billyd
Posts: 272
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 12:13 pm

Re: Feature Request: Better support generation

I like all the ideas presented here. But to me the bigger problem is the support interface to the print and surface quality. Solve that and you have a huge winner. Perhaps something like a raft on top of the supports? Or something along those lines? Also the gap between supports and printed part should not be scaled in layers but with a specified height. This would require dynamic layering though.

As far as retractions you could disable them when printing support trees and I would guess the strings would not impact the print for the most part. Although I suppose in some circumstances that might become a problem.
clinthart
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2018 6:53 pm

Re: Feature Request: Better support generation

I have been pretty disappointed with the supports in this product. I use far less filament with other products. We need a scaffolding, call it tree support, type of system. But really my only complaint, and one that will keep me from sending any more $$, is this issue with too much filament is used on supports, between the print bed and the anchor points.
torporus
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2019 8:42 am

Cura like tree support

I have been trying out the trees support feature in Cura for over a month now and it has become my favorite support type on my Anycubic I3 Mega!

It is a game changer! The biggest advantages are less surface deterioration due to less support material sticking to the model and, what is a much more significant factor, the support structure is MUCH EASIER to remove! It simply saves a lot of time in post processing! Most of the support can be remove without tools more often than not and removing all of the support usually takes me twice as long with conventional support and that's just getting it removed; since there are more contact points with conventional supports the cleanup is even worse for conventional pillars!

I have seen a few posts being skeptical about the practicality of such support in FDM printing in this thread.
I cannot agree on this type of support causing any problems for FDM printers. My Anycubic I3 mega prints those out with no issues at all when using PLA or ABS. I have had even better results on a 3D-Gence P255 printer.
At least not in the way that cura handles this type of support which is arguably a lot different from the tree support used for SLA/ DLP machines.
I have not used any flex filament yet though so it might become a problem with those since from what I've read you usually want to keep retractions to a minimum with flexible filament.

Still, tree support has been so amazing in post processing my prints that it made me come back to Cura even though I initially got S3D to not be dependent on Cura! And Cura still has a lot of shortcomings that S3D does better but tree support really made me tinker with Cura again instead of S3D.

@ the devs
please make tree support a thing like in Cura! Less time for post processing cuts a significant amount of cost in production!
The competition among slicing software is fierce and not implementing features that even free software has started to adapt makes me wonder if a continued investment in S3D is worth my time/ money!
S3D-Jake
Posts: 1052
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:45 pm

Re: Cura like tree support

torporus wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 9:29 am I have been trying out the trees support feature in Cura for over a month now and it has become my favorite support type on my Anycubic I3 Mega!

It is a game changer! The biggest advantages are less surface deterioration due to less support material sticking to the model and, what is a much more significant factor, the support structure is MUCH EASIER to remove! It simply saves a lot of time in post processing! Most of the support can be remove without tools more often than not and removing all of the support usually takes me twice as long with conventional support and that's just getting it removed; since there are more contact points with conventional supports the cleanup is even worse for conventional pillars!

I have seen a few posts being skeptical about the practicality of such support in FDM printing in this thread.
I cannot agree on this type of support causing any problems for FDM printers. My Anycubic I3 mega prints those out with no issues at all when using PLA or ABS. I have had even better results on a 3D-Gence P255 printer.
At least not in the way that cura handles this type of support which is arguably a lot different from the tree support used for SLA/ DLP machines.
I have not used any flex filament yet though so it might become a problem with those since from what I've read you usually want to keep retractions to a minimum with flexible filament.

Still, tree support has been so amazing in post processing my prints that it made me come back to Cura even though I initially got S3D to not be dependent on Cura! And Cura still has a lot of shortcomings that S3D does better but tree support really made me tinker with Cura again instead of S3D.

@ the devs
please make tree support a thing like in Cura! Less time for post processing cuts a significant amount of cost in production!
The competition among slicing software is fierce and not implementing features that even free software has started to adapt makes me wonder if a continued investment in S3D is worth my time/ money!
Thanks for adding your support to this popular feature request! I'll update our feedback on this feature request for our developers to review.
"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song."
Firefly
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:09 am

Re: Feature Request: Better support generation

I came looking for a feature to help supports stick to bed, but the support tree I also would like to see
so + 1 on that request
but, also an option to have a foot on supports would be nice, I don't want to use raft under the entire project.

Thanks!
stoughtm
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jan 01, 2018 8:28 am

Re: Feature Request: Better support generation

+1 for tree-like support structures

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