lithgowlights
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:01 am

Adjustable infill

I'd like to request an adjustable infill % based on not just height but also how far from the start of top layers.

For instance if you print a cube and don't need much strength you could get away with 5% infill. The issue here is that the top layers would droop due to the large gaps in the infill, needing more top layers to get a good surface finish. What I would like to see is S3D have an option to increase from a low % infill to a higher % as it gets closer to the top layer. So you might select 5% standard infill, but 40 or 50% as you approach the surface and S3D would automatically work out the best way to do the change and increase in infill as it approaches the top surface. Depending on how this is done it could actually allow a reasonable increase in print speed and reduction in infill plastic, and thus an overall reduction in plastic use without needing to adjust the number of surface layers to maintain quality.

Edit: While the cube could easily be done by adding more processes that change based on height, the big use of this would be where you have an irregular surface, such as a topographical map for instance where the ground gently rises across the print. The increase in infill would only be near the locations where there is a top surface being printed, and the rest of that layer would be a lower infill
WinterEC
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 1:06 pm

Re: Adjustable infill

This would be a fantastic feature in regards to print quality and would save filament. Currently the only way to get a similar result is by adding more top layers.

Most of my prints get pretty nice results from 15% with 3 top layers. If your support could go from 5% -> 25% -> 50% you should be able to get the same results in 2 top layers with less overall plastic and a faster print time since fill layers print faster and don't have to be as accurate. It would also make it desirable to print at those lower fill percentages where I'd never consider it now due to quality concerns.

Thought experiment: Could you go from 1% fill and get decent results by the time it got to final surface? This could be fantastic in larger prints.

Simplify3D could patent the term "dynamic infill" ;)
d353rt
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2015 2:08 pm

Re: Adjustable infill

I too would love to see this. There is a kind of similar option in slic3r called only infill where needed. This makes it so that the infill is only printed where there is something it must support. This feature alone would save a huge amount of infill.
JoshuaYates
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2015 10:17 am

Re: Adjustable infill

This is something which would make a good difference.

There is a way of doing this at the moment. Lets say your printing a 20mm cube with 0.2mm Layer Height.

You could create the first process with 5% infill and to stop printing at 16mm high using the advanced > Layer Modifications section, Then create a second process which starts at 16mm but has an infill of 40% - 50% as desired.

Its a bit of a pain but it means you can use your idea for the interim.
Zorgonaute84
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2016 7:30 am

Re: Adjustable infill

+1 for the dynamic infill feature !!!
theDiver
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2015 5:06 am

Re: Adjustable infill

That would be a REALLY usefull and time/filament saving feature

A big +1 from me
wfcook
Posts: 77
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2015 2:32 pm

Re: Adjustable infill

This might be difficult because a "top layer" can be very localized in the part (technically, a cone is nothing but "top layers".

HOWEVER, it occurs to me that infill could benefit greatly from having a list like the temperatures. Something like:

Code: Select all

LAYER      PERCENTAGE
1          10
400        5
1000       15
I have tried doing this by using multiple processes but it does not work, because you have to specify that middle processes use no top layers or you get a big solid bulkhead (which can distort the perimeters), but then things like horizontal tubes in the print (i.e. screw holes) don't get top layers and the whole thing is messed up.

It would also be nice to have Slic3r's "print infill only where needed" feature, which only prints infill where it is needed to support internal structures in the part.

+1 on the feature in general.
dennisjm
Posts: 343
Joined: Wed May 07, 2014 9:51 pm

Re: Adjustable infill

+1, In fact I think I suggested this when they added the feature to support structures for adding a higher density support as it neared the model.
nolubez
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2016 6:28 pm

Re: Adjustable infill

+1, this is especially important when doing very large prints (such as a full size head) where you really don't need much infill throughout the print, but enough to build the inner support for the top layers.

Looks like Cura does this (Gradual Infill), haven't tried it. Would be great to see it in Simplify3D.

Thanks
tshawkins
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2015 4:14 am

Re: Adjustable infill

wfcook wrote:This might be difficult because a "top layer" can be very localized in the part (technically, a cone is nothing but "top layers".

HOWEVER, it occurs to me that infill could benefit greatly from having a list like the temperatures. Something like:

Code: Select all

LAYER      PERCENTAGE
1          10
400        5
1000       15
I have tried doing this by using multiple processes but it does not work, because you have to specify that middle processes use no top layers or you get a big solid bulkhead (which can distort the perimeters), but then things like horizontal tubes in the print (i.e. screw holes) don't get top layers and the whole thing is messed up.

It would also be nice to have Slic3r's "print infill only where needed" feature, which only prints infill where it is needed to support internal structures in the part.

+1 on the feature in general.
This would be great, just a general feature to ramp tbe infill density up to/from 100% to tbe designated percentage over n layers would be cool, take a lot of tbe thinking out of it. Also in general verticle infil, patterns would also be interesting and could be combined. Both would require the slicer to have to look ahead more in the verticle axis.

+1

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