Volume Supports Reference

Volume supports are hollow, regular structures similar to pipes with a square cross section. To create volume supports, you must define at least three anchor points to form an area that can have volume supports applied. Line types, structure properties, fragments and connection types can be adjusted.

Left: Solid volume supports divided into fragments. Right: Volume supports built from a patterned structure.

Filling Type	Switch the support walls between Hollow (solid) and Structured. The fragments that make up hollow supports are essentially box-shaped columns. They are closed on all sides, even at top and bottom. The connection with the part surface is facilitated by small pins. Structured supports are, by default, akin to patches of intersecting wire fence. Also, the entire cluster area is enclosed by a single wall along the circumference, ie. the cluster's contour. Applied default hollow supports. A cut via clip plane demonstrates the cluster's contour, the fragments' cross section, the terminating surface at the top, and the stand-off against the part surface. Applied default Structured supports. Note the gap in the circumference.
Top distance to part	A stand-off distance between part and supports.
Bottom distance to part	A stand-off distance between part and platform.
Structure Properties	Contains properties of the wall, see details below.
Raster	Settings for filling structures. See details below.
Contour	Settings for the outer contour of the support structure. See details below.
Connection	This group defines the connection between support, part, and platform ground. It is divided into multiple sub-groups. See details below.
Fragments	Fragmentation creates gaps in normally continuous polyline support. Gaps make support easier to break off. See details below.
Angled Block Support	Set to Yes, this option enables a control element with which the supports can be angled away from the default vertical. Switching from Yes to No and back to Yes remembers the support angling set previously.

Structure Properties	Note: This section is available only when Filling type is set to Structured.
Structure pattern	Switch between Wired wall (left), a Punched plate (middle), and Solid (right) to determine the wall pattern of volume supports.
Width and height	Width and height of the hole shapes for Wired wall and Punched plate.
Interval width and height	Distance between neighboring holes to the sides and to those above and below.
Thickening up Structure-Hatches	Volume support walls are merely such that they result in single-line toolpasses. To make the structures thicker, as in, inflate them into hollow structures, this value can be used Notes This can create large amounts of self-intersections within the support structures. Make sure they are handled correctly where necessary, such as during slicing and toolpath creation. Make sure to also handle the now voluminous structures properly during slicing and hatching.
Thickening up top connections	If the structure is set to become thickened, a value can be set to specify the thickness of the top connections separately, allowing to create conical transitions between structure and part.
Thickening up bottom connections	If the structure is set to become thickened, a value can be set to specify the thickness of the bottom connections separately, allowing to create conical transitions between structure and part.
Stitch tolerance	Set a tolerance in millimeters up to which a gap between the structures is not going to be stitched. A value of 0.01 mm is recommended to keep as default.
Maximum height	Produces support structures only up to this length. Supports will end in mid-air, if necessary.
Solid structure for height	Over this distance from the bottom end of the support, structured support will have no pattern, only continuous surface.	Has no effect for types other than Wired Wall and Punched Plate.
Fin	Draws a single configurable fin from the middle of a polyline (or a polyline fragment, see Fragments section) off to the side, strengthening the polyline support with a backbone. See Fins section.	Does nothing for closed polylines (eg. created by Cluster-contour with polyline).
Use density map	Applies information provided by a 3D heatmap to lighten or strengthen structures locally.
Fin
Create fin	Toggle fin creation.	Yes, No
Width	The fin will be this wide. Note: If any fragment shrinkage is specified, the width is scaled accordingly.
Keep distance to support	Detach the fin from the support by this distance.
Top distance to part	The fin will end this distance short of terminating at the actual support's top end.
Bottom distance to part	The fin will end this distance short of terminating at the actual support's bottom end.

Raster
Rotate by Z	Sets the general alignment of filling structures. Filling structures are aligned globally, as in, against the platform coordinates.
Hatch distance	Sets the distance between the inner structure units. The number of inner structure units and the density will be affected. Note: Not available when Hollow-type filling.
Filling strategy	Defines in which directions the outer contours of the volume supports will be filled: In both X and Y direction, just in Y, or no filling at all. Notes The equivalent of Just in X can be created by using Just in Y and setting Rotate by Z to 90 °. Not available for Hollow-type filling.

Contour	Settings for the outer contour of the support structure.
Contour count	For values above 1, repeats the contour in concentric layers towards the inside. If no additional contour is requested, the volume-filling structures will terminate in the outer contour.
Contour distance	The gap between repeated layers.
Smoothing distance	Use this to adjust the mesh resolution of the contour to match the size of details of the supported skin. A very detailed skin, when sampled along its surface, may have details smaller than the sampling (effectively, the smoothing distance), so support connections may miss connecting with the surface in these spots.

Connection	This group defines the connection between supports, part, and platform ground. It is divided into multiple sub-groups.
Top part	Refers to supports terminating in part surface at its top end.
Bottom part	Refers to supports terminating in part surface at its bottom end.
Platform	Refers to supports terminating in the platform surface at its bottom end.
Connection in Y
Connection by layer	A way to create higher surface quality along the supported downskin is to connect the structured supports through a clone of the connection area, creating a contour-hugging layer along it. For the reference on this option, see the separate table further down.
Connection property
Connection	Type of connection		Select from: Strip, Trapoid, Breaking Points, Triangles. Strip: A continuous band connecting to the part all along its upper edge Trapoid: Triangles with truncated tips Breaking points: Like trapoid, but with another, inverted row of trapoids stacked on top, forming X-shaped connections Triangles: Triangles that simply terminate in pointy tips, for very delicate support attachment
Connection width	a	Connection properties	Does not apply to Strip. For Triangles, this only applies to the vertical line at the beginning for the polyline, or contour. For Breaking Points, this is the "waist" of the X-shaped connections.
Connection height	b		For Strip, b and e are simply cumulative.
Pin distance	c		Does not apply to Strip.
Pins per structure	d		Does not apply to Strip.
Distance connection to structure	e		For Strip, b and e are simply cumulative.
Platform connection	This section defines the connection between supports and platform ground.
Connection	Type of connection. See above for reference.
Hatches	Replicates the lower section of connections in parallel, up to 15 copies in each direction. This creates tapered, pedestal-like reinforcements. Accepts odd numbers up to 31 only, ignores even numbers.
Hatch distance	Distance between replications
Triangles on platform	Adds reinforcing triangle-shaped struts to the platform connection, perpendicular to the polyline or contour. Not available when Angled Block Support is active.
Distance	The interval between struts
Width	The width at the base of the struts. The struts are always equilateral triangles, so changing the width modifies the height accordingly.

Connection by layer
Create layer	Toggles whether to use this type of connection.
Refine layer	If it is not possible to create a copy of the layer surface, the supported structure will be recreated through triangulation of anchor points. The higher this value, the higher the accuracy of the triangulation.
Top layer height	Defines the thickness of the layer.
Top layer distance to structure	Sets the distance between the top layer and the structure.
Pin type	The actual connection between the part and the layer is usually done with pins. Set the type of pins here by choosing from Cross or Cube. Alternatively, disable the pins entirely and connect the layer fully to the part.
Pin width	Determines the width of a pin.
Pin density	Determines the density of the pin structure. The smaller the value, the more pins will be created.

Fragments	Fragmentation of volume supports into individual blocks makes it easier to break the supports from the part.
Raster
Fragments	Turn fragmentation on or off.
Fragment size X	Fragment size in X direction.
Fragment size Y	Fragment size in Y direction.
Fragment gap	Describes the distance between two fragments.
X shrinkage	Shrinks the fragment at the bottom end of the x axis, to have a wider fragment at top, whose size decreases to the set value
Y shrinkage	Shrinks the fragment at the bottom end of the y axis, to have a wider fragment at top, whose size decreases to the set value
Contour
Fragment contour	The cluster-enveloping contour can be fragmented as well, using this toggle.
Fragment contour length	Defines the length of a fragment unit.
Fragment contour gap	Defines the gap between two fragment units