Sometimes the “old school” way of doing things still offers powerful options compared to more recent tools. For Fused Deposition Printing (FDM) printing on higher-end Stratasys 3D printers such as the Stratasys Fortus 450 and Stratasys F900 systems, Stratasys’ own Insight build set-up software offers deep levels of customization. This post describes how to delete Support material from within selected horizontal holes. Read on for step-by-step instructions.
Deleting FDM support material from inside a horizontal through-hole
One of the most popular operations in Stratasys Insight for high-end FDM printers is the Delete Support function. This is a necessity for building parts that will need less post-processing time and is mostly used to delete support out of holes that run horizontally through a part. If you have long through-holes or complicated passageways, it takes time for the support material to be washed out of those areas in the bath, and it’s almost impossible to reach in and remove break-away support. You may particularly want to delete the support out of holes that will be tapped for screws. By deleting FDM support material we may be adding some time to the post-processing because you may need to print the holes under-sized then drill or ream them out to the final size. However, this time is minimal compared to waiting for the part to come out of the wash station or dealing with trapped breakaway support.
Here is a block with several sizes and depths of holes, including two long through-holes. I set Support/SMART to No Grow as follows: In the upper toolbar, click on Support. In the drop-down menu, click on Setup. A new window opens at the right, where you need to click on the small white box filled with black shapes (next to the layer icons):
A new window opens where you can change many of the Support settings (part of the power of Insight):
Once you have changed All supports to Grow supports > No, click on the green check mark to Save.
Now “Green flag” the process and select the View all Layers button. Below you can see the Support in yellow, and the black circle marks the through-hole where support will be deleted.
For your own CAD model, set the View to Side so the hole is straight on. Page up or down through the layers to find the layers of support you want to delete and define them as a range, as follows. [You can’t do this just by entering a layer number in the Z/Layer boxes – you have to also click on the Range Top icon (layer line icon with up arrow) to the left and then do the same for Range Bottom (layer line icon with down arrow).]
In my Example: Page Up to the top layer of support inside the lower-left small hole on the side: this is layer 65/0.60). Click the Range Top button. This will set the height dimension of that layer. Then Page Down to the bottom layer of support. Click the Range Bottom button and now we have our range set.
For this example, I now click the View Range icon to ensure only those layers between layer 46 (0.41 inches) and layer 65 (0.60) are showing – this is the selected range/region of interest.
We will now select just the Support that is in that hole.
In the upper left toolbar, under the Edit tab, click the Delete operation. You will see a window open at the right, where the default is set to Delete Curves. (In Insight software any closed contour is referred to as a curve.) Go down to the Selection box at the lower right. Scroll through the selection filters to change the setting from Any Curve to “Support Material Curves.”
The cursor becomes a white “hand.” Now click/drag/release your curser to drag a box just over the side-hole area that is filled with yellow and grey support layers.
They will then turn white, while the remainder of the layers stay red around it (model material).
Click OK and then see that the support layers have disappeared.
The software will ask you to redo the model toolpath; do this by clicking on the Toolpath icon.
You can now see all support in that hole is gone. That is all it takes when it comes to deleting FDM support material.
Disclaimer
There are a few disclaimers when you are doing this type of operation. Deleting support out of a hole sometimes makes the hole more oblong-shaped. This is because we are not supporting the top of the hole properly, so there may be some drooping inside of the hole. This is fine if you are drilling or tapping the hole anyways. I recommend starting with a small block about one inch square. Add some holes, delete the support material out and print it out. This will give you a little practice to see what will happen before you move on to an actual part. We hope this post makes your next project where you will be deleting FDM support material more efficient.
PADT Inc. is a globally recognized provider of Numerical Simulation, Product Development and 3D Printing products and services. For more information on Stratasys printers and materials, contact us at info@padtinc.com.
(All images courtesy Pam Waterman, except where stated.)
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