Area with bar support

General parameters

Parameter	Explanation	Notes
Description	Provide a custom name to identify the support action at a glance. Particularly helpful when you have the same action multiple times for a staggered approach to supporting parts.
Cluster		See Cluster detection reference (separate page)
Anchors		See Anchors
Connection to bouquet structure		See Connection to bouquet structure
Root system		See Root system
Project bar		See Project bar
Maximal bar height	After sprouting from the supported downskin, bars are at most this long regardless whether they connect to anything with their bottom end.
Support properties		See Bar Supports reference (separate page)

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Anchors

Parameter	Explanation	Notes
Anchor distance	Defines the space between two anchor points or bars
Contour offset to wall	Anchors keep a distance from a cluster contour that borders a wall (a concave border).
Free contour offset	Anchors keep a distance from a cluster contour that does not border a wall.
Add bars to medial axis	Adds a single row of bar supports to a stretch of supportable area where that stretch would otherwise be too narrow to be eligible under the given, regular contour offset.
Down-oriented points	Adds a single bar to local minima within a cluster
Corners	Places bars in sharp corners first. Helpful to ensure support to corners in case the interval between area or border bars happens to leave them out.
Medial axis contour offset	Adds the bars to eligible area stretches only if the stretch is at least twice this wide.
Borders	When set to no, the cluster's contour is left unsupported
Rasterize area	When set to no, the cluster's area is left unsupported
Anchor alignment	Switches between rectangular and hexagonal anchor placement for area-filling bar support
Z range limitation	Even when a downskin cluster spans a greater height range, only those anchors sprout bars that lie within the minimum and maximum values specified here.

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Connection to bouquet structure

Parameter	Explanation	Notes
Connection to bouquet-structure	When active, bars are merged into trunks before reaching their lower end on part or platform.
Diameter of bouquet-structure	Defines the maximum diameter of single bouquet structures. Smaller diameters cause creation of more, and smaller, bouquets.
Height of bouquet-structure	Enforces a minimum distance between the first branch of a bouquet structure and the part.
Recursive depth of bouquet-structure	Sets the limit of branches per bar between the first branch and the part.
Bouquet-structure type	Netfabb knows two methods to bundle bar supports together. The classical one picks one main bar and grows additional bars from it or from other bars that originate on the main bar themselves ("side branching"). The other, newer method uses proper iterative splitting of bars into ever thinner ones to ultimately cover the cluster's entire surface area with supports ("split branching"). Side branching The entire bouquet can be shifted at once by moving its singular bottom termination point, and all attached bars adjust "organically". Anchors where bars terminate on other bars can only be moved along those bars. This makes editing less destructive, but also somewhat limited. All bars have the same diameter regardless how many or few bars terminate in them. This can limit their use where actual load-bearing is a determining factor. Split branching When bars split (or merge), the cross section area is distributed (or combined) accordingly, too. Anchors where splits happen can be moved individually in all directions, and the segments between anchors are individual bar entities. This allows more freedom but at the same time requires more attention to positioning. Since anchors are independent, they do not move proportionately. All selected anchors move by the same amount and in the same direction. Side branching (left) and split branching (right). Note how the selected one on the left goes all the way from the part surface to the bottom, and how other beams "sprout" from it, whereas on the right, the branches split evenly.
Maximal vertical bar gradient	Ensures that no bar in a bouquet ends up angled further away from the vertical than this threshold, even when the parameter height and diameter would permit it. If necessary, the bouquet height is increased beyond specification, and if this is not enough, a new bouquet is started. If that's not possible either, the bar is projected as an individual one as usual.

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Root system

When active, the bottom of the bars are multiplied to form a tree-root-like structure that reinforces the adherence of individual bars.

Parameter	Explanation	Notes
Number of legs	The count of legs includes the center one.
Height	At this height above the platform or the bottom part surface, measured along the center leg, the side legs merge with the main bar.
Diameter	The side bars terminate at a circular contour of this diameter parallel to the build platform. If the bars meet a suitable surface before or beyond this imaginary circle, such as when they terminate on an uneven part surface, the bars are shortened or extended appropriately to maintain the side bar angle.

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Project bar

Parameter	Explanation	Notes
Project bar	Controls angling bar support entities to preferrably hit or avoid part surface. Options No projection: No part-to-part avoidance is attempted To platform: Bars that would hit part surface are angled to hit platform surface instead, if possible. To opposite surface: Bars are projected from the downskin to hit any surface, part or platform. To selected anchor: Bars are projected from the downskin to preferrably hit selected anchors. Note: This option can only be used manually by executing the script action from the Scripts listing, because the fully automatic execution always deletes and regenerates all anchors freshly. To upskin: Bars are projected from the downskin to preferrably hit surfaces automatically determined as upskins. These areas are determined with the same angles that are used for determining downskins. Tip: To project volumes to manually marked surface areas, generate them first, then choose Upskin projection from their context menu.
Maximum projection angle	When a bar support entity is eligible for angling, Netfabb attempts to angle (up to a specifiable maximum) and pan the bar to terminate it on the desired part or platform surface. If no suitable angle or panning is found, the bar is projected vertically as usual.
Surface normal for direction	To find the final angle of a bar support entity, the surface angles on both ends of the bar are taken into account. Using this percentage value, you adjust the weighting of either surface angle in the calculation of the bar's angle. between 0 % (the vertical) and 100 % (downskin angle). Note: The maximum projection angle still applies.

Parameter

Explanation

Notes

Project bar

Controls angling bar support entities to preferrably hit or avoid part surface.

Options

No projection: No part-to-part avoidance is attempted
To platform: Bars that would hit part surface are angled to hit platform surface instead, if possible.
To opposite surface: Bars are projected from the downskin to hit any surface, part or platform.
To selected anchor: Bars are projected from the downskin to preferrably hit selected anchors.
Note: This option can only be used manually by executing the script action from the Scripts listing, because the fully automatic execution always deletes and regenerates all anchors freshly.
To upskin: Bars are projected from the downskin to preferrably hit surfaces automatically determined as upskins. These areas are determined with the same angles that are used for determining downskins.
Tip: To project volumes to manually marked surface areas, generate them first, then choose Upskin projection from their context menu.

Maximum projection angle

When a bar support entity is eligible for angling, Netfabb attempts to angle (up to a specifiable maximum) and pan the bar to terminate it on the desired part or platform surface. If no suitable angle or panning is found, the bar is projected vertically as usual.

Surface normal for direction

To find the final angle of a bar support entity, the surface angles on both ends of the bar are taken into account. Using this percentage value, you adjust the weighting of either surface angle in the calculation of the bar's angle. between 0 % (the vertical) and 100 % (downskin angle).

Note: The maximum projection angle still applies.

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