Cura: Support Direction (Angle)

Created on 13 Mar 2018 · 19Comments · Source: Ultimaker/Cura

I posted something on the forum Ultimaker:
https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/21946-support-direction-angle/

Engine FixeSolved Improvement

Source

darkdvd

Most helpful comment

I'll see what I can do.

BlackBelt Cura could benefit from this setting.

fieldOfView on 4 Jul 2018

❤2

All 19 comments

It seems indeed that there is no infill direction parameter for support infill. I've flagged this ticket with the correct tags.

ChrisTerBeke on 13 Mar 2018

Merci Chris !

darkdvd on 13 Mar 2018

I suggest adding a function to the supports management in CURA: "Support Direction".

By default, the supports are printed along the X and Y axes, regardless of the angle of the object.
(Note that the object is positioned by default along the X and Y axes as well).

In certain cases, the geometry of the object to be printed poses a problem during printing: this is particularly the case for objects intended to be molded (The walls of these objects generally have angles of 2 ° in order to optimize demolding, sometimes it is the design of the piece that uses very tight angles ...).

I took as an example the piece that hides the linear bearings of the UM3: this piece is intended to be made of molded plastic (1905-H).

support_angle_01

The front of this object has an angle of 2 °.
In my example, I print the object vertically to limit the amount of supports.

support_angle_02

Problem # 1: this wall at 2 ° will be badly printed because the displacement of the head will not be precise enough to restore the wall which must be perfectly rectilinear.

Solution # 1: rotate the object at 45 °. The angle of this wall will be no longer 2 ° but 47 °, which changes everything.

support_angle_03

Problem # 2: the supports remain positioned on the X and Y axes and they overflow the object and the printing will necessarily be a failure.

Solution # 2: give the possibility to change the angle of the supports.
In this case, if the object is turned at 45 °, it is necessary to rotate the supports by 45 °, which is not possible at present (or I missed something ....).

Note #1 : The object contained in the STL has been modified to be printed vertically to limit the number of supports.
Note #2 : I use zigzag supports because they are (far) the best support in terms of finishing and easier to remove.
Note #3 : I am french...

darkdvd on 14 Mar 2018

👍1

I think by default we could even align the support infill and normal infill directions, with the option to override that.

ChrisTerBeke on 14 Mar 2018

Good idea.

darkdvd on 14 Mar 2018

The "liberty" to choose the direction is a good option too.

By default, the value "align Infill to Object" is not checked.
If checked, the value "0" can be modified to any other value...

darkdvd on 14 Mar 2018

So... ?

darkdvd on 27 Mar 2018

😕1

Cura's backlog is super cramped, it takes a while until things are picked up. In the mean time, any developer is free to make a pull request for this.

@Appesteijn is this something you think is useful?

ChrisTerBeke on 27 Mar 2018

Thank you @ChrisTerBeke !

Note : not only "useful" but "necessary"

darkdvd on 27 Mar 2018

Haha, that's always a matter of opinion 😄

ChrisTerBeke on 27 Mar 2018

Yes ! but no !

Imagine a large object that can only be printed at 45 °.
The supports are always printed according to the X/Y axes whereas logically they should also turn 45 °

darkdvd on 27 Mar 2018

(I'm not sure my last sentence was in English...)

darkdvd on 27 Mar 2018

😄1

I think it is very useful, but it will also depend on how much work this is if (and when) we can pick this up. I hope some devs can mingle in this discussion :)

Appesteijn on 29 Mar 2018

👍1

Thank you !

darkdvd on 29 Mar 2018

The work on this is probably very little. We just have to fill this variable properly instead of hard-coding it to 0:
https://github.com/Ultimaker/CuraEngine/blob/2e8d4b0eca8702a9833349f4e7b306610f80e852/src/FffGcodeWriter.cpp#L2064

Ghostkeeper on 25 Apr 2018

👍1

Even still, our project manager just removed this feature from our planning. We won't be able to spend time on it soon.

Ghostkeeper on 4 Jul 2018

I'll see what I can do.

BlackBelt Cura could benefit from this setting.

fieldOfView on 4 Jul 2018

❤2

See https://github.com/Ultimaker/CuraEngine/pull/819 and https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/pull/4212

fieldOfView on 8 Aug 2018

Hi @darkdvd, the new setting "Support Infill Line Direction" will be available in next Cura release. I hope it will help to solve this issue and improve the quality of your 3D printed models.
Thank you @fieldOfView for making this fix.