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Topic: Fill patterns and when to use them

I know what the general difference between rectilinear and concentric are. (Rectilinear is basically a square pattern, whereas concentric follows the profile kinda like the rings in a tree trunk).

When should each be used for best print quality/speed? I'm guessing rectilinear for primarily square object and concentric for round or more organic objects. But what about a mixture of the 2? i.e. a square profile with holes, round extrusions, fillets and ribs?

Industrial Designer
Fresh Design Works (UK)
www.freshdesignworks.co.uk

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Re: Fill patterns and when to use them

I'm giving you a bump on this because I have the exact same question and it is the only post that came up when I searched.
I am starting to think honey comb fill helps prevent the edges of the print from curling. Other's thoughts would be appreciated.

3 (edited by adrian 2013-04-29 04:13:09)

Re: Fill patterns and when to use them

Honeycomb will produce a much better transmission of load than rectilinear - so when making parts that will find themselves exposed to loads, I tend to use honeycomb. Think "Load Paths".. Honeycomb will also withstand slight deformation under load better than Rectilinear due to the better load pathing..

Rectilinear is faster as the print head doesn't have to change directions as much, so I use this where I don't feel the need for the load-transmission properties of honeycomb.

But with 4 perimeters, ABS is pretty strong by itself - so a lot of my recent infil usage has probably been overkill.

With regard to print stability as a result of the different infills, I've found honeycomb to actually cause a lot more warping as it cools in multiple directions whereas rectilinear will cool in a linear direction only.