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Supports

I hate supports. A model that has to have supports probably should not be created with 3D printing, or it is a sign that I have failed in my design.

Supported surfaces never will look as good as others. Easy removal and better looking are two extremes you can move between. Even all the way on better looking it will not look as good as other surfaces.

You can’t print over nothing. You normally squish the molten plastic between the nozzle and what is below. You have the nozzle, but there is nothing below to squish against. Support is the thing below that you can squish against. For easy removal you can keep the support low and not squish, but then it looks like a bunch of round things, and not flat. If you have it high so you can squish against it you end up squishing into it and they are hard to remove.

If you design your own stuff give thought to how it will be produced as you design it. Printing it in a strange way may remove the need for supports, a box standing on an edge will have sides at 45º, a bottom at 90º, and no need for support. A little ledge sticking out may require supports, but put a chamfer under the ledge and it will print without support. A hand of a figure hanging down will require support, but move the hand over a little against the leg and it will print without support. If you have to have support try to put them in an area of the model you will not see, yeah they look bad but if you never see them who cares. Put them on a flat area that is easy to get to, after you take them off you can easily sand where they were.

Organic things, like figures, are real hard to not have supports, I don’t print them. Models you can only get an STL for may not have been built with thought, I don’t print them.

A lot of stuff is only shown as renders. I can do a render that looks amazing, tiny areas on the bottom, no thought for support. Try to print it and the tiny areas can never have the supports taken off and still look good. If something is only renders and no physical object I try to stay away from it.