Any reason feet aren't locked to the build plate?

#21

I’ve had poor luck with most support strategies because the “chicken pox” I get, combined with the “cushion” effect around them, makes for a not-great finish all around. Anything that would generate less post-process refinishing would be welcome in my book. Frankly, I’m building my models to utilize as little support as possible and am having a devil of a time getting auto-support generation to do what I need. If it’s a one-off “throw it at 45 degrees and see what it looks like” thing, fine… but if I’m printing it, molding it, wax-injecting it and casting it I need the best surface finish possible. What I’d love to be able to do is specify surfaces to be supported and let your algorithm auto-generate for those surfaces only. Maybe Formware can already do that, but I haven’t succeeded yet.

I’m having much better luck with internal tree supports than I used to so either I got less stupid or you changed something for the better, I’m thankful either way. :wink:

#22

One other thing - where did “Flatten all supports” go? Is that no longer a thing?

#23

Supports are automatically flattened now.
It’s a little performance downside (when you change something, i.e. drag a support). The upside is that the 3d view and the slicing are a lot faster with lots of models.

#24

Yes we’ve had the request a couple of times. It’s in the works to have a process to select ‘critical features’ beforehand.
Currently you are only able to delete critical features (surfaces or creases) after supporting.

#25

I’ve uploaded 1.0.3.4 to the website with the fixes mentioned above.
https://www.formware.co/slicer/releasenotes

kind regards
Elco

#26

Thanks, Elco. I appreciate not having to flatten supports any longer, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.

I’ve downloaded 10.3.4 and will put it through its paces. I appreciate you letting us know. By the bye, I tried “check for updates” before downloading an eval version and it didn’t find it - might be a problem in 10.3.3 that has since been fixed but I thought you would want to know.

#27

Thanks for letting me know.

The check for updates feature works; however in it’s current form it has to wait for a couple of larger OEM versions also release the version before we can launch the message.
Working on changing this.

Elco

#28

This worked for me, glad that there is an option. However, if I send to composer directly, it won’t remove the small bits below the build plate (and there is no check box option to remove them).

#29

Hi
I see that the foot cannot be moved under the plate now and we are warned if something is under the build plate. That’s great.
But I can 'accidentally ’ move the pillar through the build plate. I know it is splitting hairs,
but I then tried to use the move the support to zero and it completely goes berserk, and supports lose all points of contact with the model and puts others under the plate.I know that is not the intended workflow…

Regarding the autogeneration of the base plate, I don’t see where to 138C.fw3d (5.9 MB)

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size a circle or square base plate. That is required because the default size is bigger than the build plate.

When autogenerating supports or base plates, it should not be possible to generate them outside the build area on any axis. (my printer is for jewelry and has a very small build plate)
When export selected is used the option to cut off anything < Z0 is no longer there.

#30

Hi,

mmm i checked but can’t directly replicate it with your file. I tried moving the entire thing but also seperate beams to below zero.
It could the there is some sort of scaling error when you go through -1 and back. That looks like it from your image.

Base plate: perhaps set it to build platform?

I see there is some irregularity in teh base plate. If you generate it when one is already there it takes into account the current one. It shouldn’t. We need to get that out (again)
So do this -> go to support profile -> manual settings -> base plate -> set it to ‘circle’.
Then remove any base plate from the model; then add it. It will be a better circle.

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Stl save:
This option you mean?

Additionally if you are using the slice core you can also use ‘clipping on build platform’.
It will clip any stuff outside the platform to the build platform (including dead zone if defined)

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