Trying to design a part, have a few questions.

I just bought my first 3d printer, a Prusa i3 Mk3 and i'm waiting for it to come in the mail.
I have a plan to put it on a tv stand with the filament sitting below in a sealed container with a moisture absorber.
I plan to run a PTFE tube from the container up and around the back to the top of the i3.

I'm trying to design it in Tinkercad, this is my first attempt.
Looking at it I see a couple problems, the guides I created to set the ptfe tube into don't appear to be connected to the guide. I was about to redesign it but I was looking at it and i'm not even sure how it will print, I mean wont the outlying structure cause the entire print to droop? Should I make it two pieces and change the supports so the two pieces slip into each other? Any advice is welcome!

Attachment 11433

I think I mostly answered my questions, using prusa control or slic3r I need to choose support... Do I want everywhere or just from the build plate?
Here is my redesigned version:
Attachment 11435

This happens sometimes when part are not combined???
Do not know exactly why though you can duplicate model with a different name combine all pieces into one single then export to STL should fill the gap.

probably just need supports from the plate.
everything else should be fine. Although the edges of the semicricle aren't actually attached to the centre.
Supports won't help there it'll just print a lot of spaghetti.

Weird looking thing. Clearly not designed by someone who's used an fdm 3d printer :-)
Not a criticism, just an observation.

What i would suggest, get your printer. use it for a bit, do some simple designs and then redesign the part so it doesn't need supports, is a lot smaller and works better with the printer, and prints lying flat rather than sticking all up in the air.
It would make it stronger and cut down a lot on printing time.

The only time I've used supports in the last 4-5 years, is when i've copied a broken part of something in the house.
All my original designs, have not needed supports.

It's easy to do, but get a bit of experience with what your printer can and can't do before you start designing anything of any complexity.

Using supports, is a pita. Slows things down, wastes plastic and on a single extruder setup, they're generally bastards to remove.
If you don't absolutely need them - don't use them :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

probably just need supports from the plate.

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If you download his STL file the two Supports on the curved surface for the Filament Track have no connection to the rest of the model.
They are floating in the air.

Now they are floating in the air because they were never connected in the first place or they lost the connection during conversion to STL file.
This can easily be fixed.