The Best Way to Orient your 3D Prints - 3D Printing 101 - 2015 Video Lecture | What is 3D Printing: Basic Knowledge - IT & Software

welcome back to 3d printing 101 in this
video we'll be discussing the best ways
to orient your 3d prints so when you
print your own a photo on a piece of
paper the orientation that you print out
doesn't really matter it's going to look
pretty much the same right but with 3d
printing the way you orient and place
that part on the build platform has a
huge effect on that final part because
3d printing is a layer by layer process
these layers will affect your part
strength part quality print time and
also material use particularly when it
comes to support material but how do you
determine the best way to print your
part well I'm going to work through some
practical examples to show you what
choices I would make and why take a
simple rectangle you could print it like
this on its side or standing up like
this or even crazy angles like this the
most influential factor on your print
should be what kind of strength you
require the layers of a 3d print are
much like a wood grain and will always
be the weakest point of a print with
this in mind you will probably print in
this orientation right yes and no this
is where it gets fairly interesting an
FTM 3d printer generally has a point 4
or 400 micron size nozzle but could
probably print down to 0.1 or 100 micron
layer this means that the finest line
your printer is capable of extruding is
4 times coarser than the finest detail
like resolve on the sides of your prints
so if you need your part to have the
highest detail possible you may indeed
have to print it in this orientation
despite being a weaker print overall
this is especially important for text
and small details such as texture and
why when you're printing busts or
characters you'll generally want to
print them standing up rather than lying
down on their back or side the next
consideration is support material some
shapes are easy and don't need any but
some might and the amount you need is
heavily dependent on your print
orientation more support means longer
print times and more material used
however you may have to print in these
orientations for strength or quality
reasons so as you can tell by now
there's a lot of trade-offs in printing
orientation so let's work through a
practical example I've got a pair of
sennheiser hd25 headphones that I really
like and I wanted to design a headphones
holder for them that fit it onto my desk
the design I came up with so there's a
few considerations firstly I want it to
be strong enough to hold the headphones
but also resilient enough in case
someone bumps into the table and knocks
it I also chose to stick my makers muse
logo onto it I want that to print nicely
and legibly
so what orientation would you choose so
how about this orientation as you can
see the logo looks fantastic due to
being printed along the sides of the
part however we have a problem the
layers are running across the holder
this means this holder won't be very
strong at all there's also a lot of
support material which wastes plastic
and is a pain to remove so how about
this orientation the lines run along the
holder so it should be pretty strong but
now the logo looks pretty bad as
suffering the limitations of the nozzle
diameter the layers also mean that
although this part won't break weather
headphones are held it may break further
down the Mount where the layers have a
very small contact area also again
there's quite a lot of support material
that just leaves us with this
orientation bringing the part on its
side gives us the best of both worlds a
very strong part with nice big layers
but also a pretty good definition on the
logo as it's still along the sides of
the print the only downside of this
orientation some printers will struggle
to print this part without significant
warping due to the very long and thin
edges and particularly the support
that's underneath the edge of the
headphones holder so if you're printing
in this orientation and your printer
can't handle it you may have to go to
PLA or try one of the other orientations
so there you have it as you can see
there's no clear answer when it comes to
print orientations there's almost always
some sort of trade-off it'll just come
down to what features you want most
prominent in your 3d print it's also a
good idea to keep your print orientation
in mind right from the start of the
design process so when you get to that
final print you won't be stuck trying to
find out which way is best to print it
if you enjoy this video please do
consider subscribing to makers muse for
more 3d printing one on one if you have
any further questions please let me know
in the comments below thanks for
watching guys bye
you