Hello,
I'm still fairly new to S3D, but I'm trying to learn the differences between support material and support structures. It seems like support structures are little pillars that you can modify heavily be adding them in select areas or removing them or changing their width with a lot of control. However, they are pillars whereas support material is what most other software uses and is zig zags with things like rectilinear, etc.
Two questions:
1. When do folks tend to use one vs the other?
2. I tend to like the support material as it is so easy to remove. However, I have one section of my model that it generates support material but I don't want it. I would say that I could create two processes, one with support and one without, but the section that I don't want support is not higher or lower than others, it's to the left and right, so I can't do a different process via height. Is my only option then to use support structures (and not support material) and selectively add or remove them? Seems easy enough, but are support structures harder to remove than support material? I ask because I know S3D is well known for easy to remove support material, but I am not familiar with support structures.
Hope that makes sense!
Thanks.
Re: Support material vs support structures
These are really the same thing. People use the terms interchangeably.
In some cases, when people say support material, they are referring to the actual filament material (i.e. PVA or HIPS). But in general, I think they are usually talking about the same thing.
After reading your post, I think the confusion is the difference between the square pillars and the back-and-forth zig-zag patterns that actually get printed. The square pillars are just a visual indication of where those zig-zag patterns will go. They are never actually printed, you are just defining regions where those zig-zag patterns will be needed. So these are also one in the same, just different ways of viewing the information.
Hope that helps!
In some cases, when people say support material, they are referring to the actual filament material (i.e. PVA or HIPS). But in general, I think they are usually talking about the same thing.
After reading your post, I think the confusion is the difference between the square pillars and the back-and-forth zig-zag patterns that actually get printed. The square pillars are just a visual indication of where those zig-zag patterns will go. They are never actually printed, you are just defining regions where those zig-zag patterns will be needed. So these are also one in the same, just different ways of viewing the information.
Hope that helps!
