

In addition, different materials might require more support than others. Ender 3: Which One Should You Pick In 2023? However, three passes are normally considered the minimum for “strong” walls. The rule of thumb is a wall should be at least two passes of the nozzle or twice the thickness of the nozzle. However, you can make your wall thickness much higher, depending on what you want the model for. On average, you want a wall thickness between 0.6 and 1.6 mm. This is so much true that many slicers like Cura will simply round your wall thickness setting to the nearest line to ensure even passes. Wall thickness should almost always be a multiple of the line width, or the extruder nozzle size. In addition, thinner walls increase the chance of leaks.

A higher setting will increase the strength and stability of the model – but will increase the costs and time required.

Thickness or wall line count refers to the number of passes the extruder has to make to complete the wall.Ī lower setting will reduce filament used and time to print. Often, that means you’re adding internal walls for structural support, which may be necessary on models requiring high strength or more support in one area. In this case, you’re printing more than one wall. In some cases, you can also adjust the thickness of the “inner wall” or “inner shell”. They all refer to the same thing: the outer layer of your 3D print model. Depending on your slicer, you’ll either see “wall thickness” as “shell”, “exterior”, or “perimeter”.Ĭura and Chitubox use “wall thickness”, Prusaslicer and Slic3r use “perimeter”, and Octoprint uses “shell”. The wall thickness includes the vertical exterior of your model or print, usually everything but the top and bottom of the shell. However, wall thickness depends on the required strength, and you may want significantly thicker walls. Normally, that works out to 0.8mm to 1.6mm for walls and 0.8 to 1.2mm for the bottom and top. In most cases, the ideal wall thickness is a multiple of your nozzle size. The shell or outer walls are the most important part of the model, because they’re visible and because they provide most of the support for the model.ĭeciding how thick to make those walls can be difficult, especially if you’re not used to working with 3D print settings. 3D printers allow you to maximize your usage of materials and print time versus model strength and appearance by setting wall thickness to whatever you want.
