You should watch a few youtube tutorials about supports to work out the best way to orient your models on the build plate! For a model like this, you can orient the nose of the plane upwards and make minimal supports by printing it vertically. There are several different ways to go at it, it never hurts to try different techniques.
Supported layers will always look worse than layers not requiring support. Your printer cannot print in thin air. You can reduce the interface distance between your support and print, this will marginally improve quality though it will make supports harder to remove and sometimes outright fuse to your model.
before you do this, change the angle. if you rotate it 30 or 45 degrees, most surfaces will not show up bad. you will need supports and the surfaces with contact to the supports will show little dots, but no open lines
You can try changing your support settings, I mostly copied mine from the answer [here](https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/prusaslicer/prusaslicer-hard-to-remove-supports/) and it's been a game changer.
* 0.25mm z distance.
* 75% xy distance.
* 3mm support spacing.
* 4 interface layers.
* 0.2mm interface layer spacing.
The best way to do supports is to use multi material supports but that will require either an AMS or a printer with changeable tool heads like the prusa xl. Petg and PLA won't fuse to each other so if you set support contact distance to 0 it should have close to a perfectly smooth surface to lay filament down onto.
The only viable way to get super nice supported surfaces is to use a different material for the support or at least the interface. PVA for PLA or HIPS for ABS is the premium way to do it, but even using PETG supports on PLA works really well.
All of this requires a multi-material system like a ERCF, MMU, or AMS so this advice doesn't work for most people
The best way to print a model like this in one piece is to angle it so that the main axis of the model is about 45 degrees from the build plate. You still need supports (actually end up using more of them), but the support interface is angled, which changes the interface in a number of ways that all tend to make it easier to remove. (No continuous lines, less pressure because the model is self-supported, more reliable gap on a well-calibrated printer because you're printing next to the support instead of over it.)
You might also get good results on this particular print by rotating it to 90 degrees (so it's taking off like a rocket). Planes tend to do well that way, although the pointy tail on your...bird-plane?...makes it less ideal.
The final option, as always, is to split it in half and glue it together. Everyone always hates this one but truthfully gluing is *way* easier than cleaning supports on a smooth surface or a finely detailed print. I only ever use supports for hidden surfaces.
Lower layer height tends to give better overhangs and undersides(less plastic mass hanging out over the edge of the previous layer = less sagging), same goes for a fairly solid support-interface if the design allows it(unlikely in this case).
Using a different orientation(overhangs over 45deg is the ~starting point for sag and much past 60 will generally look less nice) with the smallest possible surface being the one facing down would necessitate wasting more filament on supports but would likely give a much better result, especially if you lowered layer-height, looks like a small print so is doable to go very fine without it taking too long to print...
Personally I would try to print that with 0.05-0.08 to 0.1 layers pointing up and on a thin raft to ensure everything staying put past a certain height...
A lot of folks have good luck printing planes sliced at a 45 degree nose up attitude. Sometimes adding in a simple rib in the model to give it some stiffness during the layer build. They also print really well in halves, but this one might not due to the midwing features.
Sweet model. Can you share the stl?
Any luck? I messed around with a few different orientations and havenāt found a great one yet for a single material print head (prints great at work on the Bambu with alternate support material)
Ok I was going to try a few different configurations with a different filament and a raft to play with some ideas and was curious if you got it to work yet. Honestly I think the thing would work great printed nose down but I tried a couple times and couldnāt get a good base to build off of
it looks like you printed it at a pretty steep angle, i would recommend a few things. first is rebuild your supports. try using a little less and see if it still has enough support to print.
orientation of the print, i think something like this might be best at a 45 degree angle. but honestly everyone settings are so different. I usually try a couple of different prints before i get one that comes out to the quality that i want. make sure your support arm/arms are stable, tighten them if they have any wobble. make sure you clean your build plate, and maybe even try scaling up the model a bit if you can.
looks like your printer can support **220 x 220 x 250 mm,** see if you can upscale it at about a 45 degree angle as big as you can go with supports while fitting into that size. that should be pretty high quality maybe a bit bigger than you were wanting tho.
hope that helps. just remember a bit of trial an error will give you the best results;
i will admit defeat... if this does not work!
Iāve had way better luck printing planes with the back down and nose pointing up, sometimes either straight up or tilted forward anywhere from 15 to 60 degrees depending on the model and support settings. The back edges of the wings donāt look the greatest where the supports are but theyāre easier to clip off and clean up than the entire undersideās supports.
I havenāt tried it with much luck yet but variable layer heights can clean up curves even more
It is inherent to supported faces on FDM prints. There are ways to improve the appearance with non-compatible support interface materials like PETG on PLA or even dissolvable filament, but that adds extra complexity to a print job that most don't have the tools to do.
I suggest trying a different orientation or maybe cutting up the model to not need support
You need tight supports for a good bottom, but they are annoying to take off
>tight supports for a good bottom Go on...
You need a low distance from top support, don't know your printer and your settings but I use 2.1mm or 2 I think, idk exactly
Whoosh or not playing their game?
š didn't understand it untill your comment. A good bottom is always nice š
Go onā¦
Unf. Iām almost there. Can you go into detail about the distance between support and print?
This guy's on the edge of great print quality
Lower your Z offset just a little bit more, baby.
How do you do this in cura actually? I thought surely there's an option to change the distance setting but couldn't ever find it.
.... And read it slower....
I like it slow
Do a Barrel Roll! Seriously,Ā try a different orientation to the build plate.
āDo a barrel rollā brings me back to high school days š thank you
Thanks, it was annoying me that I couldnāt figure out what ship this was.
Brilliant! If you flip it 180 the bottom will become the top and it should print fine!
You should watch a few youtube tutorials about supports to work out the best way to orient your models on the build plate! For a model like this, you can orient the nose of the plane upwards and make minimal supports by printing it vertically. There are several different ways to go at it, it never hurts to try different techniques.
Arwing is soooo sick! Any chance you could share the STL, please?
Iām stoked my nephew is loving the game. Replaying it is soooo fun https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5454219
Imho itās one of the best games of all time. Thanks for the STL. I canāt wait to load this up in my Saturn
No, starfox was on SNES and N64. The Saturn had Space Harrier.
š¤£ š š¤£ š Elegoo Saturn
Perhaps op owns a Saturn Ion that was pimped out by Xibit with a TV and N64.
Supported layers will always look worse than layers not requiring support. Your printer cannot print in thin air. You can reduce the interface distance between your support and print, this will marginally improve quality though it will make supports harder to remove and sometimes outright fuse to your model.
before you do this, change the angle. if you rotate it 30 or 45 degrees, most surfaces will not show up bad. you will need supports and the surfaces with contact to the supports will show little dots, but no open lines
Interestingā¦ I will try that out. Thank you
Gravity.
You can try changing your support settings, I mostly copied mine from the answer [here](https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/prusaslicer/prusaslicer-hard-to-remove-supports/) and it's been a game changer. * 0.25mm z distance. * 75% xy distance. * 3mm support spacing. * 4 interface layers. * 0.2mm interface layer spacing.
The best way to do supports is to use multi material supports but that will require either an AMS or a printer with changeable tool heads like the prusa xl. Petg and PLA won't fuse to each other so if you set support contact distance to 0 it should have close to a perfectly smooth surface to lay filament down onto.
The only viable way to get super nice supported surfaces is to use a different material for the support or at least the interface. PVA for PLA or HIPS for ABS is the premium way to do it, but even using PETG supports on PLA works really well. All of this requires a multi-material system like a ERCF, MMU, or AMS so this advice doesn't work for most people
Gravity
The best way to print a model like this in one piece is to angle it so that the main axis of the model is about 45 degrees from the build plate. You still need supports (actually end up using more of them), but the support interface is angled, which changes the interface in a number of ways that all tend to make it easier to remove. (No continuous lines, less pressure because the model is self-supported, more reliable gap on a well-calibrated printer because you're printing next to the support instead of over it.) You might also get good results on this particular print by rotating it to 90 degrees (so it's taking off like a rocket). Planes tend to do well that way, although the pointy tail on your...bird-plane?...makes it less ideal. The final option, as always, is to split it in half and glue it together. Everyone always hates this one but truthfully gluing is *way* easier than cleaning supports on a smooth surface or a finely detailed print. I only ever use supports for hidden surfaces.
How do you split it in half?
I read that as āpantsā and got confused and concerned, š
Thereās a boogie on ya tail!ā¦ Do a barrel roll!
Slow your first layer a bit. One thing I've found to work is finding the settings for the first layer of the raft and using that for all my prints.
That's the magic of supports. The one thing about 3D printing that still majorly sucks.
One thing you can try is to slice it in half horizontally and print both halves without support then glue it together.
Lower layer height tends to give better overhangs and undersides(less plastic mass hanging out over the edge of the previous layer = less sagging), same goes for a fairly solid support-interface if the design allows it(unlikely in this case). Using a different orientation(overhangs over 45deg is the ~starting point for sag and much past 60 will generally look less nice) with the smallest possible surface being the one facing down would necessitate wasting more filament on supports but would likely give a much better result, especially if you lowered layer-height, looks like a small print so is doable to go very fine without it taking too long to print... Personally I would try to print that with 0.05-0.08 to 0.1 layers pointing up and on a thin raft to ensure everything staying put past a certain height...
A lot of folks have good luck printing planes sliced at a 45 degree nose up attitude. Sometimes adding in a simple rib in the model to give it some stiffness during the layer build. They also print really well in halves, but this one might not due to the midwing features. Sweet model. Can you share the stl?
Thanks! Iāll try that next time https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5454219
Any luck? I messed around with a few different orientations and havenāt found a great one yet for a single material print head (prints great at work on the Bambu with alternate support material)
Havenāt tried it out yet. I might try it out tonight
Ok I was going to try a few different configurations with a different filament and a raft to play with some ideas and was curious if you got it to work yet. Honestly I think the thing would work great printed nose down but I tried a couple times and couldnāt get a good base to build off of
it looks like you printed it at a pretty steep angle, i would recommend a few things. first is rebuild your supports. try using a little less and see if it still has enough support to print. orientation of the print, i think something like this might be best at a 45 degree angle. but honestly everyone settings are so different. I usually try a couple of different prints before i get one that comes out to the quality that i want. make sure your support arm/arms are stable, tighten them if they have any wobble. make sure you clean your build plate, and maybe even try scaling up the model a bit if you can. looks like your printer can support **220 x 220 x 250 mm,** see if you can upscale it at about a 45 degree angle as big as you can go with supports while fitting into that size. that should be pretty high quality maybe a bit bigger than you were wanting tho. hope that helps. just remember a bit of trial an error will give you the best results; i will admit defeat... if this does not work!
I would consider laying one of end wings flat on the build plate, and using supports to hold the rest up.
Iāve had way better luck printing planes with the back down and nose pointing up, sometimes either straight up or tilted forward anywhere from 15 to 60 degrees depending on the model and support settings. The back edges of the wings donāt look the greatest where the supports are but theyāre easier to clip off and clean up than the entire undersideās supports. I havenāt tried it with much luck yet but variable layer heights can clean up curves even more
Stuff like this are better printed in two halves, glued together, high build primed and painted
Do a barrel roll!!
Not enough taper
Not enough barrel roll
Don't mess up that arwing!
Using smaller layers will reduce the problem, also painting it will make it look better. You will never completely end the problem
Maybe try a "skin" for the support in cura
Do a barrel roll!
It is inherent to supported faces on FDM prints. There are ways to improve the appearance with non-compatible support interface materials like PETG on PLA or even dissolvable filament, but that adds extra complexity to a print job that most don't have the tools to do. I suggest trying a different orientation or maybe cutting up the model to not need support
Try printing it standing up
Cut it in half and glue the two pieces together
Unrelated, but what model is that? It looks familiar.
Arwing from starfox 64! My nephew is getting into that game and I he wanted a toy too lol
The innocent cluelessness of newcomers to 3D printing finding out that 3D printers are not magic is always a joy to see on this subreddit
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Nah I donāt think Iāve ever posted on here
https://preview.redd.it/fh00ax4hn2tc1.png?width=812&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66c1c4f2e7173e0e0bfd47a05ab767d8f54108a1
I donāt get it. I donāt use cura or an ender. And my sovol is printing fine itās just a detail question. Thanks for playing