Printable View
This seems to be the new "fad" within 3D printing. People are starting to create their own custom support material, and I've seen quite a few designs that have come out a lot nicer. Have any of you guys experimented with changing around the location of your support material, and succeeded? My friend uses the multi material feature in Slic3r and has had some great results.
I'm not sure it is a 'fad'. It is more like a desperate attempt to get something you want printed. I'm trying to make a complicated gear I need to make a Pump-jack for my brother. The built in support that Slicer does makes an unusable part. So, as part of the design I'm trying to define where and how the support gets included.
I apologize for how unclean this code is, but I didn't think this was going into the public domain! You can comment out the 2nd line: support(); to see it both ways. Be sure to 'Compile & Render'. For some reason Open_SCAD does not give a correct view of this part without doing that.
With all that said, you will see what I'm trying to accomplish with 'custom' support material. And if you are really ambitious, you can comment out the 2nd line that says support(); and turn on Slicer's support and see why its support is so undesirable when you print it!
Thanks, I'll have a look :)
Personally speaking, I think it is good practice to include whatever support is needed directly on the 3D model, and in more general terms to design and model with the printing process in mind. It saves printing and cleaning time as well as material not to mention guesswork at the time of printing to get the correct support parameters.
Having said that I've been meaning to try Meshmixer to generate supports for organic models, I like the concept of the branching supports.
I just use what is recommended and I never really have a problem. These software packages that we use can compute all kinds of scenarios, in a matter of seconds. That's why I always just use what is suggested. What's the main reason for wanting to create your own?