On the fence

[lexluthier 0]

I'm considering getting the Ultimaker 2. My questions is will it print fully solid objects or do models always have a hollow interior. Are there settings in Cura for making a fully solid model?

 

[IRobertI 521]

You can print solid if you want but in 99.9% of all cases that's a giant waste of time and plastic.

 

[valcrow 145]

I'm considering getting the Ultimaker 2. My questions is will it print fully solid objects or do models always have a hollow interior. Are there settings in Cura for making a fully solid model?

 

You can plug in whatever percentage fill you want in Cura. from 0 (hollow), 100% (solid) and anywhere inbetween. Any percentage inbetween will generate a square grid pattern. The higher the number the tighter the squares the stronger your part.

But LIke Robert said, very rarely do you ever need a solid part... I've only ever printed one thing solid, and that was the bow part of a mini crossbow.

25% fill already gets you a pretty strong and ridged part.

 

[gr5 2,271]

Think about how strong legos are and they are mostly hollow. Legos are ABS. You can print ABS or PLA. Both are very strong.

Printing solid takes a very long time. Download cura, (it's free - you don't need a printer). Put a model into it and let it slice it. Look at the estimated time (it's pretty accurate) then change the fill to 100% and look at the new time, lol.

 

[celso-santos 11]

I print a lot of solid parts, because I want to have the final appearance of the injected or blow molded final part.

The point is that usually you do not need more than 3mm width in a plastic part. Whenever you have more than that you will have problems in the production of your part, unless this thick area is on a double curvature place.

If you want to produce a part that is really thick, like 10 mm or more, than just decide what wall thickness you want, usually not more than 1,5mm or 2mm and choose that 25% square grid infill in Cura, suggested by Valcrow.

You will be good with this option

 

[mark-lacey 0]

Thanks everyone for answering my questions. I understand that most parts do not need to be solid and will only waste material. I was more concerned about smaller parts. I've downloaded Cura and will spend some time with it.

One thing I noticed with Cura is that it will not import an STL part drawn in inches at the original size and has to be rescaled. I converted the part to mm and it worked. Perhaps they will address this issue at some point.

 

[IRobertI 521]

I think you'll just have to adjust your work flow to export your files at a metric scale as I very much doubt that it will become an option in cura. All downloadable STL files you find on sites like Youmagine or Thingiverse will be metric as that is the standard. Liberia, Burma and the US will have to catch up to the rest of the world eventually