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[Guide] Sparse Infill Settings and Selection Tips
[Guide] Sparse Infill Settings and Selection Tips

This article aims to fill out the gaps that Bambu Wiki left.

https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/software/bambu-studio/fill-patterns

 

Start from settings:

Infill & Bridge direction: You might want to check this to make sure your infill is giving the top layer proper support.

 

Infill combination:

Pros: 

  1. Much faster printing.
  2. Suitable for patterns like cross hatch, gyroid.

 

Cons: 

  1. less reliable sparse infill for patterns like Rectilinear, Zig Zag, Cross Zag and Locked Zag. These patterns might sag too much with the combined thick lines on top surface.The top layer of sparse infill might not be supporting the top surface well enough.

 

Sparse infill patterns:

Instead of throwing you a lot of random infill patterns, I'm going to categorize them into 3 types: Universal infills, Specialised Infills, Use With Caution Infills.

Universal infills: you can use these patterns on essentially any model with any layer height. There might be better choices, but these are good starting points.

Cubic: 

Pros: a high infill rate guarantees great surface quality. prints fast. quite strong. normalised layer print time difference.

Cons: self crossing might cause nozzle bumps. straight printing line might cause shrinkage layer lines. 

Specials: creates chambers inside the part. air and water insulation.

Gyroid: 

Pros: Everybody's favourite. Filament efficient for supporting (good top surface quality under low infill rate). Strong. Would be more resistant on shrinkage. 

Cons: inconsistent layer printing time, causing layer lines sometimes. Prints slow and shakes the printer.

3D Honeycomb:

Pros: Very similar to gyroid but it's straighter, so less shakey.

Cons: Slightly slower than gyroid.

Cross Hatch:

Pros: Honestly, I don't know. Maybe it's less shakey.

Cons: worse support performance compared to Gyroid and 3D Honeycomb. Straight line layers causes significant layer printing time changes. Not recommended.

 

Specialised Infills: you only use it when you know what you're doing. Usually just skip these options for most models.

Concentric

Honeycomb

Hilbert Curve

Archimedean Chords

Octagram Spiral

Lightning

Triangles

Trihexagon

 

Except from Lightning, all the patterns above are 2D patterns but multiplied with Z height. You only choose them when you need that 2D pattern. 

 

Lightning on the otherhand would be quite useful for paintings or translucent prints. Or very fast drafts.

 

Use with Caution: there're many catches, use with caution.

Line:

Pros: prints fast

Cons: everything else

Rectilinear:

Pros: efficient, good top surface quality with low infill rate. prints fast. Quite strong if printed well.

Cons: sensitive to low layer height, filament fluidity and infill combination. 

You need to test print a sample, with the layer height you're going to print, with the filament you're going to use. If it doesn't bridge successfully, better switch to cubic or gyroid.

Zig Zag, Cross Zag:

Pros: very efficient, Zig Zag is Rectilinear but it allows line rotation (instead of a grid like structure). Might be useful for some prints. Quite strong if printed correctly.

Cross Zag has a very good surface quality, if it prints, then it's one of the most filament efficient sparse infill options for artworks or building models.

Cons: same as Rectilinear. You need to test print if you're not printing with default layer height, or enabled infill combination, or using filaments other than basic PLA.

 

Locked Zag: see bambu wiki for pros, it's quite a innovative design. it's cons are the same as above. but it also prints slower due to the shell parts.

 

Adaptive Cubic: Not recommended unless you're printing very basic geometry. The generated sparse infill cubics could be supporting very poorly. 

Support Cubic: Not recommended either. 

 

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