What is Infill? 3D Printing 101 Video Lecture | What is 3D Printing: Basic Knowledge - IT & Software

did you know that your 3d prints may be
taking longer than they need to because
your infill settings aren't correct well
don't worry because in this 3d printing
101 we're going to be talking all about
infill settings let's get into it
hello my name is Angus and welcome to 3d
printing 101 here on makers muse so what
are infill settings have you ever
changed them in your slicer or you just
leave them as default changing your
infill settings to match your 3d print
can save you plastic as well as time and
money but how do you know what to choose
so let's go through some great examples
to see how you should choose your infill
settings depending on what your 3d
printing but first some science FDM 3d
printers are unique among 3d printing
technologies and that they build parts
line by line layer by layer from molten
plastic in open-air it's this combined
with the ability for these layers to
overlap each other with 45 degrees or
even steeper overhangs that allow FDM 3d
prints to print with hollow cavities for
example with this sphere where only the
outside is printed leaving us with a
hollow ball even the world's most
expensive resin based 3d printing
systems aren't capable of doing this you
either end up with a ball that's solid
or a ball it's full of support material
that you need to drain out of an exit
hole which makes FDM 3d printing pretty
unique because of this is become
commonplace for 3d printers using FTM
technology to print with an infill
instead of printing solid this not only
saves you time because the print is
laying down less plastic layer by layer
it also saves you money because you're
using less material for a given shape
but let's take a moment to explore what
different infill settings actually look
like and why we would use them so here I
have some cubes printing with different
infill settings out of simplified 3d you
can see that once you get to 80%
it's almost essentially solid you don't
need to really go any higher than that
as you can see 10% is a very low infill
setting for a part this size and an
infill setting this load will result in
inferior top surfaces as the part starts
to fill in the top of the cube on the
other hand as you can see the 80% is
almost essentially completely solid and
it's using a lot more plastic then you
actually really need to but depending on
the part you're printing you might be
able to get away with
Eero infill that's right you can
actually print parts completely Hollow
and in some cases you wouldn't even know
the difference it can take a little bit
of trial and error and experience to
work out which files work well with no
infill you want to avoid things with top
flat surfaces that may drip down because
I don't have any support the best files
that work well I wanted gradual changes
towards the top of the part you also
want to avoid parts which have interior
details which for example this inverted
pyramid in this file would not print at
all if you're trying to poop with no
info it simply has no way to build that
pyramid as it gets to that part of the
print there's nothing supporting it
underneath a great rule of thumb is to
start at around 20% infill using the
rectilinear preset and if you're using a
slicer with a g-code preview you can
preview how the infill will look on the
final part if you're using a
sophisticated slicing engine like
simplify 3d you may have access to
different kinds of info for example here
we have six different kinds of infill
from civil fights ready starting from
rectilinear which is the fastest to
print but not the best strength ranging
all the way up to a full honeycomb which
is very strong but does take longer and
even decorative in fills like this
wiggle which is quite nice and looks
very good if you're printing with
translucent plastics like PLA however
this is not going to be as strong as a
full honeycomb infill thanks to its
operations based slicing approach
simplify 3d actually allows you to set
different infill settings to different
areas of your 3d print so you can get
the best of both worlds it also gives
you the option to print sparse infill
every second layer or more and if you're
printing at very low layer Heights of 50
microns or even lower this can greatly
save on printing time if you're
interested in these more advanced infill
techniques let me know in the comments
and we'll cover them in a future video
but what about at the other end of the
scale when would you want to print at a
high infill for example at 80% or higher
well when I build parts of my combat
robots I need as much strength as
possible and for these 3d printed parts
I print with a high info as well as
increasing my outside perimeters or
shells this is the amount of times a
nozzle will go around the outside of the
shape before it does the infill I also
recommend increasing your top and bottom
solid layers to match as this plays an
important role in part strength as well
it's worth noting that increasing your
perimeters top and bottom solid layers
will not affect
dimensions of your part as you can see
here with two cubes are still exactly
the same size so don't worry about that
but again it's important to note that
the higher info parts will take
substantially longer than a low or no
info part and you're going to use a lot
more plastic it's also important to note
when printing in plastics like ABS that
a high infill part is more susceptible
to warping because you're putting down
more plastic at one time which means
there's more plastic needs to cool down
which means it can shrink a lot more
than a part that's got less infill
personally though if you want something
that's completely solid off a 3d printer
I would still print it hollow if you can
and then fill the part afterwards with a
two-part epoxy or plaster that way you
can get a part that feels very dense but
still didn't take very long to print so
thanks for watching we combined with
fast 3d printing speeds course layer
Heights the correct infill settings for
your 3d print can greatly save you time
money and plastic so you can spend less
time waiting for a 3d print to complete
and more time creating if you enjoy this
video here on make us miss don't forget
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makers Muse I'll see you in the next one
catch you later
you