I’ve had numerous setups fail because the support bases grow outside the build envelope. This is tedious because I’d like to use the full envelope for my parts, but I end up giving away 5mm or so for the bases of the support tower. It’s downright annoying if I use my shop computer (an old laptop running XP) and I have to wait 5-10 minutes for Preform to generate supports, only to have the bases push out past the edge of the envelope.
I understand how the algorithm wants to make a nice circle around the base of each one, but it seems like it could just trim off the excess and add a bit of extra material to the inside of the support base and everything should be fine.
I can’t post this file. I’ll post a dummy part to demonstrate the problem. Any time you build supports in Preform, the build envelope increases. This isn’t a proble until you are bumping into the limits of the Form 1 (125mmx125mmx150mm) in which case, having Preform trim the edges of the support bases would be helpful.
Here’s a dummy part that just fits inside the build envelope (124mm in the Y-direction). After supports are built, it’s 129 in Y. It’s interesting to note that Preform flags a part that will become oversized in the Z-direction (before it builds all the supports), but doesn’t do any checking in X or Y before building supports (that would be an easy one to add).
Here are a few pics and comments.
I do want to add that I was quite impressed with the last build (similar to this part). It was larger part with a lot of 2mm thick walls. It wasn’t perfect, but I was impressed with the overall quality.
