Sut1576 wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 8:09 pm
i originally printed it with supports to these structures but the supports caused just as much of a mess when they was removed.
Yes. Have you tried tree supports?
i downloaded the design as an stl
That does not mean the design is optimised to be printable, .stl is also used for visualisation. Take the
owls I printed – the download page showed examples of the finished prints, so they had a high confidence.
but while slicing it in orca im struggling to get a good clean print
Look for an option to turn on "print thin lines" (or whatever that setting might be called). This forces thin features to be printed at the full standard line width. Another issue is "trailing" (I have no better way to describe it): when a thin feature gets printed and the nozzle then has to move to another location, a small defect is introduced which then gets added to and added to... You can combat this by tuning the retraction and coasting settings and/or turning on "combing" (which forces the nozzle to move only within the outline of the model, so it does not introduce surface defects).
I recommend you isolate the troublesome areas and run trial prints rather than waste time and filament on the complete thing, while you tune. Those rectangular "ports" for example – isolate that block by cropping away the rest of the model, and experiment with the best orientation and settings for them.
the areas im having the issue with are on the top and botto of the model so even if i changed the model postion is would have the same issue of the other side,
Not sure where you mean in your photos, but for example the wavy defects look like resonance, which suggests you're trying to print way too fast. To detect printer mechanical faults print a cube and see what that looks like. If you want to push the print speed you need to look into resonance calibration.
I don't print anything with the amount of detail you are attempting, but if I was I wouldn't be trying to do it all in one piece. Undersides are never good, they need the minimum possible detail and preferably dead flat. I would, at the very least, slice a top half and an upside-down bottom half, to glue together after printing. This is easy in the slicer: one the right way up and given a negative Z so half of it is below the build plate, and ditto with the model turned upside down (you have to make sure the two splits line up of course).