Support context view reference

Cluster detection controls how the downskins, made up of triangle clusters, are detected for viewing and for manual support generation.

Mark cluster manually holds the settings for manually selecting triangles to be supportable clusters

Edit the generation settings for the currently selected support elements here, either by adjusting values directly or applying a set.

Use Sets to manage custom values for supports.

Sets are also looked up whenever you place supports manually.

Any available support elements are listed here, grouped by the clusters they belong to.

• Selecting support elements here is the same as selecting them in the 3D view. Likewise, their context menus are available here, too.
• Selecting the cluster node above a support element selects all elements of that cluster.
• Click the visibility icon to hide or show individual support elements.
• Also, if available, the origin of generation or set values of a support element is shown here, like the support script or a manual action.

Support scripts are at the heart of Netfabb's support generation. They consist of support actions with already defined values. On this tab, scripts are edited, and saved and loaded for later use, even exported and imported.

Contains visibility and visualization settings for the display of simulation results

These print simulation results are generated by using a metal powderbed machine workspace based on material and toolpath selection and sending the generated solution to Autodesk® Simulation Utility for Netfabb® (included in the Ultimate subscription) or Autodesk® Netfabb® Local Simulation as included in the separate product Autodesk® Netfabb® Local Simulation.

Also contains controls to perform optimization on any bar lattice support

Triangles tilted up to this angle from the horizontal are considered to require support. Use this visual aid at your discretion to find surfaces which must receive supports. Triangles so detected are highlighted in dark red.

Triangles tilted up to this angle from the horizontal receive support if they are adjacent to enough other triangles that also require supports. This generates a smoother cluster silhouette. A smoother support silhouette makes removing supports easier. Triangles so detected are highlighted in yellow. The resulting cluster is highlighted with a bright red outline.

Detected areas that would receive supports but are smaller in size than this threshold do not get supported.

If a cluster spans a single face group only partly, or spans multiple face groups, every section thus created is treated as if it were a separate cluster.

Enabled only when the part actually has face groups.

Cluster and edge detection can be quite resource-intensive for highly intricate parts, or may not even be required at all if you fully rely on the detection within scripts. Switch here between the fastest None, the very fast Downskin visualization, and the regular but (on very highly detailed mesh) potentially costly Cluster detection to fit your workflow and part complexity.

Additionally, selecting None displays any texture and color the mesh has. If the part has face groups that match the colors, this helps with configuring support actions that use cluster detection.

For very complex meshes with many triangles, the cluster detection can take some time. To avoid binding up system resources for recalculation every time a setting is changed, you can turn this off and perform the new analysis on demand using the button Analyze downskins.

Adjusts the brush size for when Mark cluster manually is active

When manually marking clusters, triangles under the brush but beyond a convex edge remain unmarked when its angle is sharper than this threshold. Also applies to flood-filling of surface patches.

The edge threshold makes marking large areas with many small perforations much easier.

Toggles visibility of other parts partly or fully above or beneath the current part.

If you changed the arrangement of parts outside the support editor, use this button when you return to test and adjust for changes in parts overlapping each other. If such parts are detected, Show environment is forcibly switched on.

Adjusts the size of the dots that highlight control and attachment points of supports on part surface and other places

Uses a value defined in the Settings to estimate the volume of material rendered for the supports currently generated.

Lists the three built-in sets of support generation values as well as any custom sets

This selection is also used for the manual placement of new supports through the commands in the Create panel of the Support menu category.

To indicate that the currently selected support element has different generation values than what is stored for the same support element type in the currently selected defaults set, the dropdown item is labeled (modified).

There is currently no way to see the parameter values stored in a set; only their results can be seen by applying the set to support elements present on the mesh.

Prompts for a name of a new set and generates one

Holds further commands

• Rename value set: Prompts to provide a new name for the current set
• Export values of <defaults set name>: Prompts to provide name and location for an XML file to export the values of the current set
• Import values: Prompts to navigate to an XML file with set values to import as a new custom set
• Duplicate value set: Prompts to provide a set name and generates a duplicate of the selected script with the name that was provided3

Rename value set is disabled for the built-in sets

Deletes the current value set

• Does not prompt for confirmation
• Disabled for built-in sets

Lists parameters for selected supports of a type. If selected support elements have different values for a parameter between them, the value shows up as --.

Typing and confirming with Enter immediately adjusts the generated support elements to match the change.

• Single type only (bars, polylines, volumes)
• Empty when no support is present
• If selection in 3D becomes too tricky, use List tab to select supports of one type only

Saves the generation values of the selected support geometry to the currently selected set

For non-built-in sets only

Applies the applicable values from the set of defaults currently selected in the Manual defaults dropdown to the support elements currently selected

Permits selection of multiple different support types at once

Any available support elements are listed here, grouped by the clusters they belong to.

Also, if available, the origin of generation or set values of a support element is shown here, like the support script or a manual action.

• Selecting support elements here is the same as selecting them in the 3D view. Likewise, their context menus are available here, too.
• Selecting the cluster node above a support element selects all elements of that cluster.
• Click the visibility icon to hide or show individual support elements.

Individual visibility is overridden by some switches in the View category of the main menu.

Reruns any script-based support generation previously executed on the current mesh, effectively reverting any manual edits to generated supports performed since the last run, such as adjustment of anchors but leaving elements from other, separate generation methods such as manual placement intact

Select the support script to use

The example scripts that come with Netfabb cannot be edited. However, you can copy them and edit the copies.

Create a new script from scratch

Rename, duplicate, or export the current script or import from file, or create or import and apply a table of value parametrization to generate series of meshes with individualized support parameters

Rename and Execute parametrized script disabled for the built-in scripts

Deletes currently selected script

Disabled for the built-in scripts

Access individual actions of the script

Select the support action to add

Adds the selected support action to the bottom of the current script

Saves any changes made to the current listing to the script

Deletes all current downskin definitions, anchors, and support elements and runs the script with its current values.

These switches and sliders control the visualization of simulation results.

Uses von Mises stress data from simulation results to adjust density map values. Provides a curve editor that maps density factor against fraction of a specifiable stress value.

Adjusts thickness of bars generated with the Adaptive lattice bars support action based on stress simulation

Provides access to the simulation and optimization settings for lattice bar support optimization

Displays count of bars by stress value in increasing order. Clicking the bins selects the respective support elements.

Uses 25 bins

Sets the colors used for things like the platform, mesh, supports, anchors, and down-oriented edges

Adjust this to have the required number of decimal places displayed.

To help with recognizing the orientation of a part after a switch of perspective, the transition to the new perspective is animated. Use this to affect the speed at which the animation runs.

When using the clipping planes, or cutting planes, this switch toggles visible, semi-transparent planes at the cuts. When off, only the contours along the clip or cut are highlighted.

When switching through support entities in the List tab while Zoom to selection is active, this perspective is used when focusing on the respective support entity.

For the command Create new bar, this setting determines whether you need a single or a double-click to place a bar.

Ask on deletion of all support

Toggles whether to ask for confirmation upon choosing to delete any and all existing supports

For calculating the amount of material rendered for non-solid supports, this diameter is used as the width of a single-pass toolpath.

Set this to No when you do not want to create supports as attachment but rather as separate part. Some older applications and formats need this as they do not recognize dedicated support structures. For example, attached support is dropped when exporting meshes to STL instead of the modern 3MF.

When set to No, the support editor ignores any part other than the one you are currently working on in the support editor even when it would intersect with projected supports of the current part. This also includes no-build zones.

Two separate blocks in the build room. One is being worked on in the support editor, the other one (displayed with transparency) is acknowledged by the editor. Note how only a section of the other part is taken into account even though it is actually a full copy of the first (not shown). This is done for performance reasons but may lead to unexpected results like the bar supports to the platform on the far right.

Sets the extra space around a part to be checked for other parts. Increase this if you often work with widespread parts closely nested against each other.

Supports near walls can interfere with the same walls. When using the voxel grid approach, the wall detection is improved but the calculation cost increases.

The size of the voxels affects accuracy of wall detection and avoidance but incurs proportional computation costs.

When applying support from the support editor, you are asked with a dialog whether to keep or terminate the support editor entry in the project tree. The dialog contains a checkbox to choose to always use this dialog. After unchecking the box, your last choice is remembered and the dialog no longer appears. With this option, you get the dialog to appear again.

Typically, a support script is there to generate all required support at once, invalidating and possibly even negatively interfering with existing supports. As such, Netfabb deletes any existing support by default before running the script. Setting this switch to No disables the deletion.

In some additive processes, parts do not require supports to reach all the way to the platform and be anchored there, they just need a flat base to stand on once released from powder or substrate. This setting effectively simulates a fixed distance of the part to the platform for supporting purposes regardless at what Z height in the buildroom the part actually sits.

Switch Projection height from On to platform to Fixed height to enable this function, and use the parameter Fixed height to specify this simulated fixed distance.