Creative uses of PrusaSlicer: Organic supports as part of the model

Organic supports in PrusaSlicer are called tree supports in other slicers - and they really do look like a tree trunk and branches. This inspired me to model a Benchy tree, entirely within PrusaSlicer. The trick is to adjust the supports so that they are sturdier and a permanent part of the model. 

In this guide, I’ll show you how to set up the object so that it floats above the bed, and how to set up the supports to achieve the correct shape and enough strength.

Setting up the Benchies

First, import your Benchy (or any other model you want to use). 

Tip: The 3D Benchy is available directly within PrusaSlicer. Just right-click on the empty bed, choose Add Shape → Gallery → 3DBenchy.stl. You can even save your own models to this gallery for future use.

To create a floating object in PrusaSlicer, you have to do a little bit of a workaround. If you try to lift an object off the plate normally, it will just fall straight down. 

However, there’s an easy trick - just right-click the main object, and use Add Part to add a “helper” part whose purpose is only to be lowered below the print bed. 

To select a part of an object, you have to click it in the right panel (clicking the geometry itself selects the whole object instead). Then, you can use the shortcut “M” to move it below the print bed. Now, you can safely move the whole object up, and the Benchy stays in the air. 

Painting supports

Before making copies of the Benchies, let’s paint support enforcers to make the supports only appear where we want them. This is important because otherwise, the object might be a mess - as seen below.

Left: Benchy with enforcers on the bottom. Right: default supports everywhere.

The support paint tool is actually disabled when the object is partially below the bed, so you might need to lift it back up temporarily. Then, use Paint-on supports from the left toolbar to paint the enforcers. If you only want to select the bottom of the boat, the Smart fill tool with a lowered angle threshold is ideal (you can drag the cursor, and it will paint all areas you touch).

Don’t forget to switch to Supports: For support enforcers only in the top right panel.

Copy and arrange Benchies

You can now easily copy and paste (CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+V…) the original benchy a few times - it will keep the painted support enforcers. Don’t forget you have to click its name in the right panel to select it.

Then, you can move and rotate each copy to form the basis for the tree. The rotation of each benchy should not be more than 45 degrees (from the print bed); otherwise, it may have trouble printing with the supports we painted.

 This is my Benchy placement for a nice, multi-layered tree.

Support settings

Finally, the most important part - making the supports stronger. 

As a first step, you have to switch the style of supports to organic within Print Settings → Support material.

Then, you might have to adjust the branching angles. With the default settings, the slicer might generate a separate support trunk for each benchy. 

Comparison of default and adjusted branch angles.

 

I increased the angles as in the picture below, which should be easily printable on newer printers. There might be some holes with extreme branching angles, so you have to tweak it a bit, or even change the position of the objects a bit to make room for thicker branches. 

All that’s left is making the supports fuse with the object and be sturdier. 

I won’t go too much into details. The screenshots below show the individual menu screens with adjusted settings - the changed settings are marked in orange. I’ll highlight the important ones; the rest can be played with for sure.

Top contact Z distance and XY separation between an object and its supports, both set to 0, make the supports fuse with the object. First layer density at 100 makes the base of the support trunks completely solid and more stable.

Extrusion width for Support material at 0.45mm (or slightly more) makes the support material as thick as normal perimeters.

Lowering the speed for supports increases the chance of a successful print.

And that’s it! With these settings, I managed to print out a very stable and solid Benchy tree. It is still a mostly hacky method, so the “trunk” has some holes in it where it branches off, but overall, it is a successful little project. 

 You can download my benchy tree project (with all the settings) on Printables.

I hope this guide inspires you to make some interesting projects! Please share your results in the comments.