## 2 Materials and Methods
### Orientation of Parts in the Build Chamber  
A total of 9 possible locations were iterated for the appropriate print location. The orientation position of the 3D printing component was chosen through Autodesk Netfabb software, which contains the Orient Part tool. The tool function evaluates the optimal orientation of the 3D print position from the specified minimum values and criteria. These values and criteria are defined by the user according to production requirements and experience. To calculate the orientation of the part's position, a critical angle of 40\({}^{\circ}\) was defined; the distance of the model from the substrate for band sawing in the \(z\) axis was defined as 4 mm, the limit of construction height was set to 280 mm (the maximum height on the \(z\) axis for the Renishaw AM400 3D printer), and the minimum rotation angle between orientations was defined as 90\({}^{\circ}\). A comparison of the orientation of components in 3D printing, including a graphical preview of the supporting material, is shown in Figure 7.  
The appropriate orientation of the component was chosen according to Table 3 below, which evaluates and compares the following parameters: the area content of the supporting material, the volume of the supporting material, the size of the outbox volume, the height of the model position, and the height of the center of gravity of the model in that orientation. This evaluation is presented numerically and in colors (green, recommended; red, not recommended), and the orientations of the component are arranged in ascending order from recommended (optimal) to inappropriate orientations. To choose the optimal printing orientation, a compromise between the mechanical properties and the manufacturability of the printed parts must be made. It should be noted that 3D-printed parts, contrary to their casted counterparts, are anisotropic because of the nature of the fabricating process. Given that the part is printed layer by layer in the Oz direction, the part is loaded as in Figure 6a, and the 3D-printed parts are the strongest when the load is applied in plane with the layers [27], and orientation nos. 1, 2, and 3 are anticipated to have the highest strength in such application. The layer effect on the mechanical properties is left out because to the best of our knowledge, there is not yet any commercial software that can calculate the stress response considering the layer effect. For optimal support results, having ranked by software, the best orientations are nos. 1 and 2 (position no. 2 is rotated by 180\({}^{\circ}\) compared to position no. 1). In this position, the area and volume of the support material are sufficiently small. Additionally, requirements for the minimal height of the structure and the minimal distance of the center of gravity from the zero point on the \(z\) axis are achieved simultaneously. Other orientations are assessed in detail in the next paragraph. Figure 6: Results of the simulations using a topologically smoothed shifting thumb in the form of von Mises stress contours: ANSYS Discovery Live (**a**) and ANSYS Workbench (**b**). Elaborating further from the optimal support results, manufacturing-wise, the positions of the model in positions no. 3 and no. 4 are not suitable for 3D printing because the support removal from the surface of the keyway will affect its function. In these cases, it would be necessary to choose an allowance for finishing operations, and the production process would further include machining and broaching. Another disadvantage of position no. 3 is the height of the component, which results in long printing time and can cause additional bending around the Ox axis. Additionally, positions no. 5 and no. 6 could be suitable alternatives for the two best options so far (positions no. 1 and no. 2). However, based on the experience of the research team, printing with such inclined supports will cause an additional bending moment that separates the components along the supported side when cooling, which reduces significantly the geometric accuracy.