Cura Questions - Best Orientation for Strength

We are back with another one of your Kira questions. Remember, if you have a Kira question, leave it in the comments of one of these videos and I will make you a video answer and see if we can get to the bottom of the problem for you. Today, we are answering a question from a good friend of mine, Mamadou, and we are going to be taking a look at his really good question, which is, in Kira or Simplify 3D, which orientation on the build plate provides more strength to the prints? Now, obviously, we're going to be using Kira because that's just how I roll. I have used Simp 3D. There are some videos on it on the channel. But this is a Kira question series, and I thought this was a great question. But I will say that whatever strategy we plan to implement using Kira can probably also be carried over to Simplify 3D as well because when you're talking about print strength, the main factor is going to be the orientation. So let's go ahead and check that out now. There are a few other things, such as infill and walls, that you're going to want to take a look at. For the most part, though, we'll start here. Let me find a good STL to demonstrate this with. Let's see what I got in here. Okay, so let's see. I'm sorry, I'm just looking for a good model that will demonstrate the purpose of this as I want it to. So let's take this one, okay? Simple model, just a couple simple forms. It has holes through it. Now, when using this in its proper implementation, this is an end-stop holder. So you would screw through these two holes and this hole as well in order to mount it. Now, screwing from here to whatever you're screwing it up against and tightening it is going to create vertical pressure, meaning it's going to be pinching the top and the bottom together, okay? So that's what we're keeping in mind in this case, but it applies. You'll see what I'm saying in just a second. So if we take this and we slice it, we're going to have horizontal layers as always. Okay, let's go to preview mode and look at the layers. And as you can see, of course, it goes side to side. Now, if I were printing this piece for strength and it was going to have a high load on it, the orientation I would choose is this exact one right here. And the reason is because as we screw it in, it's going to be compressing these layers, okay? Now, if we were to take and orient this guy on one of its sides and slice again, obviously, it's still going to slice horizontally, but our layers are going to run perpendicular to our holes here or horizontally through them, okay? Which means that when we screw down into this hole right here, if we screw too tight, there is a good chance that these layers will separate. When it comes to the strength of your print, a lot of it is going to come down to stress and the load that that print is meant to take. So I'm slicing a model here that is basically just a cup, and this will be a pretty good example of what I'm trying to explain. So what I'm saying is these layers going horizontally across through it, this would be a bad orientation to print this model in. Most of the time, this is going to be the top or the bottom, so the stress will be going back and forth this way, which is fine. But if I were to take and set something on top of this circle, it wouldn't take much weight at all to split those layers apart and cause damage. So I actually am bringing in a visual aid on this one, and we're going to take a look at it right now to kind of explain how these forces work. So let's take a look. And you can see here, this is a part. It is a U-shaped part. And basically, it's telling you that when you print it in this orientation, it's going to print the ground level, and then right here, it's going to be a layer separation, okay? Which means that there's already a crack built into that model, basically. So if you were to print this part, turn it on its side. So ideally, the shape would be printed in orientation B, where each layer acts against the forces reinforcing themselves. So this side is now a continuous part with the bottom, and all of the layers are going to work together to make this a lot stronger of a corner than you would get from right here. Because any force applied on the outside of these two pieces is going to snap one of them off, either right here or right here, where there's already a weakness in the anisotropic build because of the way that layers are made. Orienting it like this, so that those corners are both on the same plane, is going to give a lot more strength to those corners. Now, of course, this becomes more complicated with more complicated shapes. Now, obviously, this becomes more complicated with more complicated shapes, but you're basically just going to have to test it out and find the best orientation by slicing a couple times and seeing which way you get the most coverage for your angles. So in this case, I would print this bowl or this cup just like this, because any forces from the outside are going to be passed around the rim like that. However, if I were to print it on its side, then it would be very, very easy, if the layer lines were running vertical, to smush it from both sides and get those layers to separate. So orientation is going to be different depending on the part. But basically, like I said, you want to ensure that all of your corners or joints or places where there's going to be a lot of stress, that's basically it. Now, there are a couple of other ways that you can make your print stronger, and that is by adding either more walls or a higher infill density. There is a raging debate online which infill pattern actually gives you the most strength, but it's kind of a silly argument seeing as how having the part 100% solid is going to be the strongest in most cases. I say most cases because there is the rare exception to the rule where having a certain amount of infill will actually lend cross-strengths to the part as opposed to making it completely 100% solid. But we have to work within the limitations of that anisotropic printing style, which means you want the stress to go against your layers so that they don't break and not with your layers. Because if they're going with the layers, those layers will shear off every time and you will be back to the drawing board. So I hope this was helpful, Mamadou. And to anybody else who has found this online, please leave a like. Don't forget to subscribe. And stay tuned because we have plenty more of these Cura Questions videos coming at you in the near future. Thanks, guys. TechNibbers out. Stick around, guys. I got another YouTube recommended video for you right here. And if you haven't already, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Make sure that you smash that Like button. We'll see you in the next one. TechNibbers out.