Support Type and Support Editor

Support Introduction

The support generation routine in Tiertime system is first the slicer will generate all possible supports base on the support parameters, then user can make adjustment base on the result of automatic generation.

click    button to open the support editor, the support generation will also take place as soon as the editor is opened.

Support Types

There are three support types in Tiertime system:

1. Surface support that support a surface

2. Edge support that support edge features.

3. Tip support that support tip features.

Support Parameters

Sup(port) Angle: the tangential angle of the surface that determines if the surface need to be supported.

Top layer: Number of interface layers between support column and part surface.

Top Lift: How much the support will wrap a tip structures.

Min. Area: the Area threshold to determine whether a surface need to be supported.

Min. Length: The length threshold to determine whether edge feature need to be supported.

Support Editor

Top section is the support parameters, these parameter can also be found on slicer setting on the left column of main interface.

below the parameters is a list of all possible supports. The list contain all the support that can be used for the model. Some supports are enable while others are disabled. This status is determined by the support parameters. 

By default the support that are enabled are also shown in the print space for preview with this view icon . User can turn on or off all the supports base on their needs. User can also hide or show supports as they want. For supports that are not interested users can delete them from the list using the "-" button of the list.

Support Filter

Click the "Filter" button will open the support filter.

The support filter allows user to filter support base on support type, support status (on/off), Area threshold and XYZ coordinate range. 

After setting up the filter parameters, click "OK" will go back to the support editor interface but the list will be updated with filtered results. All supports that are not meeting the filter parameters will be omitted in the list.

Support filter is very useful if user want to only consider a specific sub-set of supports.