Simplify3D User Forum

I've run into issues of tall, thin towers getting push around by the extruder. I was thinking of lateral supports to stabilize like guy wires do for mast structures. My first thought was angled supports But that would take an excessive foot print. My second thought is multiple towers to surround and brace.

I love to use the "extra inflation distance" option on the Support tab for this. It widens the entire support structure to give it a larger base. Works really well for my prints where you have thin tower that may fall over otherwise.

Here's how I would do it:

Create three sacrificial parts that I position just above the top of the cylinder, then add custom supports as shown... Change the support horizontal distance to 0.1mm, make the support angles 45, 45,-45,-45,45,45,-45,-45. The support will look like this: Very rigid...and won't let the cylinder go anywhere!

CompoundCarl wrote:I love to use the "extra inflation distance" option on the Support tab for this. It widens the entire support structure to give it a larger base. Works really well for my prints where you have thin tower that may fall over otherwise.

That's what that's for! Very useful feature! I'm new to this software so some of it's features are still foreign to me. The issue with that feature is if you have a part that varies it's width greatly along it's axis you end up with floating support clouds where supports are created intra-model. Here's a test I did with overkill inflation distance to illustrate. Any way to get around that in the settings?
It also seems that if that first bump you see that breaks up the supports occurred lower, I would still have the same issue. Thanks and Happy Holidays,
mike

dkightley wrote:Here's how I would do it:

Create three sacrificial parts that I position just above the top of the cylinder, then add custom supports as shown...

Capture.JPG

Change the support horizontal distance to 0.1mm, make the support angles 45, 45,-45,-45,45,45,-45,-45. The support will look like this:

Capturex.JPG

Very rigid...and won't let the cylinder go anywhere!

This is a brilliant solution! I think I'll be using this approach for the time being.
Thanks and Happy Holidays,
mike