🛠 Support Structures (Organic vs. Normal Supports)

Choosing the right support type is crucial for a successful 3D print, especially if your model has overhangs greater than 50° or floating parts.

The slicer offers two main types of supports:

✅ Normal Supports
✅ Organic Supports

Let’s go over their differences and when to use each one.

🔹 1️⃣ Normal Supports

📌 What are they?
🔹 Traditional support structures that create a solid base under overhanging parts.
🔹 More durable but consume more material.
🔹 Harder to remove, often leaving marks on the model.

✅ When to use them:
✔️ If your model has heavy parts that need strong support.
✔️ If you need rigid and stable support.
✔️ If you don’t mind using extra material and longer print times.

❌ When to avoid them:
✖️ If you want easy support removal.
✖️ If your model has fine details that could be damaged.

🔹 2️⃣ Organic Supports

📌 What are they?
🔹 Branched, lightweight support structures, similar to tree roots.
🔹 Use less material and are more flexible.
🔹 Easier to remove and leave fewer marks on the model.

✅ When to use them:
✔️ If you want to save material.
✔️ If your model has delicate details that shouldn’t be damaged.
✔️ If you prefer quick and easy support removal.

❌ When to avoid them:
✖️ If your model is heavy and requires strong support.
✖️ If your printer has high vibrations, requiring a more stable base.

🔧 Customizing Support Settings

📌 In the slicer, you can adjust:
🔹 Support Density – Controls how dense or sparse the supports are.
🔹 Support Placement – Choose whether supports only touch the print bed or can attach to the model itself.
🔹 Support Z Distance – The gap between the supports and the model (important for easy removal).

👉 Tip: Organic supports work well in most cases, but if your print fails, try switching to normal supports!

🎯 Final Thoughts

✅ For easy removal and material savings, choose Organic Supports.
✅ For strength and stability, choose Normal Supports.
✅ Fine-tune the support distance and density for the best results!

🚀 Now we’re ready to move on to slicing and print preview! 🔍