3D Printing: Printing multiple prints stacked on top of each other (2 Solutions!)
Channel: Roel Van de Paar
Date: 2019-06-26

3D Printing: Printing multiple prints stacked on top of each other


The Question: Suppose I want to to print several copies of a large, flat object, such as a
hollow frame. If I make an STL file consisting of several copies floating just
above each other then my 3D printer's software happily generates supports for
the upper objects to sit on, as shown below:

My question is, is this a crazy idea? If it will work it seems it has several
advantages. I can print more copies at once than if I tried to fit them next to
each other on the platform, and if one of the prints fails the ones below it
will still be OK. It doesn't take that much more filament than printing them
all separately.
I'll probably try it at some point just to see what happens, but it's not
something I've heard of people doing before, so I'm wondering if there's a good
reason why it won't work or would otherwise not be a good strategy.

Solutions: Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful

== This solution helped 2 people ==
If you can get it to work reliably and with decent quality, it would be a good
solution. However, you might find it unreliable and the bottom surfaces of the
objects might not turn out very nice (as is usually the case with overhangs
that needs support). How well this will work is strongly dependent on the
object being printed, and this probably will only work for a very small class
of objects.
You don't gain much by doing this, as printing multiples "at once" isn't much
faster compared to printing them sequentially (that is, if you have time to
check on your printer and reset it between prints).

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