Area with bar support

Applies to 2024.0 Update and later

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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	Search parameters for areas of contiguous triangles requiring supports	See Cluster detection reference (separate page)
Anchors	Parametrization of the arrangement of connection points along cluster areas	See Anchors
Groups	Forms groups of bars for optional cross-bracing, bunching with a tapering envelope, and generating local baseplates	See Groups
Bundle into bouquets	Collect bars into tree-like structures	See Bundle into bouquets
Root system	Add bracing bars to the lower end of a support bar	See Root system
Project bar	Deflect bars to avoid or prefer part-to-part connections	See Project bar
Maximum bar height	After sprouting from the supported downskin, bars are at most this long regardless whether they connect to anything at their bottom end.
Brace	Generates cross-bracing bars between bars in a group	See Brace
Support properties	Parametrization for the shape of the bars generated for this support actions	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.
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.
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.
Medial axis contour offset	Adds the bars to eligible area stretches only if the stretch is at least twice this wide.	Hidden unless Add bars to medial axis is set to Yes
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	Hidden unless Rasterize area is set to Yes
Z range limitation	Even when a downskin cluster spans a greater height range than given by Minimum Z value and Maximum Z value, only those anchors sprout bars that lie within the values specified here.

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Groups

Parameter	Explanation	Notes
Bars per group	Bunches up to this many bars into a group. A group of bars may receive braces, may have a local baseplate, and the group as a whole may be tapered.	Disabled when Number of legs is >0
Group taper	Controls the taper of a group of bars	0 %: No taper at all 100 %: all bars in a group converge in a single point
Baseplate for group	Adds a local baseplate to a group's contact point or patch on the platform
Pad height	The base plate's thickness
Contour offset	Distance by which the minimum contour formed by the contact points of a group's bars is extended to make the base plate's contour. This is the minimum distance before tapering.
Taper angle	Applies a taper to the base plate's circumference. Positive angles taper the plate towards the top. Tapering only ever adds onto the contour offset.	-60° to 60°

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Bundle into bouquets

Parameter	Explanation	Notes
Bundle into bouquets	When active, bars are merged into trunks before reaching their lower end on part or platform.
Bouquet diameter	Defines the maximum diameter of single bouquet structures. Smaller diameters cause creation of more, and smaller, bouquets.
Bouquet height	Enforces a minimum distance between the first branch of a bouquet structure and the part.
Recursive depth	Sets the limit of branches per bar between the first branch and the part.
Bouquet 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.
Maximum 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 Bouquet height, 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.	Actual distinct legs are only generated from values of 2 onwards.
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 legs 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
Snapping on intersection	Controls whether bars that fractionally intersect with the part surface should redirect to properly terminate on the surface or ignore and continue to reach to their regular end point on platform or part.
Project bar	Controls angling bar support entities to preferably 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 preferably 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 preferably 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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Brace

Parameter	Explanation	Notes
Brace	Arrangement and orientation of the cross-bracing bars given by the capital letters resembling the shape	None or K, X, or N Choice of None deactivates all other Brace parameters
Links per bar	Bars in a group may be linked to up to this many other bars by cross-bracing
Link angle	Lowest angle against the horizontal for the cross-bracing bars	10° to 80°
Junction shape	Adapts or overrides the type of junction that the cross-bracing bars use to transition into the bars they connect between. For example, while the main bar may prescribe a straight connection in Support properties, any connecting bars generated out of bracing could still have straight connections.	Any: The main bar(s) may have this set to a specific value for any bars attached to it which may inherit or override that shape for their respective connection. Straight: No curvature Curved: Uses a smooth curve to transition gradually into the vertical bar.

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