How to Fix Cura Not Adding or Generating Supports to Model
Reading Time: 5 minutes Users have experienced issues adding or generating support using the Cura slicing software. That’s why I wrote this article, to find ways you can fix it once and for all.
Keep on reading to learn how to fix Cura not adding or generating supports to your model.
How to Fix Cura Not Adding or Generating Supports to Model
These are the main methods to fix Cura not adding or generating supports to the model:
- Generate Your Support Everywhere
- Adjust the Minimum Support Area Setting
- Upgrade/Downgrade the Cura Slicer Software
- Adjust the XY Distance and Z Distance
- Turn on Supports or Use Custom Support
Generate Your Support Everywhere
One way to fix Cura not adding or generating supports to a model is to change the Support Placement Setting to Everywhere. You can do this by searching for the Support Placement Setting and changing it from the default Touching Build Plate to Everywhere.
Many 3D printing enthusiasts recommend doing this as it has helped a lot of users that were experiencing problems with supports while printing.
This method solved the problem of one user who was struggling to generate support for certain parts of his model.
Another user, whose custom support wasn’t showing, also solved his issue by changing his Support Placement Setting. He then used support blockers to block off support in areas he didn’t want.
Adjust the Minimum Support Area Setting
Another way to fix Cura not adding supports to a model is by adjusting the Minimum Support Area and Minimum Support Interface Area.
Both settings will influence the surface area of the support and how close to the model your support can be printed.
The default value for the Minimum Support Area is 2mm² while the default value for the Minimum Support Interface Area is 10mm² on the Cura slicing software.
If you try to print your supports with a smaller value than the defaults, they will not be printed.
One user that was having trouble with his support being stopped midway through the print, solved his issues by bringing down his default Minimum Support Interference area from 10mm² to 5mm².
Another user, who couldn’t get support for all his overhangs, fixed his problems by lowering his Minimum Support Area setting from the default of 2mm² to 0mm².
Upgrade/Downgrade the Cura Slicer Software
You can also fix Cura not adding supports to a model by upgrading or downgrading the Cura slicer software.
There are several versions of the Cura software. Some of them are outdated and others can be fixed with plug-ins from the marketplace, also be aware that some updates may come with bugs and take a while to repair, though these are rare nowadays.
One user who was experiencing issues with his supports not sticking to the bed, found out there was a bug on his Cura version that was preventing supports from sticking. He eventually solved his problem by downgrading his Cura version.
A few users have also solved problems with Cura and their supports by getting plug-ins from the marketplace.
One of them, who downloaded Cura 5.0 was struggling to find how to generate custom supports. He solved his problem by installing a Custom Support plug-in from the marketplace.
Another user was experiencing issues with his support showing up before slicing but disappearing after it.
He solved this problem by downloading the Mesh Tools plug-in from the marketplace, which he used to fix the model by selecting the Fix Model Normals option.
Adjust the XY Distance and Z Distance on Support Setting
Another recommended way to fix Cura not adding or generating supports to a model is by adjusting the XY Distance and Z Distance.
They measure the distance between a support structure and a model in the XY direction (length and breadth) and Z direction (Height). You can search for both settings to access them.
One user was struggling to put a support structure on an overhang on his model. He solved the issue by adjusting the XY Distance until the support showed up, which did the trick for him.
Another user struggled with generating support after enabling and adjusting his Support Interface.
He set his Support Interface Pattern to Concentric and had his Support Roof Line Distance at 1.2mm2 which made his supports narrow and difficult to generate.
He found his solution by enabling Support Brim, changing the support interface pattern to Grid, and changing the support distance priority setting to Z overrides XY which solved it.
Another 3D printing hobbyist had a large gap between his object and support structure and fixed the issue by adjusting his Support Z Distance settings.
If you are struggling to get your support close enough to your model, you should try reducing the XY Distance and the Z Distance, as it is recommended by many 3D printing enthusiasts. They also suggest turning off the Support Interface Setting to get better results.
Turn on Supports or Use Custom Support
Turning on the Generate Support Setting or adding a Custom Support are also great ways to fix Cura not adding or generating supports to a model. Custom Support can be downloaded as a plug-in from the marketplace.
Custom Support is a plug-in for Cura that allows you to create your own customizable support, being a very useful tool for people who are experiencing problems with the software supports.
A user whose model was falling off because of the lack of support solved his problem by downloading the Custom Support plug-in and creating customized supports just for his model.
Many users recommended turning on the Generate Support settings to solve the same issue. It is a setting that will automatically create supports for your model, while users claim they tend to be excessive, they also tend to solve this kind of problem.
One user, who was struggling to get support on the fingers of his models, found his fix by creating Custom Supports just for the fingers.
Another user who had difficulties generating support on his object also solved this by creating Custom Supports.
Check out the video below by CHEP on how to create custom manual supports in Cura.
