Cura Support Structure not fully supporting Round Objects

I have been running into an issue with CURA and building support structure. Its not fully building supporting structure for round parts.

This first picture is just to give you an idea of what I am printing. The top half comes out decent. but the bottom half of the balls on the end of the swords just look horrible. In my opinion its due to the supporting structure not printing correctly and stopping on a flat. Am I wrong in assuming that the supporting structure for the ball should look like a bowl?

I’ve experienced this exact problem in Cura. I would be interested in a solution as well (if one exists).

Here is a screen shot out of Cura showing the issue in the preview.

So I checked it in slic3r 1.2.9 and guess what I’m seeing the same issue.

So what gives? Are we missing an option or is this a limitation in both programs?

It’s probably related to the angle settings. Basically both programs assume that a curved surface originating from a supported point, should be printable without support because the angle is shallower than the support threshold. In slic3r you would have to change the settings to increase the amount of angles that slicer will generate support for. For example, out of the box, SLic3r assumes that a 45 degree angle is pintable without support. I don’t have a slic3r here at the moment to tell you the exact settings to change, but that’s what is going on.

OK I was able to play with slic3r a little more. By adjusting the Overhang Threshold from 0 to 80 I was able to get it to fully support the sphere at the end of the swords.

Is the Overhand Threshold the only thing I need adjust? Looking at the preview it seemed to make the needed changes.

In Cura I’m not able to see any difference in the supporting structure by adjusting the Overhang Threshold under the expert settings.

That should be the only thing you would need to change in Slic3r, not sure about Cura.

Just posting a follow up here.
With Slic3r I adjust the Over Hang Threshold and was able to get the part to be fully supported

( I don’t know why all my pics come in upside down)

I still haven’t found a way to fix this in Cura.

The setting you guys are looking for is called “Overhang angle for support”. You have to be in full settings mode THEN open the “Expert Config” window (CTRL+E is the shortcut). It is not an obvious placement for this setting.

Default number is 45 degrees. Change this number to zero to make everything supported. Happy printing!


~Nick

I recently had a case where even with the support angle set to 0, the model wouldn’t fully support.
In attempting to duplicate it here for screenshots, I can’t repeat the issue. It appears to be due to how this model was layed flat on the bed- it starts out standing on end, and was rotated to approzimately horizontal, “lay flat”'d, then rotated 90 degrees CW on Z to remove head overlap and make the support perpendicular to the print.
In the problem case, even setting angle to 0 would leave the end of the tines unsupported roughly like the picture with 90 degree support I’ve attached here to simulate the issue. However, the problem print model still had full support under the arch of the fork, unlike the 90 degree simulation here.

Jamie, I don’t know how you managed to get ANY support material to appear with the support angle set to 90. Please post more details/pictures in this thread if you can reproduce it.

Hmm, now it’s doing it again. Not sure what’s different other than how I positioned the model on the bed. Same general process- rotate on Y, “lay flat”, rotate on Z CW 90 degrees. But some detail of the “lay flat” may have been different. moving it around the bed doesn’t affect it.

That is bizarre. I’ll have to do some more investigation.

Not to bring this one back from the dead but I’m still having support issues with parts in Cura.
With version 19.12, I have a small circular piece. When laid on its side I cannot get it it fully support the smaller circular sections. The support stops flat and does not wrap up the sides.
When I turn the part 90 degrees I cannot get any support material to generate at all.
I have adjusted the Overhang angle for support under the expert settings and it doesn’t make any difference.

Dropping back to Cura 14.09
I can get it to generate support on the bottom half of this part, but not the top when setting straight up.
Again on the side it is not supporting the smaller circular sections.


Here is the STL
2016strap button.stl (120 KB)

So to add to this weirdness I loaded this part into Slic3r 129a

With the overhang threshold set to 0 I get full support on both layers.

If I set it to 26 degrees, it only supports the bottom layer.

If I change it to 27 it supports everything again.

so to bring this post back from the dead and to ask a question.

Recently I was watching a webinar on the new Cura 3.0, I asked about improvements in it supporting curved object and sent them the same part I was having issues with as demo files.

Looks like it is fully supported now.
Here is one more

So here is my question, Can I run the Ultimaker version of Cura 3.0 on my lulzbot printer?

All I am going to do is use it to make gcode and then pass it off to Pronterface to run the printer.

Ya just add a printer with Taz specs manually