I've been working on a character lately with a bunch of swords, like a whole lot. This model has been especially challenging to print, because those swords stick off of the model at all sorts of odd angles, meaning that they need a lot of support material. I prefer to use Meshmixer Tree Supports for my minis, as the individual trees can snake around complex geometry and they come off pretty easily and leave very little marking where they were connected. That said, there are some challenges that I have to overcome when using those supports.



1: Supporting Supports



Minis often need some fairly long supports, in order to print some weapon or head detail that is high above the printer bed. Tree supports are often leaning at some precarious angle, and I've run into issues where the support will lift slightly as it cools, but due to its length and angle that imperceptible lift gets magnified and causes a nozzle collision.



To work around this, I make support for my support. I try …