Support settings for car part

[eyekey]

Attached are some pictures of the model i will be printing on the form 4L.

Trying to get it to print with minimal clean up if possible to avoid sanding and painting.

For the supports in the middle, what are the best settings for them to avoid a rough finish on the surface.?

how much can the bottom diameter of the touchpoints be reduced?

is there any option for say a bridge support (similar to tree supports in FDM). where both sides touch the build plate and support the top part, but do not grow out of the bottom the model?

Thanks,

Ryan

[leonhart88]

A few thoughts.

• If you can print this flat on the BP I’d recommend it. Can’t tell from your photos if the bottom is flat.
• Change the bottom touchpoint size for internal supports to be equal to your normal ones. So if you’re printing 0.4mm for example, set them to branch once (not default 3) and set the touchpoints to 0.4mm for internals
• You probably want to reduce density of touchpoints. Preforms algorithm is extremely conservative and you’ll end up with worse surface finish if you have too many supports

[jessbuck]

@eyekey I agree with a lot of what @leonhart88 has said. I also have a link to our support page for editing advanced settings for supports in PreForm.

[eyekey]

Thanks for the information.

Greatly appreciated, yes the bottom

Is completely flat so I will print directly the build plate.

do you recommend removing the supports prior to curing or after?

[eyekey]

Nevermind on the support question, I just read a post you made about that exact topic.

Thanks again

[leonhart88]

I always remove before curing but make sure you dry the part thoroughly. If you encounter warping depending on the geometry you might be forced to leave them on but I generally don’t need to.

[eyekey]

the grey standard resin finally arrived and im ready to print.

what would be you suggestion on the cups that occur when the model is flat on the build plate?

[Mario_Martinez]

I would place it with the red surface to the bottom and that face supported it’s basically rotating your part 180 over X.

You can also try the cup mitigation feature and maintain your current orientation.

[leonhart88]

Add drain/vent holes using the hole feature in preform or turn on Cup mitigation in the print settings editor is what I would do.

Note the cup mitigation could increase print time a lot.

Your cups are really small, probably will print fine with cup mitigation enabled.

[eyekey]

surface finish and reduced clean up is my main focus with this print. 180 degrees would be way more supports hitting the finished area

[eyekey]

i will try the cup mitigation.

thank you!

[DasPrintHaus]

How did the print turn out? We need details!

[eyekey]

First print was a fail. Printed on the build plate and with .20 touch point size.

I had to strain the resin in the resin tray to remove Debris.

Second print I decided to print with supports on build plate, as I wasn’t sure if that was part of the problem. I changed the touch point size to .40. And every printed good

That is the original from the customer that I scanned and used as reference to remodel the part

[eyekey]

The corners of the bottom warped slightly upward from not printing right on the build plate. Just a small

Amount, as this is being screwed into a padded leather door panel it works this time

[DasPrintHaus]

Awesome! Those came out great.

[leonhart88]

Looks great! 0.2mm touchpoint is way too small. You’ll definitely get failures at that size