¶ Support Blockers
When you’re not satisfied with the automatic supports in some cases, and you may want to remove some of them, but keep others. Sometimes, you can adjust model orientation or edit support settings like overhange angle, but this may not work for all. For example, for the model with several small and horizontal holes, long and thin support structures may be generated and not easy to remove after print, shown as image below. But these holes will be likely printed well without supports. Then you have an option to use a feature called as Support Blocker, by which you can place a box that blocks the generation of a support structure for the areas with which it overlaps the model, and it will drastically reduce your print time and material usage.
¶ Create and Adjust Support Blocker
To use the Support Blocker tool from the Ribbon→Support tab→Add/Edit Blocker, please follow steps below:
- Click any location on the model to generate a blue cube and a dialog named as Transformation pops up.
- When you hover on overhang, a support surface is deduced and highlighted. After clicking, a cube is created and contains entire surface you just see. And you likely have no necessay to adjust this blocker, which will dramatically save your time. By the way, we like to call this function as Auto Support Blocker.
2. Adjust its position, orientation and size within Transformation tool.
3. Click other locations to create more blockers or select a created blocker to edit or delete (press Delete on keyboard) it.
4. Press ESC keyboard button or click on Add/Edit Blocker command again to exit the command.
5. If you still want to edit the created support blockers, you can use Transform tool directly or invoke Add/Edit Blocker command again
- You will find some commands like On Face, Center and Auto Fit doesn't work for support blockers since they are not considers as common models.
6. Slice the model to check the results
