Rafts

I’m not impressed with Orca’s raft generator. Cura does much better rafts, and now I think I understand why Orca users poo-poo rafts!

A good raft needs a very simple outline, because the point of a raft is to provide an easy-to-print first layer, with no fiddly edges so the print line doesn’t have the chance to pluck.

What a Cura raft does: draws the outline of the raft, which is the footprint of the print with a preset number of millimetres additional margin. The margin smooths out any intricacies, and rounds corners. Having drawn the outline, it then fills it with sparse lines, and the infill lines anchor to the outline. The first raft layer is quite thick. Then it goes over with a second layer (no outline), closer-spaced lines (using the first layer as an anchor), then a couple more layers ending with a continuous fill.

What Orca does: infill with no outline, and I can’t find a setting to add an outline. The consequence is that each time the nozzle path reverses, it has nothing to anchor the lines to so they pluck. Bloody awful.

Hi, do you plan to file this as a feature request?

Raft behaves somewhat similarly to Brim. Could Brim compensate for the shortcomings of Raft?

I’m just opening a discussion at the moment.

I’m not sure what happens if you try to have brim and raft at the same time – I’m not sure you can in Cura. I will have to experiment, but that will be a long way down my list!