Breakaway Supports

[KenR60]

Is this a Manual thing or does some software automatically add these? I've done all low things so far and want to advance to something a bit more difficult :-)

[Mjolinor]

It is generally accepted that you can do a better job manually but most slicers will do it for you.

All the slicers have their problems and some do support better than others. Slic3r being a good example, the pillars it adds for support are really easy to remove but on the other hand it has really stupid brain damaged ideas of slicing on certain objects.

Best thing to do is try them all, learn their problems and work round them.

This is very time consuming but I haven't found another way to do it because some people don't meet any problems and so swear a particular slicer is perfect whereas some people meet a whole bucket load of problems and hate particular slicers.

None of the open source slicers can come anywhere near Catalyst by Stratasys but it is a commercial product and uses a bespoke format for files. I was contemplating writing a Gcode converter for it but probably will never get round to it.

[KenR60]

OK so can anyone run through the Steps adding Support to a File? I am using ReplicatorG. Do you see the Supports before you Print the Item? or is it a Blind thing where you know something is Supported so move to the next?

Thanks in Advance

[Mjolinor]

If you are using Skeinforge then it is under Raft I think but I have never used Skeinforge support, it is easier to add it to your drawing manually.

You need to edit the profile: GCode > edit slicing profiles > pick your profile (best to make a new one by copying the one you normally use for when the F* up) then "Raft".