains the parts original orientation and does not retain the Uniform Scaling if turned off.  Again thanks for this.

 

[ahoeben 1,955]

On 5/29/2018 at 8:14 PM, Deve said:

if you add a bunch of support blocks and then save the file as a binary stl, when you close it and reload the stl file BAD things happen. The blocks turn into solids.

 

STL is a rather simple format. It does not support including properties (eg "this is a support blocker", or "print this with extruder 2"), nor does it really support separate objects in a single file (they will become one "body"). With a more "intelligent" file format such as 3MF, it is possible to add metadata and multiple models.

[Brulti 177]

You're welcome @PapaSean, though I just repeated instructions provided on another topic, by someone from UM I believe. Though, sometimes, it's not easy to find a specific information on the forums.

 

I don't really understand why that person is adding so many support blocker cubes instead of resizing them, especially since the model doesn't requires that much support in the first place and they do show that you can resize them in the video! This makes no sense to me...