Support Blockers Not Blocking
I've been having an issue where I only want a specific area of the print supported. I've tried paint on support blockers and adding a physical support blocker but in both cases I still get supports form the build plate where they are not needed or wanted.
I've added a pic.
I'm using the latest prusaslicer, have supports enabled for support enforcers only.
Not sure if you can see in the pic, but I have paint on support enforcers where I want the supports in that cavity.
Any suggestions?
They don't work like you think they do.
First of all a blocker and an enforcer are only applicable where they actually touch the model. They define surfaces where support should and should not be applied. They do NOT act like keep out areas. They also do NOT apply to the print bed, only to the model. Once those surfaces are defined though the support generation algorithm takes over. At the moment (as of 2.3.x and earlier) the generation is very aggressive. It will generate what it thinks it needs to support the surfaces that you have defined as needing support. If that support happens to put support in a blocker then that's just too bad. For example if you put an enforcer on an area above a blocked area then it will generate support downwards as far as it needs. All a blocker is doing is saying you don't want support for that surface, not it cant go there.
Personally I dropped using blockers ages ago and just use enforcers. Even before the paint on option. Its very literal in going from above to below too. PS2.4 is supposed to have support changes including a snug support option but unless you want to build it from source you will have to wait for an alpha release before you can even try it.
If you post a zipped up version of your saved project 3mf file here though so we can take a look we might be able to tweak the current software settings or orientation to do want you need. No certainties though 🙂
Thank you for your extremely insightful reply.
Thank you for your extremely insightful reply.
I should have explained that when I slice this without the blockers and only the painted on enforcers (you can't really see it in the photo unless you zoom in, but the supports are painted on the upper side of the rectangular hole, which is the only area I want supported), the supports still go to the build plate.
I've used several very small dots for the paint on supports as to try to confine them to that space only, but it doesn't work.
As I said the supports will still try to go downwards regardless in PS 2.3, however until you post a project file then further help is unlikely as we need specifics to work with and I'm afraid pictures are useless.