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Unpythonic
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2018 3:25 pm
Superfluous Support Material Generation
I just created my first dual-extrusion design, and Simplify3D did a great job - except for when it added this support material for apparently nothing in the middle of a thin cylindrical hole in the part. Is this by design? Is there an easy way to prevent these from being generated without manually placing or removing supports?
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Re: Superfluous Support Material Generation
You may be able use the Support Generation Tool to generate automatic support, then remove the pillar that appears in that hole. If you could post a factory file of this part, we can help you zero in on what may be causing this!
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Unpythonic
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2018 3:25 pm
Re: Superfluous Support Material Generation
My apologies in advance, I'm a bit a newbie to this area. By "factory file" do you mean STL? gcode? F3D? something else? It's not a thing I'm concerned about intellectual property with (there are about 10 similar items on thingiverse) so I can post whatever would help.
Re: Superfluous Support Material Generation
If you go to File>Save Factory File As... you can save off the factory file that includes all of your settings and your model setup. This is an easy way to share entire projects!
Re: Superfluous Support Material Generation
Unpolythink.....
a few things for you to think about...
Firstly, the process is Automatic generation of supports.....not Intelligent generation of support. Is there a difference??? Yes. Automatic support generation is where support is generated where a series of simple checks result in the decision that there is material needing support. Intelligent support generation is where there are more than a few logical tests carried out to ascertain if support is required....there may be a level of reviewing the shape of the area, its size, and other factors that then are used for a "human" decision as to whether support is needed, and how the support is created.
Unfortunately, we are stuck with the former....Automatic....which usually works well, but in some circumstances....like where you have identified, it's results don't come up to "human" standards. Which is where manual support generation comes in....to either replace the "automatic" method, or to "enhance" it by filling in bits that get missed.
Looking at your attached screenshot.....if you look closely, there is in fact a very small amount of support in the hole.....but because of the settings used, only a tiny bit of support is being generated. In the case of this part, the solution would be to use the support generation window to generate automatic supports at your current settings,, then to alter the support pillar resolution down to 1mm and manually add a support pillar in the hole....and see how that works.
If not much better, you'll need to increase the support infill %age so that more support material is generated.....and see if that works better - it should!
Experiment with the settings and read up on them so you understand what each setting will do if you alter it. Never tweak and hope...and don't adjust two settings at the same time. If one gives the desired effect, how do you know which one did the trick?
a few things for you to think about...
Firstly, the process is Automatic generation of supports.....not Intelligent generation of support. Is there a difference??? Yes. Automatic support generation is where support is generated where a series of simple checks result in the decision that there is material needing support. Intelligent support generation is where there are more than a few logical tests carried out to ascertain if support is required....there may be a level of reviewing the shape of the area, its size, and other factors that then are used for a "human" decision as to whether support is needed, and how the support is created.
Unfortunately, we are stuck with the former....Automatic....which usually works well, but in some circumstances....like where you have identified, it's results don't come up to "human" standards. Which is where manual support generation comes in....to either replace the "automatic" method, or to "enhance" it by filling in bits that get missed.
Looking at your attached screenshot.....if you look closely, there is in fact a very small amount of support in the hole.....but because of the settings used, only a tiny bit of support is being generated. In the case of this part, the solution would be to use the support generation window to generate automatic supports at your current settings,, then to alter the support pillar resolution down to 1mm and manually add a support pillar in the hole....and see how that works.
If not much better, you'll need to increase the support infill %age so that more support material is generated.....and see if that works better - it should!
Experiment with the settings and read up on them so you understand what each setting will do if you alter it. Never tweak and hope...and don't adjust two settings at the same time. If one gives the desired effect, how do you know which one did the trick?
Doug Kightley
Volunteer at the National Tramway Museum http://www.tramway.co.uk
Railway modeller and webmaster at http://www.talkingtgauge.net
Volunteer at the National Tramway Museum http://www.tramway.co.uk
Railway modeller and webmaster at http://www.talkingtgauge.net
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Unpythonic
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2018 3:25 pm
Re: Superfluous Support Material Generation
Got it, thanks for the explanation. My factory file is attached here. Manually removing the center support material did remove the thin "orphaned" support structure through the central axis.
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- LaserCollimator_1.25.factory
- (193.59 KiB) Downloaded 68 times
Re: Superfluous Support Material Generation
A simple change to stop the small support in the hole would be to change the support pillar resolution to 2.0mm.
Alternatively, have a look at the changes I've made to your settings in the modded factory file.
Alternatively, have a look at the changes I've made to your settings in the modded factory file.
- Attachments
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- LaserCollimator_1.25.factory
- (193.6 KiB) Downloaded 69 times
Doug Kightley
Volunteer at the National Tramway Museum http://www.tramway.co.uk
Railway modeller and webmaster at http://www.talkingtgauge.net
Volunteer at the National Tramway Museum http://www.tramway.co.uk
Railway modeller and webmaster at http://www.talkingtgauge.net
Re: Superfluous Support Material Generation
As Doug said, lowering the resolution will help. If you Open the Support Generation tool and Generate Automatic Supports, you can see that the larger pillars are intersecting that small hole in order to be able to support the surface above the void. Lowering the Support Pillar Resolution to 1mm means that the hole will no longer be intersected.
