In simplify3d I like the feature that you can just click and put supports where you want.
Well in Cura you can do the same and I'll show you how to do it on today's Filament Friday
Filament Friday is brought to you every week by the generous donations of these Patreon
supporters. Simplify 3d is a 150 dollar slicer so it's not free, but it's got some nice features
like the custom supports tool. You can set your pillar size you can generate supports throughout
or you can individually place them where you want them. And this is a feature that I really like
in simplify3d. When you slice it you get supports only at those locations where you put the pillars.
I'd like to do that in Cura. Well it turns out you can. If you go up to the marketplace and plug-ins,
you'll find the cylindric custom support gives you five types of supports. Now I've already got it
installed here, but you would click to install it, and then restart Cura. So let's take a look at it.
When you click on your model the menu shows up on the left and you've got five choices.
You've got a cylinder, you've got a tube, you've got a cube, an abutment, and a custom. And you can
set the size just like you can in simplify3d. And you can set an angle from the base so this will
vary in size. So let's try the cylinder and let's go to the minimum one millimeter and no angle. So
this should just be a straight one-millimeter post. I click on the model and it appears.
And I can click and put them anywhere I want. Now, this is actually too small to print,
but if you want to get rid of them you click on it twice. Click on it turns blue, you click
on it again, it disappears. I love this. This is even better than simplify3d. Now the minimum that
I've found is two millimeters and I like to put a wider base, so I go with a one-degree angle.
So now when I click on it, you can see it's more of a cone. And it stops at the arm. Now you can go
wider if you want and go three-degree angle and then you get a real wide base if you need that.
Now I found two millimeters is actually the minimum. You don't want to go less than that
as far as the diameter. If you go with the cube then in this case, because I got a wide base I'm
actually going to get like a pyramid going all the way up. And it actually covers his foot but it'll
form around it. So you got a lot of different shapes that you can make and then you have the
abutment which works good on the side here on his hand. So if I click on it you can see it actually
forms just like a plate. And I can change that thickness by coming back here and changing the
size. And it's going to equalize heights because I have that checked. So it's going to actually be
wider in both directions when I click on this. And there, it is wider. You can see it's thicker and
wider and covers more of the hand. If I want to cover more of the hand, I just click another one
and put it where I want. This is also quicker than regular supports. If I click generate support and
slice it, it says 5 hours and 25 minutes. And it puts support all over this guy. If I scroll
down you can see the support wrapped all the way around his body. This is way too much plastic.
To use this tool I don't check generate supports. I just come in here and place the supports where
I want them. Just like I showed. Two millimeters with a one-degree angle seems to work pretty well.
It's like a minimum as far as I'm concerned. And then anything flat, I just use the abutment with
equal heights, equalize heights, and then I just click where I want it. So here I can just click,
basically three times here, and I'll cover this hand. So it will be three different
supports but they'll kind of print together. Now even though I didn't check the support box,
once I started placing these supports, all the settings for supports appears so
I can adjust this and it'll affect those pillars that I just placed on the model.
And when I slice it, it's definitely faster. It's almost two hours less time on this model
using these pillars and you can see that it supports the hand really well when I
scroll through this. And then it comes under the arm and supports the arm. So it's giving me the
support I believe I'll need for this print. And using less time and less plastic. But let's take
a look at it on an actual printer. I printed it on my Ender 3 v2 at a 0.3 layer height, so it's not
real smooth. And the pillars, a few of them look like they should have been a little bit bigger. I
got some sagging under the arm but the fist looks pretty good. Looked like it covered that well.
And those were wider. So the next step is to see how well these break away.
This was already sitting on the bed for a while so it was easy to take off. And the first pillar
that went all the way to the bed basically just fell off so that one was loose. These other ones
are holding tight so let's see how well they break away from the model and how much material
they leave behind. So this first one, hardly any material left behind. Broke away easily. Next one
a little bit more effort to break this away and you can see I got some stringing there
because I didn't have big enough pillars. And then this one goes between the arm and the leg.
Fit pretty good and broke away nicely. Didn't leave a lot of residue. So it's pretty good.
The hand here this one came out great so it just proves I have to make these pillars
a little bit bigger. But overall I'm pleased with the support I got here out of this model.
It looks pretty good. I think I'll try this again though with wider pillars and put a few more
along that arm. So with this plug-in, you can place support pillars wherever you want
with just the click of the mouse just like simplify3d and remove them the same way. The best
part is it's free You don't have to spend $150 for a slicer. If you like what I'm doing here maybe
check out some of the videos that are popping up. And if nothing else click on that CHEP logo
and subscribe. I'll see you next time right here at Filament Friday.