Cura 15.02.1 not printing support material

[abominatus 0]

Hello all. I have owned an Ultimaker 2 for about a year now and have generally had great results with it. I have however noticed that on some models support material is not generated for some overhanging parts. In model in the image for example the bottom of the hair, among other parts, does not get any support material making it impossible to print. Interestingly when I go onto view overhang the hair is not registered as overhanging, however other parts requiring similar supports such as the fingers are registered. Despite this neither of them get any support. Also it does not appear to be an issue with the model file as the the code is generated to print the hair and fingers, they would just be floating for the majority of the print. I have noticed this issue with quite a few other models too. Any advice on what I can do to solve this would be greatly appreciated, I have had a play with the support settings however they do not seem help. Also this is my first time on the forums so I apologise if this is in the wrong place.

 

[stu_le_brew 42]

welcome to the forum

I would try using "touching buildplate" rather than "Everywhere" for support type

Also there are other parameters you can change if you select the box (with dots in) next to the support type button, apologies if you have already tried this

 

[abominatus 0]

Thanks for responding. I have had a play with those setting with little success. While changing the X/Y distance to a large value like 5mm does seem to force the support back such that the hair is supported, that of course removes the support for other parts of the print, such as the skirt. It seems to just move the issue around. As for selecting the touching build plate option that removes a large amount of the support that is needed but it does not add any.

 

[yellowshark 153]

Use Autodesk's Meshmixer (free) which is probably the de facto standard for supports, http://www.123dapp.com/meshmixer. It requires a bit more work than Cura but is infinitely better for a lot of geometries. You could always do the missing bits in Meshmixer and then bring the file across to Cura to add the rest; not that I have ever done that.

 

[abominatus 0]

Interesting. I have just had a brief look at it and it looks like it will work well, thank you. For future reference however is there any way for me to get the supports in cura or is it simply a limitation of the software?

 

[nick-s 0]

Also, have a look at this great article by Illuminarti on how to use Meshmixer support system:

http://www.extrudable.me/2013/12/28/meshmixer-2-0-best-newcomer-in-a-supporting-role/

The free Meshmixer can be a little challenging, but there are some tutorials on Youtube and it is worth persevering with.

 

[abominatus 0]

Thank you for your suggestions. I have discovered that setting the overhang angle for support to 1 degree fixes the issue however obviously you then get a lot of unnecessary support. I will try using the other software however for getting cleaner, less wasteful prints in the future.

 

[gr5 2,229]

If you use meshmixer, increase the column width of the supports by quite a bit - maybe double them. They tend to be much too skinny and fall over or break too easily. Also you can crosslink them to keep them strong if they are very tall. Just click on the side of one support then lower down or higher up on another.