Notifications
Clear all

Suppress support through vertical hole  

  RSS
Frank
(@frank-8)
Estimable Member
Suppress support through vertical hole

I'm trying to print a flap for a SpaceX Starship.  I'm printing it vertically to make sure the hole to contain the hinge wire is printed accurately, and this all works fine.  Unfortunately, the slicer insists on placing support material up through the hole, and it is almost impossible to get this support material out after the print is done.  

I have played around with the support enforcer/blocker painting feature, but nothing seems to stop the slicer from using that vertical hole for support.

Any ideas?

TIA

Posted : 10/08/2021 12:47 am
cwbullet
(@cwbullet)
Member
file

Is there a link to the original file to see if I can add an enforcer and print it.  

--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog

Posted : 10/08/2021 9:53 am
Frank
(@frank-8)
Estimable Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Suppress support through vertical hole

 

Posted by: @cwbullet

Is there a link to the original file to see if I can add an enforcer and print it.  

Here's the file 

 

Frank

 

 

Posted : 10/08/2021 2:07 pm
cwbullet
(@cwbullet)
Member
Filr

I think you forgot the file.  

--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog

Posted : 10/08/2021 2:09 pm
Frank
(@frank-8)
Estimable Member
Topic starter answered:
Suppress support through vertical hole

I didn't forget it - but apparently attaching an STL file in a forum dedicated to 3D printers is a no-no - go figure.

Here's the link to the Thingiverse creation I'm working with.  Either the 'Bottom_Right_Flap.STL' or 'Bottom_Left_Flap.STL should work

Frank

 

Posted : 10/08/2021 2:15 pm
Neophyl
(@neophyl)
Illustrious Member

You have to zip up anything attached except images.

The normal thing to do is to save your project file from Prusa Slicer (File>Save Project As) which saves a .3mf file.  The 3mf file contains the part(s) as well as your in use profiles for Print, filament and printer.  They also save any modifiers you might also have too.  Basically its a snapshot.  The you zip it up and attach.

There are so many settings and possibilities that its really the best way to debug things.  We can see exactly what you have tried and play around with various options much more easily.

Posted : 10/08/2021 2:54 pm
Neophyl
(@neophyl)
Illustrious Member

Edit time exceeded.

Until PS 2.4 comes out with its new tight support options then the following attached project is about the best I can do to minimise the extraneous support.

The support is paint on and there are several changes to the support settings.  

Hopefully someone can offer up something better.

 

Attachment removed
Posted : 10/08/2021 3:08 pm
Frank
(@frank-8)
Estimable Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Suppress support through vertical hole

Thanks - that seems like it might work.  I had actually gotten a successful print, but I had to design in my own support structure and then tell Prusa to print it w/o supports.

Can you tell me (at least in general terms) what you had to do to suppress the 'through-hole' support column?

Also, can you tell me why I have to keep copy/pasting the topic title in, even though I'm replying to my original thread - it's a real PITA to do that ;-).

TIA,

Frank

 

Posted : 10/08/2021 6:01 pm
Ringarn67
(@ringarn67)
Reputable Member

@frank-8

Hit space bar in title field, quick and easy  👍 

Prusa i3 MK3S+ FW 3.11.0 (kit dec -20), PrusaSlicer 2.5.0+win64, Fusion 360, Windows 10

Posted : 10/08/2021 6:36 pm
Frank
(@frank-8)
Estimable Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Suppress support through vertical hole

OK, I clicked in the title bar and then pressed 'space' .. And it worked!  Thanks!

Posted : 10/08/2021 6:45 pm
Neophyl
(@neophyl)
Illustrious Member

At the moment (2.3.x and earlier) the support generation is very aggressive.  It will grow outwards by however much it thinks it needs to.  By careful use and placement of the support enforcer painting you can somewhat limit that.  Not very well but somewhat 🙂  The other thing is that the support pattern spacing value has a great impact on that.  If you use the default value of 2mm then naturally it spaces them that far apart.  However if the support algorithm thinks its needs to expand outwards it will expand out 2mm, and then another , and another etc.  If you actually reduce the support separation then when it grows outwards it doesn't grow as far.  This can limit it but at the cost of denser support.

I was very careful to make sure the painted on support enforcer did not go on the inner slope/bevel of the hinges pin hole as I found if any of it was there then you would get that annoying support through the hole.  The spacing makes the greatest difference though.  

However for lots of models its worth trying smaller values as when combined with limited support areas defined by the enforcers it can be a worthwhile trade.  I also changed the interface layers to 4 and and z distance to 0.2 as they are my usual default values for support.  Anything closer than 0.2 and support can be difficult to remove and I find that 4 layers of the small interface surface can make it easier to remove and its a more solid 'block' so its easier to pop off the surface rather than a thinner flexible couple of layers.  

I printed off some Mandalorian gauntlets that had a hinge to join top and bottom and ran into exactly the same issue you are having.  Lets just say that I am looking forward to PS 2.4 🙂

Posted : 10/08/2021 6:55 pm
Frank
(@frank-8)
Estimable Member
Topic starter answered:

Thanks for the very informative reply!  I would never have thought of the spacing issue, so I would have never gotten this right at all.  I finally wound up adding a double arch piece as a manual support structure, and printing the part "without support" from the slicer.  I did dl & print your version, and that worked out much the same, except much faster than my solution.

So, when 2.4 comes out, with the 'tight support' option, how would it apply to this problem?

TIA,

Frank

 

Posted : 10/08/2021 7:14 pm
Neophyl
(@neophyl)
Illustrious Member

I haven't tried 2.4 but from posted images and other comments on github and also twitter it seems that when activated the support doesn't grow outward from the model.  So for that hinge it should just create support inside the hinge recess and not need to go down to the bed.  
So I am very hopeful as there have been many times when this would have saved me lots of issues messing around with support. 
Supposed to be a couple of weeks until an alpha release is out for us to try.

Posted : 10/08/2021 7:33 pm
Frank
(@frank-8)
Estimable Member
Topic starter answered:

Thanks!

Posted : 10/08/2021 7:40 pm
Share: