as a digital sculptor and not much of a war gamer, i am really looking forward to this one Ross. There are loads of presupported models out there; but they aint why i got a printer. My goal of making highly detailed anatomically accurate articulated dinosaurs is
I wouldn’t hold out much hope that this is the pro approach, this is quick, dirty, and works. I’ll do a follow up video about pro supporting miniatures
I like this workflow. I normally did it backwards, islands with light and then medium for weight supporting, but I think this is probably smarter. Random little tip, I like to also use the Optimize Supports button in the magic menu. It combines some of the supports into trees without changing the tip locations
In lychee you can hold alt when adding supports which allows you to link that support to another already present support so it doesnt have to run all the way to the ground
I just purchased my first printer and I’m waiting another 10 days for it to come. I have never printed before and honestly, I am overwhelmed though I’m very excited to begin. I’m so grateful I found your channel. There’s so much to learn, but I know if I watch all of your videos I will be far ahead.
I am the main supporter dude for one of these ranges in the video, (good video by the way) Lychee is the best program to support a model but the autosupport feature is very hit and miss. I rarely use the auto support feature, but it's definitely a good starting point, especially for beginners not used to supporting, also don't be afraid of having a play with the different auto support settings. Unfortunately, all of Lychhes best features are behind a paywall which really do come in handy. One big tip use the view feature on the left hand side especially the 'contact' mode
Thanks, would love to know the range ;) And yeah 100% all of the best stuff is behind a paywall. But so many people who watch me, may not see value in laying. So this is a way for them and I can show the pro features in comparison later. At least now, people have a point of reference
You removed supports from islands, some of which were added back in (resulting in extra when you moved the support) when you autosupported islands. Like what you did at 4:50 on the gun, it basically just added what you removed back in. You may be better off just autosupporting with light supports for models of this size if the size of the support was the concern. Any shape you can't follow a path of material down to the baseplate without moving up indicates an island, so if you see that as you're adjusting you may be better off manually adding a small island support rather than rely on autosupport for islands. Not trying to shit on you, your stuff has been super helpful getting me started, just wanted to point out where I saw some potential optimization in process.
Great to see someone teach how to efficiently use the tools available! Having used 3 different slicers, Chitu, Lychee and Tango they all have their strengths and problems when it comes to auto support, but I expect we will get some great updates in that field next year too.
9:20 I didn’t know that you could do the auto support AND then do the island automatically as well. This is actually really nice because I was under the impression that it resets progress and auto supports all over again, I always do my own supports for any models so this changes up my process just a enough this is great.
I would rather say tilt your model the way the more important details, (or details more difficult to support) look rather upwards than downwards. And use more smaller supports instead of few large ones while try to reduce the support count to a reasonable amount! I usually use extremely small contact points and they usually leave no visible mark on the model after removal. And *always* remove the supports before curing!
How to use auto support: 1: Click auto support 2: Remove auto supports 3: Support manually anyways 😂🤣😂🤣😂 9:45 holding Ctrl + Alt lets you place the mini supports manually. 11:05 YESSS! Please creators. Support your models! It really makes the difference!
You might as well just drop the whole auto support and just go straight to island detection. I also drop the medium tip diameter to .35 and small to .25 the basic settings are over kill on minis. If it's a particularly large model I'll go as high as .5 on medium and leave small at .3.
I use Lychees auto supports all the time with a great success rate, always worth a quick manual review of bits that just look like they are gonna fail. Its a shame most of Lychees great support features are only in the paid version. Great tip about clicking off the model before changing support type, not done this so many times.
This is the best explanation for using auto supports that I have seen so far. Also I totally agree with you that Lychee has better auto support feature than Chitubox, talking about the free version of both software. But Chitubox has better settings for slicing. So what I did, it was to follow the instructions you have shared in this video and generate the supports in Lychee, then export the scene as STL, import it as an object in Chitubox and finally slice it and hit print. Needless to say, I was reborn. Thank you a million! Is there a way to buy you a beer or two or a beverage of your choosing?
This is what I needed. I've been printing for a few weeks, and I've had great success with pre-supported files. Also manually supported a few files, and they all came out great. But when I want to print a squad of marines and none of the files are pre-supported, I don't want to spend the time manually supporting every single piece of multiple different poses. I can't justify the time investment to manual support torsos, arms, legs, weapons, etc. when I'm realistically only printing these minis once.
I just click generate medium auto supports, then search islands and add them, and export, no need to manually fiddle around the supports unless you want to same some resin.
Amazing video, thanks for it, didnt know that lychee was so good and practical for adding supports! I will try for sure as this is causing me problems with bigger models and was really scared of putting supports by myself.
I am the opposite and would rather put my own supports on (mostly auto) than use what the designers put on as I think a lot A LOT of them oversupport and cause more finish work to make it look decent. I use mostly light supports on everything unless the model is large then due to the weight I will use medium but rarely heavy. I am what my name says so I could be doing it 100% wrong ;) I just caught the end of the premiere when you said about not printing unless they are presupported LOL - watching it all now and figured I should explain that one.
Lots of unsupported islands, you need to support those, just use very light tips so you don't lose too much detail. Unfortunately I think your advice of leaving hanging detail unsupported (like underside of the weapon) is very bad advice that can lead to cured resin stuck to the FEP. Support every island, just do it with care! :)
@@DragonsinGenesisPodcastit’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s that you still will need to clean your vat or risk damaging your fep/lcd from those unsupported islands floating around.
@@DragonsinGenesisPodcast It works _for him_ - according to him. I'm sure many people have driven without using a seatbelt and it's worked for them, but that doesn't mean it will work for you.
@@tonydillen no you wouldn't. Its bad advice. Im not like the other commenter who is being diplomatic about saying it; Auto support is terrible. Support every island. Use as little as possible but as much as needed to do so. Video advice is bad. Leaving unsupported junk in your vat will come back and bite you later, when you are cleaning resin from your punctured FEP 10 prints later.
I got to agree. I don't like lychees auto supports or infill. Total garbage. Chitubox does a better job for that. On larger models that I have to hollow , I use 5% infill and 20% auto support density. But I have my supports really dialed in. I never need to use heavy for any model I have ever printed.
This only makes a difference on flat areas, and only those flat areas that are 45 degrees to the build plate. That being said, if the stepper in your printer can actually hit that layer height, it's a great option on prints with flat areas that can be angled appropriately.
And what about those 12k printers like my M5S? They have got rectangular pixels... you would need one layer height for one direction on the Buildplate and a different one for the other... or you would need to have a different angle for both directions and tilt the same model differently depending the orientation on the build Plate.
I think this vid is due for an update. In lychee there are now many good settings and much was improved. I tend to get quite good results with auto only - though most of the time I have to add supports here and there. Also I like adding the braces - some times the thin pillars go haywire, especially when they have a 30-40 degree end that goes "far" from the support "shaft". Luckily adding bracings is now automatic and you have tons of options. Grid supports is also a lovely addition to the system - so I'd highly recommend doing an update :D
I love your content, and I 100% get that some people just have no desire or inclination to put in the time and effort to learn to properly support their prints, but good lord, this was kinda triggering for me 🤣 For orientation, there is no right angle. orienting a model is primarily about #1 Protecting the most important parts of the model from needing supports #2 Providing the best support access to everything that needs to be supported. Selecting a support preset won't change all of the supports, only those you have selected. You don't actually need to unselect the mode either, you can just place an unnecessary support, hit your preset (or better yet the keybind for that preset) and then delete the unnecessary support. It will save you some time. To insert a mini support you hold ctrl+alt when you place the support. It will stick one end to where you clicked, then you click where you want the other end to be. And honestly, if you're going to delete all of the auto-supports, do you really even need them to begin with?
This is what works for me 99% of the time, and yeah there is an absolute ton more you can do, but for the majority of people out there. This will be far more than enough. I don’t want to teach people how to run before they can walk
IIRC those are the default sizes in lychee, lol. I use .22, .28 and .4 respectively for my support presets, and rarely use more than one or two heavy supports on the entire model, lol. I've printed things using entirely light (.22) with just a single medium an a first anchor support at the very bottom.
Haven't gotten anywhere with this workflow yet; not enough weight support on just about anything and minimum profile orientation often leads to auto support not having anything to attach to. I'm going to keep working on improving this flow, but there's definitely a lot missing here.
It actually says in the tooltip on screen while you are adding supports to "Press crtl+alt to create mini supports and alt+shift to duplicate and move the selected support"
It has been a while since I was able to do printing work in lychee, but you could have supported all those other islands. There is a way do a tiny point to point support. I don't remember how to do it though. It is something like holding control and clicking two points. You can click between the island and either an existing support or a point on the model because they are so small they don't usually mess with detail.
Quick question for you regarding not using Lychee to do the final slicing... I've been using Lychee slicer pro exclusively for 2 years with the Mars Pro 3 and now Saturn 2. You've recommended doing the slicing bit in Chitubox here and other videos. Personally I've not noticed anything odd with my final prints but have yet to slice a single print in chitubox. Is there something I should be looking for that I'm missing? What type of issues have you run into with slicing in Lychee? I cant seem to find a direct answer from the community on this topic or really much of anything at all other than some older issues with Lychees anti-aliasing and an issue with older Mars printers that may or may not exist today. Just want to know if I'm doing it wrong. 😂
If it’s worked for you that’s fine. I’ve had issues like, gaps in supports. No antiailiasing (that’s a common one I’ve had a few times) the worst was on my Mini 8k where It made the base 5-7mm thick and encroached on the parts themselves
@@FauxHammer Thanks for sharing! Glad I have not run into that yet. Bear in mind I have significantly less printers and variables than you. Gives me something to keep an eye on and If I need to adjust my process It's a small inconvience to slice in Chitu down the road. I may experiment just to see If I notice a difference with anti-aliasing. Cheers, thanks for the video!
The biggest issue I've run into using lychee is that it has a strong propensity to create an empty first layer for some reason. It doesn't always do it, but it does it more often than it doesn't. I always run my sliced files through UV Tools to check (also helpful for checking for islands, since it's analyzing the actual layer images after it's sliced, not the model gemometry before it's sliced, so it can catch islands that lychee can't, even with pro.
Well, counting with the close shots you use in other videos where its clear a lot of scars and/or errors happened, I dont understand your statements saying autosupports always work. I guess this depends on what perfect and good results means for you but if you do want pristine prints, doing the manual supports is a must
Hey Ross, I just started printing and I have dialed in my exposure, unfortunately I have been getting a lot of failed prints because I suck at adding supports! I use citubox auto supports! Do you think lychee has better island detection! Because frankly citubox is so hard to locate and support all the islands! I find it very confusing when trying to support all the islands! Please tell me does it get easier with time? Also thank you for the great videos and advice your a gun at resin printing👌
Amazing video as always! But one think I don't understand, why not do the holes in Lychee instead of ChituBox? It seems to be that the holes feature there works just as well.
Watching this video i have a question, why use lychee only to generate supports and then print from another programm like chitubox (i guess) ? Whats better on the printing process for the others than lychee ?
I thought i said this in the video. Lychee is more user friendly when creating supports, but i;ve had so many weird printing issues in the past that have not occured when i switch to Chituubox. and since chity systems make the slicer and most of the motherboards inside the printers.... I assumed that was why... It may be better now, but as i typically get printers before or around teh same time as Lychee, it's just easier to use that.
I've e been doing it this way for years and it works great! Why don't you hollow in Lychee? It's always works fine for me. Also, what issues have you had slicing in Lychee? That always works fine for me as well. I ditched Chitubox, as I have found I really don't need it anymore.
I don’t hollow in lychee because I don’t slice in lychee. And you can’t export hollowed models from lychee. I’ve had a ton of issues, creating thick rafts that encroach on the models, base layers not working.. antiailiasing not working. Speed settings ignored. Weird holes in prints. Printer locks up. But remember, I tend to get printers right as they are being released so I may be getting issues that lychee fixes with updates early on
@@FauxHammer Thanks for the quick replay! I was just genuinely curious because I've never had any issues with Lychee. I guess I never noticed that you can't export hollow models because I've never tried. Hollowing is so simple, you just toggle a switch and add a couple holes. I noticed there's a switch to export your holes for the paid version, so I guess you have to pay to export hollowed models? Whatever. Nobody is sending me the latest tech, So, I guess that's just a you problem. I use the a very similar method to you, except I just do everything in Lychee. I do turn my medium auto supports down to the minimum though. This saves me from having to delete a lot of useless supports. Also, the hot keys for micro supports are displayed at the bottom of the "prepare supports" window. ctl+alt left click.
Hey I can’t remember the video but I’m pretty sure it was you and you showed a orange silicon wrap that went around the vat to heat them was wondering what it was and where can I find it
I don't know if this has been asked - but - for the 30° or 45° argument I have a question. Sin 30° is 0.5 and Sin 45° is 0.67. So my initial thought is if you cant to 45° you are immediately removing 0.16 from the total build area. So why is this done? Is it to make the supports stronger or to decrease pressure on the build plate?
Sin of 30 is a half - so if the model is say 3 inches high, it will now take up 1.5 inches of length on the plate. That same model, if canted to 45 degrees, will take up 2 inches. So if I am trying to stack the build plate as much as possible, canting all of the models to 45 degrees will mean I can fit less on... so if as you say it does not matter, why do some people say 45 degrees and some 30 degrees? @@FauxHammer
i dont understand how auto supports, differentiate from island supports i would assume its the angle threshold but when i try to auto generate heavy supports first, auto generate, even at low support density, it adds loads of them at 45 degree overhang threshold so theres no room for light supports...
Isn't it risky to leave islands without support like that? If some small piece of cured resin ends up in the vat and you don't notice it can damage the fep on your next print, right? I'm quite the newbie on resin printing by the way.
In my experience. Missed tiny baby islands that have other surrounding supports don't have any effect on my fep and I never find them hanging out on the screen when cleaning the vat. Even after not changing resins for a year during continuous printing. For what it's worth, I do take a silicone spatula and drag across the bottom of the fep between prints while stirring. Bottom line... If they are super small it's less of a concern. If you wanted you can post process your sliced file in UVTools and delete those baby island layers that get missed. I just haven't found the need personally.
yes, this is risky. Any island that doesn't have a layer above it to pick it up is going to leave something on the release film. If it is more than one layer, the next time you print, that is going to get mashed into the release film and damage it. If it is big enough it might even push all the way through the film, resulting in a hole, or worse, into the LCD, damaging it. Ignore anyone who says "I never had any problems with it" Either they have gotten lucky, or they didn't and don't even realize that the reason they go through release film so fast is because they are leaving bits of poorly supported prints in their vat. It's a good practice to run a vat clean between every print job, specifically for this. Even the best pre-supported models are going to sometimes have unsupported islands (especially if you print at a lower layer height than 50um, which is the typical layer height most pre-supporters use), and if you want to keep your release film in as good a condition as possible, it's worth the couple pennies worth of resin.
Ha ha, I was dubious of the the claims in here. I really hate having to clean the resin vat, so am a bit fussy on my supports. And my cynicism was confirmed after following this workflow. Time to clean the vat out and remove the failed prints.
Auto supports will indicate what areas need the most support. Auto supports will use 1 size of support, but manually, you are better to use 1 large anchor. Then many light supports for the details.
Hi, I wanted to print stands for figures like the ones for funko pops. Are the supports necessary in that case? The stands are square, has two pegs and are empty inside. Isn't enough to export the model attached to the base of the printer? Or it may cause issues?
Hello, I am wondering how bad / the long term effects of getting the liquid resin on our hands and also when sanding with a dremal how bad is the dust to breathe in?
@@FauxHammer I don’t know if its because how fast software evolves but I find doing the hollowing and holes in chitubox then supporting in lychee and back to chitubox, chitubox starts saying this model isn’t hollowed… but like it is 🤣 doesn’t seem you had this problem with the versions you are running
@FauxHammer Didn't see it in the show description. That sculpt is bad ass. 100% throwing some money their way. Thanks for such a prompt reply on an almost year old video! Love your work!
I did this and all I got were the rafts. Anycubic Mono 2, exposure dialed in with rerf, resin temp 27C. Could it be something else? The only thing i haven't tried is supporting in Lychee then exporting in Anycubic Workshop.
It could be that yeah, I never slice in lychee after too many past issues. If it's still not holding the model and other pre-supported minis are printing fine, you just don't have enough supports or your supports are too small.
So I assume you just ignore the warning from lychee if you skip supporting those small islands you were not concerned about? (When you go to slice, lychee warns you if you skip island).
So I have been preparing for my gktwo to arrive and followed this step by step with some unsupported models. I also did it with some pre supported one page rules models and lychee located islands. Would it be worth just trying the pre supported files and ignore lychees island detection or add more supports? I only ask as I have heard one page rules stuff have excellent supports.
if your are looking to get the best angle for flat smooth surfaces the angle you want is arctan(pixel width/layer height) i got this from true elite geek video How to Angle your Resin Print for the Smoothest Surface Possible. Real life use of trigonometry! its a good video to understand why.
I watched a video at one point that said that you should change your layer height to a multiple of your pixel width, so if your pixel width is 47 microns you should have a layer height of 47 or ~24 microns
@@linkeroniw if you make your pixel height = to your layer height 45 deg would be your go to for flat surfaces but not sure that is feasible on the smaller pixel screens so maybe multiple is best also wonder how these 12k work for that angle as the x and y would have different optimal angles and that might have some strange interactions?
@@markburton5292The 12k printers are more of a special cases, but the video you gave pointed out that a perfect angle on one side might not translate to the other side. After looking at my watch history, it turns out that the tip I mentioned was from the same video.
4:58 you just deleted 2 supported islands, lol. Btw leaving "small" islands means you will have a lot of small bits of resin cured int your FEP, eventually that will cause a fail print or worse....
actually, they'll just be absorbed into the next layer, I'll loose more detail by supporting it an snapping off the support than just sacrificing that part.
What are the chances that we could get a video that covers how to support large models that have been sliced into parts? I can never seem to get the mating surfaces to be smooth.
Free lychee only has "2D" hollowing. It... works... but it's not amazing. 3D hollowing in Lychee is awesome, and one of the many many features that makes Lychee pro entirely worth the money, but if you want to spend nothing, I do think Chitubox hollowing is probably better than 2D hollowing in Lychee, but don't quote me on that.
Again, what @fleshbox said (do you want a job dude, lol) But it’s a workaround. As I said at the beginning, I never slice using luchee. I slice with whatever app comes with my printer. But I tend to get them prerelease and before the lychee kinks are worked out. I then export the model from lychee as an STL after being supported so I can import that new supported STL into my preferred slicer app. If you hollow a model in luchee and the. Export it, it will not export the hollowing or holes. So I hollow in Chitubox first and Exprot that hollowed model as an STL. Lychee is so much better when you lay fir it. But this is just my first Lychee video
@@FauxHammer like a beginner's guide to resin printing. I've watched many of you resin videos just didn't know if you had an all in one step by step per say.
Fauxhammer: Here's a detailed guide on how supports work and how to optimize them for auto support printing Me: hits autosupport and prints on default settings bc yolo
And what about the "just use auto supports" from the thumbnail? There was a lot of manual work involved. Besides that: Where are the bracings on the printed figure in the end? It seems like it's supported in a different way than shown. I feel a little scammed now, thanks.
Uses auto support and then proceeds to manually remove them all lol. I use Lychee and just just mediums and a tonne of lights. They are easy to strip off and I don't care about a tiny amount of resin to avoid failures. Use mini supports for the overhangs "within" the model. (You do a light and tick the mini support box).
my god i didn't know lychee free had island detection/supporting. it's been set to 'real' by default for me so i just assumed the entire feature was a pro feature.
![SAFEPLANET - ดาวเคราะห์ [ THE PLANET ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4X1XL3I_k3c/mqdefault.jpg)
as a digital sculptor and not much of a war gamer, i am really looking forward to this one Ross. There are loads of presupported models out there; but they aint why i got a printer. My goal of making highly detailed anatomically accurate articulated dinosaurs is
I wouldn’t hold out much hope that this is the pro approach, this is quick, dirty, and works.
I’ll do a follow up video about pro supporting miniatures
@@FauxHammer ill look forward to that too. For now for prototyping early versions i just need consistency in print stability
That's an EXTREMELY cool goal 😮 can I find your work anywhere?
I just got into digital sculpting so I can design my own minis for dnd. So I have to learn what makes a sculpt easier to 3d print.
How do you know if they are anatomically accurate? :)
I like this workflow. I normally did it backwards, islands with light and then medium for weight supporting, but I think this is probably smarter. Random little tip, I like to also use the Optimize Supports button in the magic menu. It combines some of the supports into trees without changing the tip locations
In lychee you can hold alt when adding supports which allows you to link that support to another already present support so it doesnt have to run all the way to the ground
You can add mini support with Ctrl + Shift (reading manual at the bottom of your screen when you have support tool selected ^^)
I just purchased my first printer and I’m waiting another 10 days for it to come. I have never printed before and honestly, I am overwhelmed though I’m very excited to begin. I’m so grateful I found your channel. There’s so much to learn, but I know if I watch all of your videos I will be far ahead.
Thanks mate, this one is part of a playlist that is worth watching from the beginning
I am the main supporter dude for one of these ranges in the video, (good video by the way) Lychee is the best program to support a model but the autosupport feature is very hit and miss. I rarely use the auto support feature, but it's definitely a good starting point, especially for beginners not used to supporting, also don't be afraid of having a play with the different auto support settings. Unfortunately, all of Lychhes best features are behind a paywall which really do come in handy. One big tip use the view feature on the left hand side especially the 'contact' mode
Thanks, would love to know the range ;)
And yeah 100% all of the best stuff is behind a paywall. But so many people who watch me, may not see value in laying. So this is a way for them and I can show the pro features in comparison later.
At least now, people have a point of reference
ChituLock tries to put entire PRINTERS behind a paywall.
@@williamowens5144 Still surprised manufacturers or slicing engine developers haven't sued them for license violations yet.
I'm 3 days into my resin adventure and have yet to successfully print a mini, until now! thanks a ton, this vid saved me much frustration
You removed supports from islands, some of which were added back in (resulting in extra when you moved the support) when you autosupported islands. Like what you did at 4:50 on the gun, it basically just added what you removed back in. You may be better off just autosupporting with light supports for models of this size if the size of the support was the concern.
Any shape you can't follow a path of material down to the baseplate without moving up indicates an island, so if you see that as you're adjusting you may be better off manually adding a small island support rather than rely on autosupport for islands.
Not trying to shit on you, your stuff has been super helpful getting me started, just wanted to point out where I saw some potential optimization in process.
Haven’t even bought a printer yet, great info to prepare me for when it arrives!
Great to see someone teach how to efficiently use the tools available! Having used 3 different slicers, Chitu, Lychee and Tango they all have their strengths and problems when it comes to auto support, but I expect we will get some great updates in that field next year too.
9:20 I didn’t know that you could do the auto support AND then do the island automatically as well. This is actually really nice because I was under the impression that it resets progress and auto supports all over again, I always do my own supports for any models so this changes up my process just a enough this is great.
I would rather say tilt your model the way the more important details, (or details more difficult to support) look rather upwards than downwards. And use more smaller supports instead of few large ones while try to reduce the support count to a reasonable amount! I usually use extremely small contact points and they usually leave no visible mark on the model after removal. And *always* remove the supports before curing!
That’s my next video, this is just for people who are brand new and want a simple process
This is a great alternative to an otherwise painful and boring task. Nice one. Btw adding mini support is control + alt
How to use auto support:
1: Click auto support
2: Remove auto supports
3: Support manually anyways
😂🤣😂🤣😂
9:45 holding Ctrl + Alt lets you place the mini supports manually.
11:05 YESSS! Please creators. Support your models! It really makes the difference!
Superb video. I followed your video step-by-step and finally learnt how to support and brace a model. Thank you!
Thank you, hope this helps
You might as well just drop the whole auto support and just go straight to island detection. I also drop the medium tip diameter to .35 and small to .25 the basic settings are over kill on minis. If it's a particularly large model I'll go as high as .5 on medium and leave small at .3.
Medium supports for weight, small for details is my approach
As a painted more than a printer this Is really apreciated!!
I use Lychees auto supports all the time with a great success rate, always worth a quick manual review of bits that just look like they are gonna fail. Its a shame most of Lychees great support features are only in the paid version. Great tip about clicking off the model before changing support type, not done this so many times.
You press ctrl+alt and then click for support, to get the mini. It says right at the bottom, that entire text explains extra keys for tools
I realised after I finished the edit lol
Really good video. Just my two cents, I use PrusaSlicer for hollowing because it has best internal surfaces (my pet peeve)
I use Lychee pro. Why couldn't I use the hollowing they provide?
"Pro".
Because he's using, and showing us how to use, the free version.
This is the best explanation for using auto supports that I have seen so far. Also I totally agree with you that Lychee has better auto support feature than Chitubox, talking about the free version of both software. But Chitubox has better settings for slicing. So what I did, it was to follow the instructions you have shared in this video and generate the supports in Lychee, then export the scene as STL, import it as an object in Chitubox and finally slice it and hit print. Needless to say, I was reborn. Thank you a million! Is there a way to buy you a beer or two or a beverage of your choosing?
This guide is pure gold. I have lychee pro and i like his hollowing function indeed
This is what I needed.
I've been printing for a few weeks, and I've had great success with pre-supported files.
Also manually supported a few files, and they all came out great.
But when I want to print a squad of marines and none of the files are pre-supported, I don't want to spend the time manually supporting every single piece of multiple different poses.
I can't justify the time investment to manual support torsos, arms, legs, weapons, etc. when I'm realistically only printing these minis once.
If they are all the same, can’t you just duplicate em?
I just click generate medium auto supports, then search islands and add them, and export, no need to manually fiddle around the supports unless you want to same some resin.
Thank you for the support? No! Thank you for the supports!
Amazing video, thanks for it, didnt know that lychee was so good and practical for adding supports! I will try for sure as this is causing me problems with bigger models and was really scared of putting supports by myself.
D simplest explanation vidoe ive ever seen. N clear out some confusion about ive had all this years😊
Thank you for this. This is a great guide for getting started with structuring for brand new printers like myself
thanks!
I am the opposite and would rather put my own supports on (mostly auto) than use what the designers put on as I think a lot A LOT of them oversupport and cause more finish work to make it look decent. I use mostly light supports on everything unless the model is large then due to the weight I will use medium but rarely heavy. I am what my name says so I could be doing it 100% wrong ;)
I just caught the end of the premiere when you said about not printing unless they are presupported LOL - watching it all now and figured I should explain that one.
Agreed
Lots of unsupported islands, you need to support those, just use very light tips so you don't lose too much detail. Unfortunately I think your advice of leaving hanging detail unsupported (like underside of the weapon) is very bad advice that can lead to cured resin stuck to the FEP. Support every island, just do it with care! :)
He shows a method that works every single time and your argument is that you think it won’t work.
@@DragonsinGenesisPodcastit’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s that you still will need to clean your vat or risk damaging your fep/lcd from those unsupported islands floating around.
@@DragonsinGenesisPodcast It works _for him_ - according to him. I'm sure many people have driven without using a seatbelt and it's worked for them, but that doesn't mean it will work for you.
I see your point but for newbies like me it’s great advice. I can guarantee that I’d do much worse trying to manually support it from scratch.
@@tonydillen no you wouldn't. Its bad advice. Im not like the other commenter who is being diplomatic about saying it;
Auto support is terrible.
Support every island.
Use as little as possible but as much as needed to do so.
Video advice is bad.
Leaving unsupported junk in your vat will come back and bite you later, when you are cleaning resin from your punctured FEP 10 prints later.
I find chitubox's auto supports are quite good as well. I have to usually add a few, but i find lychee tends to oversupport.
It’s the island detection and general ease of controls that makes this a win for me
I got to agree. I don't like lychees auto supports or infill. Total garbage. Chitubox does a better job for that. On larger models that I have to hollow , I use 5% infill and 20% auto support density. But I have my supports really dialed in. I never need to use heavy for any model I have ever printed.
if you match the layer height to the pixelwidth of the printer you can always go to 45o to help prevent steps in the print
This only makes a difference on flat areas, and only those flat areas that are 45 degrees to the build plate. That being said, if the stepper in your printer can actually hit that layer height, it's a great option on prints with flat areas that can be angled appropriately.
Exactly what @fleshbox said
And what about those 12k printers like my M5S? They have got rectangular pixels... you would need one layer height for one direction on the Buildplate and a different one for the other... or you would need to have a different angle for both directions and tilt the same model differently depending the orientation on the build Plate.
@@Flashhawk2kat 12K i dont think it really matters your not going to see them.
Thanks for the pointers, not yet into the resin spectrum doing my research. Thanks for sharing.
Glad it was helpful!
I normally do auto add light supports at about 60% then go through and add a couple medium or heavy supports as needed.
I think this vid is due for an update. In lychee there are now many good settings and much was improved. I tend to get quite good results with auto only - though most of the time I have to add supports here and there.
Also I like adding the braces - some times the thin pillars go haywire, especially when they have a 30-40 degree end that goes "far" from the support "shaft". Luckily adding bracings is now automatic and you have tons of options.
Grid supports is also a lovely addition to the system - so I'd highly recommend doing an update :D
Yeah, they've done a lot in the last 7 months!
I love your content, and I 100% get that some people just have no desire or inclination to put in the time and effort to learn to properly support their prints, but good lord, this was kinda triggering for me 🤣
For orientation, there is no right angle. orienting a model is primarily about
#1 Protecting the most important parts of the model from needing supports
#2 Providing the best support access to everything that needs to be supported.
Selecting a support preset won't change all of the supports, only those you have selected. You don't actually need to unselect the mode either, you can just place an unnecessary support, hit your preset (or better yet the keybind for that preset) and then delete the unnecessary support. It will save you some time.
To insert a mini support you hold ctrl+alt when you place the support. It will stick one end to where you clicked, then you click where you want the other end to be.
And honestly, if you're going to delete all of the auto-supports, do you really even need them to begin with?
This is what works for me 99% of the time, and yeah there is an absolute ton more you can do, but for the majority of people out there. This will be far more than enough.
I don’t want to teach people how to run before they can walk
Chrsit, your medium support tips are bigger then what I use for heavy tips.
IIRC those are the default sizes in lychee, lol. I use .22, .28 and .4 respectively for my support presets, and rarely use more than one or two heavy supports on the entire model, lol. I've printed things using entirely light (.22) with just a single medium an a first anchor support at the very bottom.
Ok literally every reply @fleshbox has made is dead in.
My large are 0.48, but yeah this is an absolute beginner video
Haven't gotten anywhere with this workflow yet; not enough weight support on just about anything and minimum profile orientation often leads to auto support not having anything to attach to. I'm going to keep working on improving this flow, but there's definitely a lot missing here.
Thank you, really helped me to get good supports every time!
Thanks, that is great information and I'll be trying it out.
Hope it goes well
It actually says in the tooltip on screen while you are adding supports to "Press crtl+alt to create mini supports and alt+shift to duplicate and move the selected support"
It has been a while since I was able to do printing work in lychee, but you could have supported all those other islands. There is a way do a tiny point to point support. I don't remember how to do it though. It is something like holding control and clicking two points. You can click between the island and either an existing support or a point on the model because they are so small they don't usually mess with detail.
even then they are too small. smaller than they were and I doubt they'd even render on both printers
This was the video I needed to find! Thanks!!!
Quick question for you regarding not using Lychee to do the final slicing... I've been using Lychee slicer pro exclusively for 2 years with the Mars Pro 3 and now Saturn 2. You've recommended doing the slicing bit in Chitubox here and other videos. Personally I've not noticed anything odd with my final prints but have yet to slice a single print in chitubox. Is there something I should be looking for that I'm missing? What type of issues have you run into with slicing in Lychee? I cant seem to find a direct answer from the community on this topic or really much of anything at all other than some older issues with Lychees anti-aliasing and an issue with older Mars printers that may or may not exist today. Just want to know if I'm doing it wrong. 😂
If it’s worked for you that’s fine. I’ve had issues like, gaps in supports. No antiailiasing (that’s a common one I’ve had a few times) the worst was on my Mini 8k where It made the base 5-7mm thick and encroached on the parts themselves
@@FauxHammer Thanks for sharing! Glad I have not run into that yet. Bear in mind I have significantly less printers and variables than you. Gives me something to keep an eye on and If I need to adjust my process It's a small inconvience to slice in Chitu down the road. I may experiment just to see If I notice a difference with anti-aliasing. Cheers, thanks for the video!
The biggest issue I've run into using lychee is that it has a strong propensity to create an empty first layer for some reason. It doesn't always do it, but it does it more often than it doesn't. I always run my sliced files through UV Tools to check (also helpful for checking for islands, since it's analyzing the actual layer images after it's sliced, not the model gemometry before it's sliced, so it can catch islands that lychee can't, even with pro.
Well, counting with the close shots you use in other videos where its clear a lot of scars and/or errors happened, I dont understand your statements saying autosupports always work.
I guess this depends on what perfect and good results means for you but if you do want pristine prints, doing the manual supports is a must
100% agree with you. This is fir absolute beginners
Hey Ross, I just started printing and I have dialed in my exposure, unfortunately I have been getting a lot of failed prints because I suck at adding supports! I use citubox auto supports! Do you think lychee has better island detection! Because frankly citubox is so hard to locate and support all the islands! I find it very confusing when trying to support all the islands! Please tell me does it get easier with time? Also thank you for the great videos and advice your a gun at resin printing👌
did you cure the model before removing the supports (not wearing gloves)? a lot of videos seem to suggest that i should be removing supports first
You can hollow with Lychee and even look for suction areas. Why do you prefer Chitubox for hollowing?
Because I prefer to support in lychee and Alice with Chitubox
As I said, you can’t export a hollowed model from lycbee
What about the improved auto-supports of Chitubox itself. Is it still the better choice to do it in lychee?
Amazing video as always! But one think I don't understand, why not do the holes in Lychee instead of ChituBox? It seems to be that the holes feature there works just as well.
Because when you do holes in lychee the. Export the model, the holes and hollowing do not get exported
And I never slice in lychee
Watching this video i have a question, why use lychee only to generate supports and then print from another programm like chitubox (i guess) ? Whats better on the printing process for the others than lychee ?
I thought i said this in the video.
Lychee is more user friendly when creating supports, but i;ve had so many weird printing issues in the past that have not occured when i switch to Chituubox. and since chity systems make the slicer and most of the motherboards inside the printers.... I assumed that was why...
It may be better now, but as i typically get printers before or around teh same time as Lychee, it's just easier to use that.
I've e been doing it this way for years and it works great! Why don't you hollow in Lychee? It's always works fine for me. Also, what issues have you had slicing in Lychee? That always works fine for me as well. I ditched Chitubox, as I have found I really don't need it anymore.
I don’t hollow in lychee because I don’t slice in lychee. And you can’t export hollowed models from lychee.
I’ve had a ton of issues, creating thick rafts that encroach on the models, base layers not working.. antiailiasing not working. Speed settings ignored. Weird holes in prints. Printer locks up.
But remember, I tend to get printers right as they are being released so I may be getting issues that lychee fixes with updates early on
@@FauxHammer Thanks for the quick replay! I was just genuinely curious because I've never had any issues with Lychee. I guess I never noticed that you can't export hollow models because I've never tried. Hollowing is so simple, you just toggle a switch and add a couple holes. I noticed there's a switch to export your holes for the paid version, so I guess you have to pay to export hollowed models? Whatever. Nobody is sending me the latest tech, So, I guess that's just a you problem. I use the a very similar method to you, except I just do everything in Lychee. I do turn my medium auto supports down to the minimum though. This saves me from having to delete a lot of useless supports. Also, the hot keys for micro supports are displayed at the bottom of the "prepare supports" window. ctl+alt left click.
Did you cure it and then strip the supports off?
Hey I can’t remember the video but I’m pretty sure it was you and you showed a orange silicon wrap that went around the vat to heat them was wondering what it was and where can I find it
Gosh I didn’t know that about the flat bottom. That solves a problem.
"Just use auto-support, it works great!"
*Proceeds to edit EVERYTHING*
Yup, half of the video is modifying the supports 🤔
I don't know if this has been asked - but - for the 30° or 45° argument I have a question. Sin 30° is 0.5 and Sin 45° is 0.67. So my initial thought is if you cant to 45° you are immediately removing 0.16 from the total build area. So why is this done? Is it to make the supports stronger or to decrease pressure on the build plate?
Sorry, say that again? I;m not sure what you are asking with sin 30 being 0.5. 0.5 what?
Sin of 30 is a half - so if the model is say 3 inches high, it will now take up 1.5 inches of length on the plate. That same model, if canted to 45 degrees, will take up 2 inches. So if I am trying to stack the build plate as much as possible, canting all of the models to 45 degrees will mean I can fit less on... so if as you say it does not matter, why do some people say 45 degrees and some 30 degrees?
@@FauxHammer
i dont understand how auto supports, differentiate from island supports
i would assume its the angle threshold
but when i try to auto generate heavy supports first, auto generate, even at low support density, it adds loads of them at 45 degree overhang threshold
so theres no room for light supports...
Nice, this is *exactly* the video I was in need of, I had been wondering how to support stuff, or how to (configure? Setup?) Thrm up
what kind of software would you use to create mini models. Im thinking about trying it out.
Thanks for the content.
Isn't it risky to leave islands without support like that? If some small piece of cured resin ends up in the vat and you don't notice it can damage the fep on your next print, right? I'm quite the newbie on resin printing by the way.
It can be. But these are tiny. Look at the size if the model at the end. Those specs will be picked up by the next layer.
In my experience. Missed tiny baby islands that have other surrounding supports don't have any effect on my fep and I never find them hanging out on the screen when cleaning the vat. Even after not changing resins for a year during continuous printing. For what it's worth, I do take a silicone spatula and drag across the bottom of the fep between prints while stirring. Bottom line... If they are super small it's less of a concern. If you wanted you can post process your sliced file in UVTools and delete those baby island layers that get missed. I just haven't found the need personally.
yes, this is risky. Any island that doesn't have a layer above it to pick it up is going to leave something on the release film. If it is more than one layer, the next time you print, that is going to get mashed into the release film and damage it. If it is big enough it might even push all the way through the film, resulting in a hole, or worse, into the LCD, damaging it.
Ignore anyone who says "I never had any problems with it" Either they have gotten lucky, or they didn't and don't even realize that the reason they go through release film so fast is because they are leaving bits of poorly supported prints in their vat. It's a good practice to run a vat clean between every print job, specifically for this. Even the best pre-supported models are going to sometimes have unsupported islands (especially if you print at a lower layer height than 50um, which is the typical layer height most pre-supporters use), and if you want to keep your release film in as good a condition as possible, it's worth the couple pennies worth of resin.
Mini supports are easy, hold CTRL-Alt, then click on start and end points
Ha ha, I was dubious of the the claims in here. I really hate having to clean the resin vat, so am a bit fussy on my supports. And my cynicism was confirmed after following this workflow. Time to clean the vat out and remove the failed prints.
If someone says to just ignore islands if the missing parts won't matter to you, it's time to find a different video 🤷♂️
For what you use auto supports? I mean you can skip this step (if you remove them anyways) and do it manually, most likely faster.
Auto supports will indicate what areas need the most support.
Auto supports will use 1 size of support, but manually, you are better to use 1 large anchor. Then many light supports for the details.
Hi, I wanted to print stands for figures like the ones for funko pops. Are the supports necessary in that case? The stands are square, has two pegs and are empty inside. Isn't enough to export the model attached to the base of the printer? Or it may cause issues?
you never want to print parrallel to the build plate, the only exception being calibration prints
@@worldwide78128 why not? I see lots of people printing parallel to the plate
Isn't the auto support option and island finder are pay-for options in Lychee??
nope - unless they recently changed it
Hello, I am wondering how bad / the long term effects of getting the liquid resin on our hands and also when sanding with a dremal how bad is the dust to breathe in?
I don’t know. Potentially more dangerous than I even realise.
Hi I'm curious if this is still your workflow or if you've changed it since? Thanks!
It is if I ever do it, but I prefer to just go for presupported models. Or use my ultra fat reflex where auto support is amazing
@@FauxHammer I don’t know if its because how fast software evolves but I find doing the hollowing and holes in chitubox then supporting in lychee and back to chitubox, chitubox starts saying this model isn’t hollowed… but like it is 🤣 doesn’t seem you had this problem with the versions you are running
Fab! Thanks for the video!
Which miniature is at 3:03 with the headdress and a goblet in the left hand? It looked like Creature Caster but I can't find it anywhere.
CA sculpts mate, The Matriach
@FauxHammer Didn't see it in the show description. That sculpt is bad ass. 100% throwing some money their way. Thanks for such a prompt reply on an almost year old video! Love your work!
@@jacewilliams7135 yeah I used to try to list ever model I printed but it got so overwhelming
I did this and all I got were the rafts. Anycubic Mono 2, exposure dialed in with rerf, resin temp 27C. Could it be something else? The only thing i haven't tried is supporting in Lychee then exporting in Anycubic Workshop.
It could be that yeah, I never slice in lychee after too many past issues.
If it's still not holding the model and other pre-supported minis are printing fine, you just don't have enough supports or your supports are too small.
This is great. 👍
I’m confused why you don’t use lychee’s hollow tool and leave islands
Honest question, why don't you just use the Hollow feature in Lychee?
Because when you export it, it doesn’t stay hollow
Lychee allows to you hallow the model on the free version
Yes, but you can’t export that as a hollowed STL
Great tutorial and vid! This really helped me answer some questions I had. Thanks!
Thanks kindly
Great vid mate!
Thanks for the visit
Do you not like using the newer versions?
dude, this was recorded months ago
It takes ages to get the supports out of the way, I have seen people use less supports, any idea how?
Ctrl+A , Delete. then hit Auto Supports.
So I assume you just ignore the warning from lychee if you skip supporting those small islands you were not concerned about? (When you go to slice, lychee warns you if you skip island).
Yeah, fir the tiny ones yeah
Chitubox and halotbox are the two I use, not a fan of halotbox but I use it still.
where did you get the spartan? its such a good model!
www.fauxhammer.com/featured/3d-printed-halo-miniatures-for-ground-command-and-halo-tactics/
Do you do bases the same way, same angle? I get distortion on mine
bases i do at a steeper angle.
@@FauxHammer and still everything default? Ive tried a few things and always seem to get distortion. How steep are you at?
@@madsurfr728 honestly don’t know. I do it random every time. Maybe 20-30 degrees off vertical.
Perhaps exposure is your issue?
So I have been preparing for my gktwo to arrive and followed this step by step with some unsupported models. I also did it with some pre supported one page rules models and lychee located islands. Would it be worth just trying the pre supported files and ignore lychees island detection or add more supports? I only ask as I have heard one page rules stuff have excellent supports.
I often ignore a lot of Lychee islands, if they are tiny, they will be absorbed by the next layer
Alt-key creates a support to a parent
Ctrl-alt is the key for making mini supports
Great tip. Is it shift+alt to duplicate home if last support too?
Great fir fan-supports.
if your are looking to get the best angle for flat smooth surfaces the angle you want is arctan(pixel width/layer height) i got this from true elite geek video How to Angle your Resin Print for the Smoothest Surface Possible. Real life use of trigonometry! its a good video to understand why.
I watched a video at one point that said that you should change your layer height to a multiple of your pixel width, so if your pixel width is 47 microns you should have a layer height of 47 or ~24 microns
@@linkeroniw if you make your pixel height = to your layer height 45 deg would be your go to for flat surfaces but not sure that is feasible on the smaller pixel screens so maybe multiple is best also wonder how these 12k work for that angle as the x and y would have different optimal angles and that might have some strange interactions?
@@markburton5292The 12k printers are more of a special cases, but the video you gave pointed out that a perfect angle on one side might not translate to the other side. After looking at my watch history, it turns out that the tip I mentioned was from the same video.
Yeah it’s a great video
4:58 you just deleted 2 supported islands, lol. Btw leaving "small" islands means you will have a lot of small bits of resin cured int your FEP, eventually that will cause a fail print or worse....
actually, they'll just be absorbed into the next layer, I'll loose more detail by supporting it an snapping off the support than just sacrificing that part.
Thanks again.
Standard Lychee has the option to hollow now.
It always did, but you can't export a hollowed STL from Lychee
Cool video! Can someone point me the name of the amazing miniature on 3:07? He forgot to put in the description :(
The Matriarch by CA Sculpts
What are the chances that we could get a video that covers how to support large models that have been sliced into parts? I can never seem to get the mating surfaces to be smooth.
Well, I've never done it, but I'm about to try on something titanic
Like a titanic tarrasque?
Would be keen to see this too! @@FauxHammer
i just used auto supports all the time. never had any issue
35° ? i just print them straight up. except they have a lot of detail.
Why do you need to hollow the model in Chitubox first when Lychee can do it?
Free lychee only has "2D" hollowing. It... works... but it's not amazing. 3D hollowing in Lychee is awesome, and one of the many many features that makes Lychee pro entirely worth the money, but if you want to spend nothing, I do think Chitubox hollowing is probably better than 2D hollowing in Lychee, but don't quote me on that.
Again, what @fleshbox said (do you want a job dude, lol)
But it’s a workaround. As I said at the beginning, I never slice using luchee. I slice with whatever app comes with my printer. But I tend to get them prerelease and before the lychee kinks are worked out.
I then export the model from lychee as an STL after being supported so I can import that new supported STL into my preferred slicer app.
If you hollow a model in luchee and the. Export it, it will not export the hollowing or holes.
So I hollow in Chitubox first and Exprot that hollowed model as an STL.
Lychee is so much better when you lay fir it.
But this is just my first Lychee video
@FauxHammer Fair do. I pretty much bought Lychee Pro from day one, so I hadn't experienced the free version and didn't know what the limitations were.
Do you have or would you do a training guide .
On what subject?
@@FauxHammer like a beginner's guide to resin printing. I've watched many of you resin videos just didn't know if you had an all in one step by step per say.
@@3dpathfinderoh sure, here you go th-cam.com/video/Gm0-z971tgY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=2pcihdCj3uY-nt1m
Fauxhammer: Here's a detailed guide on how supports work and how to optimize them for auto support printing
Me: hits autosupport and prints on default settings bc yolo
If it works for you mate, and you are happy. Carry on
And what about the "just use auto supports" from the thumbnail? There was a lot of manual work involved.
Besides that: Where are the bracings on the printed figure in the end? It seems like it's supported in a different way than shown.
I feel a little scammed now, thanks.
Happy to help
Uses auto support and then proceeds to manually remove them all lol. I use Lychee and just just mediums and a tonne of lights. They are easy to strip off and I don't care about a tiny amount of resin to avoid failures.
Use mini supports for the overhangs "within" the model. (You do a light and tick the mini support box).
Short: use auto supports, delete all of them and put own
If that’s what you got from this. Good luck
my god i didn't know lychee free had island detection/supporting. it's been set to 'real' by default for me so i just assumed the entire feature was a pro feature.