Solved Cura infill %

[jens55]

I am working on a model that needs to be quite strong. I set infill % to 60% but the result wasn't very dense. I tried 100% expecting solid infill but if I was to guess I am seeing something like maybe 30%.
I went crazy and entered 400%, just for the heck of it. It's pretty darn dense but not solid ....

I am wondering about my understanding of infill. I always thought it was based on a solid body being 100% infill but that is not what I see.

Is there a setting in Cura that might affect how infill percentage is interpreted?

[jens55]

Looks like it is a setting in Cura somewhere. I fired up Cura on a different computer and 100% infill does in fact give me a solid body. More digging is required ....

[jens55]

My biggest issue was using (and forgetting about it) gradual infill. For every gradual infill step, the infill percentage is halved and the vast majority of my lack of infill was because of that. I had very small infill steps at 1 mm so that most of the model was at very low percentage of infill.
I have also found that infill shape has a bit of influence over how things end up being sliced.
I am not sure that I found all the issues but I am good with what I have discovered.

To sum it up: Operator problem .... nothing to see here .... move along now ....

[oliof]

You could also check out cubic subdivision infill in Cura which generates more infill towards walls, and less further away, similar to how bone structure works. Since most of the strength of prints comes from outer walls anyways, that's probably worth a try.

[jens55]

@oliof, interesting .... I actually use cubic infill normally. I was not aware that cubic subdivision did that - sounds like a good default setting. Thanks !!!

[oliof]

@jens55 cubic subdivision is one of the hidden gems of cura.

[jens55]

@oliof, now if I could only get Cura to play nice with storing it's stuff on a network ....