I have a problem with getting my model printable. Do anyone have any suggestions on how I can make this model printable? I have added an STL file of the model, if anyone can be of help.
Unfortunately, every possible orientation of this model has a lot of unsupported minima packed closely together. At the default scale of the model, the best you can probably do is to rotate it 45 degrees away from vertical and try to expose as many of the cylinder ends to the build platform as possible. You might get the model to print like that with internal supports, but then removing those internal supports will be very time consuming and difficult. Things might be slightly easier with this model scaled up as large as possible, but even then, I think it would be very challenging unless there’s something I’m missing. My best guess for a first attempt at printing this successfully would be to print it at 45 degrees to the build platform, at about 4.7 times the scale of the model, in Durable, which needs less support than Flexible (it looks like Flexible in your screenshots), but might still have enough flexibility for the structure to do whatever it is supposed to do.
This looks like an auxetic structure, is it designed to expand when pulled?
Yes it’s an auxetic structure, and unfortunately it can’t be scaled any bigger because of the what i am going to test it with. I am going to print it in durable, and i have managed to get it one time to be printable. The problem is that its not possible to accurately replicate… I have added a copy of where its printable, but i fail to realize why. Have two more models with bigger unit cell scales, I have problems with them to. Although they have less problems.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hlyufRw5m7yXAs3ScAdf_TyePAkRZ6mz
Edit: I now see the internal supports are problematic in this one…
Another thing to note here is that the more complex the support/minnima situation on a given model, the less difference it makes whether PreForm evaluates it as printable or not. Some models might evaluate as unprintable but print just fine, even after lots off manual support adjustment, and other models might evaluate as printable, but struggle a lot due to some other quirk of the print process. The least flexible rule is that local minima have to be supported somehow in order to print. That .form file that evaluates printable looks decent to me; there’s some chance that the tiny internal supports will be weaker than the rest of the structure enough to break away when the structure is flex. Otherwise, you may be faced with trying to reach in and snap them with a needle or tweezers.
Okay I see, thanks for the help! I have managed to get something that looks acceptable I think, 45 degrees really made the difference I think.
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