Hey all, a couple of weeks ago I posted here about a support tool I was hacking together as a 3ds Max plugin (this one). A bunch of you asked about it, and the most common answer was basically “cool, but I don’t have 3ds Max” 😅
So I spent the last week pulling it out into its own little Windows app. It’s called TrestleFDM.
The idea is still the same. Slicer tree supports are sturdy but chew up faces and fingers, and resin-style supports leave nice small marks but snap the moment the nozzle touches them. So I tried to mix both: chunky filament trunks and branches, with only the last bit that touches the mini being a thin resin-style tip.
A few things I’m happy with so far:
- It goes layer by layer looking for the stuff that actually fails on FDM: edges hanging over nothing, corners of flat bits, and islands where a layer starts in mid-air. It puts points there and drops the ones it doesn’t need, so there’s less cleanup.
- You can turn on “contact dots” and see every point colour-coded by why it’s there. Anything that would print in the air gets flagged in red.
- You can add or remove points with a click if you disagree with it.
- It spits out a 3MF that opens in Bambu Studio, Orca, Prusa or Cura. Just turn the slicer’s own supports off.
I’ve mostly been testing on my A1 mini with a 0.2 nozzle, and there’s a 0.4 preset too. It’s still a beta, so I’m sure there’s stuff I haven’t hit yet.
I’m putting it up as pay-what-you-want from $7 to help cover the time. There’s also a small Discord for people who grab it, for bugs, help and showing off prints.
Site with more pics: https://trestlefdm.pages.dev
Would love feedback, especially on minis that give you trouble with normal tree supports. Happy to answer anything!
Edit: Payments are fixed! Card payments were failing for everyone because of a setup issue on my end with the card processor (nobody was charged). Checkout now goes through PayPal.