How to Lower Your 3D Printer Material Cost Using this Trick in GrabCAD Print
GrabCAD Print has multiple features that allow you to lower your 3D printer material cost, including making parts hallow, optimizing the orientation, and re-scaling. Learn how to apply these options here!
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Step 1: Overview
GrabCAD Print has multiple features that allow you to lower your 3D printer material cost. We review each of the features and settings in this tutorial!
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Step 2: Check Part Orientation
- Arrange Tray
- Select Optimize: this will arrange the part to optimize for best material consumption.
- Click Arrange This Tray
When you see the new orientation, you can select Estimate at the bottom of the screen to see how much time and material usage was reduced.
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Step 3: Support Strength
Another feature you can use is Support Strength (formerly known as Grid Style). This setting is helpful to reduce the chance of curling occurring during printing.
- Go to Model Settings
- More Settings
- Support Strength Option: here you can choose between Lite, Standard or Heavy.
This feature also helps you control the density of the support structure and how much support it gives:
- Lite: use this for delicate, small models
- Standard: good for regular structures
- Heavy: good for flexible materials
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Step 4: Re-scale the Model
When you reduce the size of the model, you're minimizing the time it takes to print and materials usage.
Re-scale your model by:
- Selecting Scale from the right menu
- In the fields, type in what you want to re-size the model by. In this tutorial, we reduced the size by 50%.
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Step 5: Hollow the Part
Let's face it: large and bulky models use a LOT of material, and this can significantly increase your 3D printing cost! But don't worry, GrabCAD Print has a great feature to prevent this.
Follow these steps:
- Select the Print Settings gear icon
- Check the Hollow the part box
By doing this, GrabCAD Print fills the model with support material. You can even define how thick you want the walls to be!
