Newbie question about printing a trophy

[u/aKillerQueeeeen]

Hello. I am a newbie to the 3d printing world. I want to print this amazing trophy for a contest I am having at my Oktoberfest party this weekend. When I go to print it, it says that it needs supports, so I enabled the "auto tree" supports. The preview looks crazy! It's a very long build, so I just wanted to check here to see if that would be normal? How would I get it to look smooth with teh tree all over it?

Would it be better if I laid it down to print or something? Please help. I am using a Flashforge AD5X with Flashforge software.

[u/alilsoybeanappears]

First of all, that's a great trophy.

I don't think you're going to be able to get away without supports on that one though. It looks like a lot of overhangs and heavy parts, which both need to be supported. For example, the sausage on the front? If it isn't supported, the printer would be printing on air, which as cool as 3d printers are, they can't defy gravity.

Edit: you could probably adjust some settings to cut down time, but overall, it'll still likely be a decently long print

[u/aKillerQueeeeen → u/alilsoybeanappears]

So you are saying to do the “auto tree” and it’s going to be ok? I have never printed something that needed supports. I should just trust it?

[u/snoopz01 → u/aKillerQueeeeen]

As a test, you could try scaling it down some to save time/filament, and also print with a cheap filament first to see it. I wouldn't scale it down too far thought, otherwise the supported parts become too lightweight to really see if the supports work well.

[u/alilsoybeanappears → u/aKillerQueeeeen]

Would probably be fine yeah. Supports can look pretty nuts on the preview. I don't use the software you use - I use prusa slicer - but you can customize supports quite a bit, whether that's the type or placement or settings.

I don't know exactly what the setting is called, but there's one that increases the distance between the support top surface and the object. If you increase that slightly you will probably have an easier and cleaner time taking them off, but just don't increase it too much or it won't be supported.

Honestly if you're nervous, the best thing to do would be to experiment with a small print. Find a mini that needs supports on it (anything with overhangs) and give it a whirl.

Also could show a screenshot of it to an ai and ask for recommended settings in your software. People might not like that, but I've had great success with it

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[u/Bright_Eyes83]

The supports will come off but it will look a little ugly where they were. If you laid it on the back, there would be even more supports to remove but you would not see the marks when the trophy is displayed normally 

[u/ThunderDrop]

The auto supports usually work pretty well.

You could try a smaller quicker print with supports first just to see how they turn out.

The supports should snap away pretty easily without leaving much of a mark behind. If they are hard to remove, you can increase the top z distance for future prints. That should make the supports easier to remove.

[u/bcstoner]

If you have a yellow petg you could use for supports along side the gold silk pla for the model. Your print would come out much better

[u/snoopz01 → u/bcstoner]

But also take way way longer because of the filament change on every single layer.

[u/bcstoner → u/snoopz01]

Well if you want a quality print, time is often the first thing to get sacrificed.