Sovereign
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2015 1:04 pm

Material Efficiency / Support Percent

Description: A calculated value estimating the amount of material during the print that is being used for support. If possible, include the amount of time that is added to the print in order to create these supports.

Rationale: For hobbyists, this information could be useful as an improvement metric ("I'm minimizing wasted plastic and cutting print time"). For businesses (whether they be big industrial users or a 3DHubs individual), it would allow them to, essentially, levy a fee on "inefficient" models should they so choose.

Solutions: This operates on the assumption that S3D already knows how much material is going into the support as the slicer computes toolpaths. It can already show material use estimates in meters, time in minutes, and estimated material cost based on inputted values for the whole print. The hope is that these would be a simple extension of existing information.

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