Let's print!

We've spent the first section of this chapter learning how to optimize what we can see of the model. In the printing section of this chapter, we're going to learn how to optimize what we can't see of the model.

When we 3D print a model, we have the option of controlling how solid the interior will be and what kind of structure will fill it. How we choose between the options is easily determined by answering the following questions:

Depending on the use of a model, you'll have to decide how the object falls within these two extremes. Most of the models that we'll print in the following recipes will be considered a prototype. We'll learn how to make them economical and sufficiently strong for our purposes. We'll also take a look at how to optimize a model for more stress-related use.

We'll accomplish this by controlling how we print inside the model using the slicer. With the following recipes in this chapter, we'll examine the infill and perimeter settings of both Slic3r and Skeinforge.