Mesh Support Material

[sensebellum 2]

How can I achieve mesh support material like shown in this video?

 

@3:38

I would like to incorporate this style of mesh supporting material that breaks away for certain printing projects.

Perhaps a way to:

- Use Cura

- Reconfigure MakerWare for Ultimaker2

- Use Design software to add in before STL

Any advice appreciated

 

[IRobertI 520]

That's already built into cura. Just enable support and it will create this for you. There are two styles that you can choose between in the expert settings depending on which one you prefer. There you'll also find other settings like at which angle it will support, how dense it should be and so on.

 

[IRobertI 520]

Oh, and I would advice you to switch to the full settings if you haven't already: Expert -> Switch to full settings...

 

[Nicolinux 288]

Typical consumer video. What they don't tell you - no matter what support type you chose, the surface will suffer greatly. Meshmixer does a great job of creating inteligent support structures, but even there you'd have small bits left where the tips of the support posts are removed later.

So in general - support "sucks" and should be avoided if possible.

 

[Daid 306]

Talked to a guy at the Makerbot stand at FabCon (Erfurt Germany), and he's a total fan of Cura and the support material it generates. So I have no idea how good or bad the Makerbot support material is, but if their own people prefer other software...

Anyhow, meshmixer is the best solution for support material right now. But it does have a learning curve.

 

[sensebellum 2]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I will look around CURA more to get the support material generated!

 

[davinci 0]

Hi there!

.... but what about the "Supportmaterial" ?... how can I get a Support (in Cura-Settings) with another Material - like 'PVA' (dualextruder!) with my Ultimaker I ? .. it is water-soluble ... ! you can simply wash out this Material after printing...

this seems to me the only way (!) to support a difficult print with a lot of overhangs ...

 

[drayson 75]

Thats pretty easy - cura 14.07, choose the support at the second nozzle only and that's all :-)

I would also choose line support instead of grid in the expert settings so that the water can get into the structure.

I had nice results with it... :-)

The only thing missing is -afaik - the implementation of the second material diameter. There is a input box but the input lead to nowhere... Please correct if I'm wrong Daid

[Daid 306]

The only thing missing is -afaik - the implementation of the second material diameter. There is a input box but the input lead to nowhere... Please correct if I'm wrong Daid

 

:???: yes. Sorry.

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

An alternative would be to select RepRap Volumetric flavour and to put two M200 commands into start2.gcode. However, official Marlin still lacks of the long swap retraction (https://github.com/ErikZalm/Marlin/pull/948).

 

[Daid 306]

An alternative would be to select RepRap Volumetric flavour and to put two M200 commands into start2.gcode. However, official Marlin still lacks of the long swap retraction (pull request pending).

 

The M200 is not implemented in UM2 yet.

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

The M200 is not implemented in UM2 yet.

 

Uhhmm... I thought we are discussing dual extruders, i.e. UM Original?

 

[Daid 306]

Uhhmm... I thought we are discussing dual extruders, i.e. UM Original?

 

Woops, sorry, thought this was the Octoprint UM2 topic

 

[davinci 0]

... okay, many thanks at "Drayson" ... !

... but the hint "RepRap Volumetric flavour and to put two M200 commands into start2.gcode" would not get into my mind... :-( ....

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

... but the hint "RepRap Volumetric flavour and to put two M200 commands into start2.gcode" would not get into my mind... :sad: ....

 

How familiar are you with gcode? Just for knowing where I should start...

 

[davinci 0]

... gcode..?? can I eat this? :-) No, Im just a Newbie in Python ... or so ... May be I would learn quickly, ..

I m not familiar to those Signs, all the terms, descriptions and signification ... :???: I just know, that I 've create one, to print it in Cura, so the printer can read this.... and knows what to do ...

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

Ok. So you already know that 3D printers are driven with gcode.

There are many different gcode commands, you may find an overview http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code.

The M200 command tells the printer what the filament diameter is. It can be specified for each extruder. The printer then needs to know how much filament (volume) it needs for a certain distance. This is achieved with the socalled volumetric reprap flavour, a 'dialect' which uses filament volume instead of filament length.

The start.gcode is a gcode block which is added to the beginning of a print file by Cura. The start2.gcode is used for a dual extruder machine and can be different from start.gcode.

I hope, I didn't confuse you further... :huh:

 

[davinci 0]

Thanks a lot ...! I will study these things, after I get my first gladly PRINTs :wacko: ...