First print results and how to improve

[Nivek]

Hi guys,So I'm new to 3D printing and new to this forum. I am having some issues with my printer (ender 5+), mostly bed level and Z-offset related. But i'm in contact with the company I bought it from.Anyway, initial reason for buying the printer is for automotive purposes. Test fitting and prototyping. For now, I have 2 specific question, and I would like to ask what you think of one of my prints and what you would suggest to improve quallity. So, the first part that I printed after some test prints uses 10 support structures. Strangely enough, cura doesn't draw the full support footprint on first layer. This happens at 2nd layer. So you can imagen that gave me some issues. Does anyone know how this could be fixed? Please see first 3 pictures.The next 2 pictures is the final result, any tips on improving quality? Especially the area that needed support looks really rough.All PLA by the way.Thanks-kevin

[GeneT45]

Hard to tell from your first pics, but it looks like there's supposed to be a 'real' layer below those supports. If it's smaller than your layer height, the slicer might have ignored it. There are settings to make it print whatever minimum thickness it can.

First - switch to Cura slicer. The Creality slicer is a spin off of Cura, but not updated as frequently. It brings nothing to the table. Don't sweat it, Cura has a configuration for your printer. (You don't have to uninstall Creality, you can have both if you're reluctant to take this advice).

Second - the best supports are those you model yourself. You can model a support block that is one layer shy of touching the part it's supposed to support and that will usually give you a much better finish than the default generated support. The current version of Cura also gives you a lot of support options if for some reason you can't design your own supports.

For general quality improvements, reduce your layer height and print speed. If your nozzle is old, consider a replacement.

GsT