3D printing has a way of unlocking anyone’s inner designer in the most thrilling, almost child-like way. Watching your ideas literally build themselves into existence is enough to set your imagination on fire. But if you’re stepping into 3D printing for the first time, it’s worth taking a moment to understand a few design basics before diving in headfirst. Even having a general awareness of these fundamentals can help you land on both feet instead of just one. With that in mind, here are five simple concepts that will help guide any beginner 3D printing designer.
Quantity of Material Used
One of the biggest concerns for any designer—or really anyone paying attention to the economics of 3D printing—is figuring out how to minimize material waste with each print. Some models are originally meant to be printed as a single, unified piece, but that can quickly become inefficient. Any free-standing features will need supports, because a printer can’t just drop filament into mid-air. When a design has too many of these unsupported sections, the amount of required support material grows fast, and suddenly you’re burning through filament on supports instead of on the part you actually want.
A common workaround is to redesign the model so it’s assembled after printing, laying each component flat on the print bed to eliminate—or at least drastically reduce—the need for supports. Skilled designers spend a lot of time fine-tuning their models to print cleanly without extra structures, which pays off not only for a single print but especially when producing the same piece multiple times.
Of course, there will always be situations where supports are unavoidable, especially when structural strength is on the line. But exploring ways to cut down on unnecessary material use should always be a key consideration in any designer’s process.
Constructability Design
As mentioned earlier, laying models plat prevents burning through extra plastic, but what if your piece is so complex that it just can’t seem to get away from requiring many auto generated supports? A great way to approach this is to think of your piece in a means of assembling it together. Experienced designers are always looking for ways of rethinking how the model can be constructed after printing. This is an effective strategy, to design individual components so they can lie flat on the print bed and then be assembled afterward, greatly reducing the need for supports.
Thoughtful attention to the model’s geometry also helps limit excess material, but it’s equally important to consider how difficult the shape will be for the printer to handle. The more challenging a form is to print, the higher the likelihood of failed attempts—and nothing wastes filament faster than a print that doesn’t finish.
Orientation and Structural Consideration
For any piece you plan to print, you’ll first need to generate a gcode file using slicing software. Within that software, the designer chooses the orientation, infill density, and other settings that will directly impact how the part prints. Since you’re the one deciding how the piece is positioned, it’s important to remember that a 3D printer can only lay down material in horizontal layers. This means the part will always be strongest along those printed lines and weakest where each layer meets the next.
Because of that, it helps to consider the purpose of your design before committing to an orientation. For a piece that’s especially long, for example, it often makes sense to position it so the layers run along its length, allowing it to resist tension across the grain instead of with it.
When printing a piece that requires assembly for the final build, if each piece requires the print layers to run in different direction from each other for their strength, it’s best to print each piece individually rather than all at the same time so you can specifically orientate each piece to be printed for it’s best structural performance.
Z-seam
The term Z-seam might be completely new if you’re just getting into the hobby. When a printer starts a new layer, it begins and ends in the same spot, and at that point the machine slightly overlaps the start and finish to create a clean seal. Without this Z-seam, every layer would have a clear weak point that could easily separate from the rest of the print.
For pieces meant purely for aesthetics, dealing with the Z-seam usually just means rotating the model so the seam is placed somewhere it won’t be noticeable when the piece is on display. But for prints with moving parts, tight-fitting components, or any kind of interacting geometry, the Z-seam’s location becomes much more important to consider. Slicing software will give you control over where you want the z-seam to be located, so try out different z seam set-ups for better results.
Proximity of Parts
When printing different parts at the same time, it should become habit to group parts of similar heights next to each other. The tallest parts especially should grouped close together on the printer bed. This may not appear to matter much as the print starts the first layers, but as the print progresses past completion of the shorter pieces, the print head will jump back and forth across the bed to continue printing the taller pieces.
This excessive movement can possibly cause a few issues, the first being that when the print head jumps quickly from one piece to another, it introduces the chance that the nozzle can snag the piece and pull it off form the print bed. For especially taller pieces, excessive printer movement can build up momentum at the taller end, which could also knock the piece off of the printer bed. Aside from the printed pieces themselves, excessive movement could also be a concern for progressing the wear and tear of the moving parts of the 3D printer, especially for printers where the print bed provides the y-axis movement.
Conclusion
3D printing has a special way of awakening your inner designer, transforming ideas into something real and wonderfully tangible. And while the process invites play and experimentation, a little understanding of the basics can go a long way in keeping your creativity focused and frustration-free. With just a bit of foundational knowledge, you’ll step into your next project with clarity and confidence. Keep these five simple concepts in mind, and you’ll be well on your way to designing with purpose—and enjoyment.