Polyline support properties reference

Options and their function explained

Polyline supports are akin to fences. They support a part along a line that are formed by connecting anchors which are set either manually or generated automatically by cluster detection. Polyline supports may come in three main variants, a thin but otherwise featureless wall, the same again, but with holes to resemble a wire-fence-like structure, and a massive wall with a defined thickness beyond that one of a single toolpass.

Polyline type	Sets the type of polyline. From left: Thin line, structure, massive polyline
Distance to part	A stand-off distance between the end of supports and the part surface they connect with. Can be negative to sink support structure tips into the part if necessary.
Smoothing distance	Determines how many steps will be used to smoothen a polyline. The smaller the distance, the stronger the smoothing and the more triangles will be used.
Smooth curves	Switches the drawing of the resulting polyline supports through the placed anchors between discretely angled and continuously curved.
Line width	Specifies the thickness of a solid wall.	Massive wall only
Rounded end	Applies a radius to the ends of solid walls with thickness instead of leaving them square.	Massive wall only
Structure properties	Contains properties of the wall, see details below.
Fragments	Fragmentation creates gaps in normally continuous polyline support. Gaps make support easier to break off. 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.
Angled Block Support	Set to Yes, this option enables a control element with which the support 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
Structure pattern	Determines the type of the support structure	wired wall punched plate massive wall
Width and Height	Width and height of the hole shapes.	For Wired wall and Punched plate only
Interval width and height	Distance between neighboring holes to the sides and to those above and below.	For Wired wall and Punched plate only
Thickening up structure-hatches	Values beyond 0 turn single-pass polylines without thickness into full meshes with volume.
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	Polyline supports will be at most this long, measured from the downskin they originate on. If necessary, they will terminate in mid-air, not reaching the bottom plate.
Solid structure for height	Configure structured Polyline supports to have solid bases to improve strength for supports spanning greater Z distances
Border width	This overrides the width of the vertical fragment-lining strip as given by the connection properties value a in the illustration below.	Can be set to 0 to have no such strip at all. A value of -1 disables the override.
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).
Keep distance to wall	Addresses cases when an undercut would cause a support structure to come closer to a wall than the cluster's wall offset can provide for.
Use density map	Applies information provided by a 3D heatmap to lighten or strengthen structures locally.
Fin
Create fin	Toggle fin creation.	When this is set to No, the following options are unavailable.
Width	The fin will be this wide. Note: If any fragment shrinkage is specified, the fin 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.

Fragments
Fragment contour	Toggle contour fragmentation.
Fragment contour length	The polyline will be fragmented into segments this long.
Fragment contour gap	Polyline fragments will be this far apart from each other.
Shrinkage width	The bottom borders of fragments will be at most this long. Can be used to create W-shaped fragments.

Connection
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 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 corners, 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. The width of the vertical strip on the far right can be overridden. See Structure Properties > Border width.
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.
Triangles on platform	Adds reinforcing triangle-shaped ribs to the platform connection, perpendicular to the polyline or contour. Not available when Angled Block Support is active.
Distance	The interval between ribs
Width	The width at the base of the ribs. The ribs are always equilateral triangles, so changing the width modifies the height accordingly.
Platform connection	This section defines the connection between support 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.