Normally you don’t want to use supports with a lithophane as it can automatically place supports in the lithophane which will screw up the lithophane. But for some lithophane shapes supports are needed, such as for the circular, Christmas star, and heart shapes. So how to make sure it only places support at the right places?

We will explain the settings for Cura as we do not use PrucaSlicer or Simply3D. However, these slicers should have similar settings. It often is just trying to find what works for you. 

In Cura, you should first enable the supports. Make sure the support placement is on the “touching build plate”. This will, in part, make sure that no supports are being generated inside the lithophane. One of the most important settings to get right next is the “support overhang angle”. This setting determines what angle supports should be placed. Usually, 3D printers can print overhang angles of over 60 degrees. We use this set of 60 degrees to make sure the lithophane is supported and the overhangs can be properly printed. The next setting is the support pattern. Generally, all patterns work except for the line and cross pattern. We would advise going for “concentric” as this places a single perimeter that is easy to remove and provides the structural strength to make sure the lithophane is stable.

The last important setting is to disable “use towers”, this will make sure that Cura will not try to print support towers somewhere inside the lithophane.