Questions on results of first ever print

[Plzwork123]

So today was the first time ive ever 3D printed. My printer is the Creality CR-10. I used "Cura" to convert my .stl file to gcode, and I used blender to create the model. I have pictures cause they are literally worth 1000 words, if not more.

Few questions:

in the 3rd pic you can see that slinky wall the came out of the middle of the box. This was put in by Cura i assume as a pseudo support for the box.
Is this required? and can something like this be printed without that? If so, does anyone know how to turn that off in Cura, or if there is a better exporting program for this?

You can see in the 4th/5th pictures in blender AND Cura the pillars are round with a hollowed hole. 1st Pic shows that they came out very very oval shaped with no hollowed center.
So: Is this Cura related (software)? Is it printer related (my printer not capable of such precision)? Or what would cause this in general?

The box was about 1-3 mm short of what my measurements in Blender were. Has anyone else experienced this?

Is there a better modeling program than blender out there any of you recommend?

1. http://drive.google.com/open?id=1EyZ...cBL69NLGU1FsgH
2. http://drive.google.com/open?id=1SiZ...9-9EZRCtOjfbpn
3. http://drive.google.com/open?id=16Bo...oiuCL1BFb4N5jo
4. http://drive.google.com/open?id=1QFz...1IEqtkdotHEybx
5. http://drive.google.com/open?id=13DE...HRs7RDNKw-tmEg

[curious aardvark]

few things:

The concertina is support material , and yes for a box that large it is necessary, the raft probably wasn't.

You need to start thinking about designing specifically for 3d printing. I pretty much only use support for things I've copied from a broken object. My original designs almost never use supports.

How large was the diameter of the holes ?
A well calibrated printer can just about manage 1mm holes.

What material did you use ? abs or pla.
how fast did you print ?
and have you tighteneed the belts and pulleys (on the motors) something definitely isn't quite right.

There are many 3d design programs around, I use openscad - but you need to have the right mindset for it.
List here: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...-MCAD-Software

[Plzwork123]

Thanks for the reply. I did forget to mention that info. It was PLA and I believe the speed was set to 50mm/s. They were 4mm columns with 1mm holes. The only belt that might be only slightly loose is the E-axis extruder belt but im not sure how to tighten it.

[curious aardvark]

this is where you need to start thinking about designing for your specific machine.
Try a 1.5mm hole, the odds are it'll come out nearer 1mm than 1.5
I have a 'guide' sheet from 3d hubs for tolearances for different types of 3d prinyter and for FDM they claim a 2mm hole is the smallest you can do.
They are wrong, but it can take a bit of fiddling to get smaller holes. :-)

Speed sounds fine
But the oval columns do indicate that something is not quite right mechanically. a round 4mm column shouldn't be an issue for any printer.

Like wise the variation in length would suggest the same thing. something is slipping or loose somewhere.