Perfect Prints on ANY Resin Printer! UPDATED! 

That was massively helpful!!! Finally less guess work and more of a point by point analysis, I feel better already, awesome job! :)

Dude. I've been 3D printing for over 10 years with FDM. Last year, I got my first resin printer, and I've all but given up on it because of all the failed prints and lack of true understanding of supports. Well, I've watched TONS of videos and still never grasped the full concept of it. That was, until your video. THANK YOU for breaking this down like this. I actually left here UNDERSTANDING how supports are used in resin prints. I'm going to fire her up tomorrow morning and give it a go! Thank you again, for this amazing, very well taught lesson on supports!

Nothing like learning from someone who shares his knowledge in such an amazing way!

I love how when he does the clicks for the holes, he slams the button like he is punching the holes in by hand xD

There's another reason for hole punching a hollow object and that is to allow for breathing during the printing process. When the hollow print lifts from the fep it might have to fight extra vacuum within the hollow room. Punching a small hole close to the build plate will allow breathing and relieve any vacuum pressure. :) Just wanted to share that

So glad I found your channel I was getting super intimidated about using my anycubic until I started watching your videos

About to get my first 3D printer ever, an Elegoo Mars, and this video is definitely one I can see being of great help in moving forward into this new hobby. Thanks so much for your hard work. 👍😁👍

Very helpful video, I just got into 3d printing about 2 weeks ago and I was printing a whole lot of support using the automatic chitubox support option. It's so nice to now know how to support correctly!

The most complete video on the topic ! Clear, step by step and even explaining that not every printer in Chitubox save in .ctbldb ! THANKS

this is great! i just printed a bust of Halo's Master Chief on a Phrozen Sonic Mini with your technique and it turned out REALLY well. thanks for the tips!

OMGosh! That was some of the most helpful information I've across as a novice. Subscribed!! Thank you so much!

Trying this now and works very well. After fixing all islands, I re-slice and re-loaded into the Photo File Validator again to confirm the support additions actually went into the correct position and it reports zero islands detected.

If you have some exotic printer that isn't supported by Chitubox (e.g. a Photon S with the new firmware that only supports .pws), you can slice as .cbddlp after tweaking printer dimensions, then *import it back* into Chitubox. It will rebuild a 3D model (made of cubes) from it, which you can then export as .stl for whatever slicer you have to use to get the final file. You can double or quadruple the horizontal resolution for better precision or if you want to use anti-aliasing for the final slicing. Alternatively, you can export an .stl right away (after adding supports and all that), but e.g. Photon Workshop is said to not like the hollowing that Chitubox does.

I'm new to resin 3D printing and this was so helpful and well explained! Makes setting up supports feel a lot less daunting. Great video

After a day of failed prints (stuck to the FEP) this was great, I learned so much, (i also ordered PTFE spray). Thank you! Can't wait to try again tomorrow!

This video has been invaluable! Im leaving FDM printing for models and switching to resin, and boy oh boy its a whole new ball game but this video answered SO many questions. I literally have to think about uncured resin getting stuck in the print - wow. But its half the fun learning these technique's and mastering their application. Im slicing while I wait for the printer in the mail.

I work with industrials 3D printers like EOS, 3D Systems and such with various powder based materials. I like how you went through and showed how to minimize supports. Over supporting models can cause issues as well since you are using so much more resin, time, and clean up. I just recently got my own resin printer, Elegoo Saturn 8K and ran a pre supported model and it came off easy but I saw missing features here and there. very informative video even though its a few years old. :D

Thank you for making these tutorials! They are great for noobs like me!

This is the video that i was looking for. Thanks for such a good explanation 👍👍

I've had the Photon for a week now. Your videos have been very helpful. Thanks!

I have given your work flow a run through for my photon zero and it works awesome. Thanks for the great advice.

Great video! Showed me not only how to use the Photon Validator for other printers, buy also that I am using waaaaaay too much supports... no wonder I've never had a failure so far (just finished my firsts 500 cc of resin, about 25 models printed in different sizes.

Thanks for this. Very helpful, although isn't this just the same workflow from your first video? The only difference is that you don't save and reimport the file, but otherwise you're going through the same steps within the validator, or am I missing something? Edit: seems like you just have to run the Fix twice and everything works fine.

Thank you for all the tutorials you've helped me start and not fail printing! Much appreciated!

Gave the same printer. I am from Russia and your videos really help. Soon there will be new videos from me.

Thank you for this excellent video. It really helped me to learn about islands and how to properly support my models since I'm new to resin printing. So far I've gotten several successful prints. You've earned a like and a new subscriber, quality content here.

I did it once. Worked flawlessly. Nice 3D printing tips

Would like to see another option for supports that aren't just vertical. Some of the models seem they would do well with tangential supports from side of other strut rather than a single stand that starts at bottom of print.

This is sooooo freaking helpful! I just got a 3d resin printer, and this will make my life easier.

BRAVO !!! all my questions about supports are answered in your video. Thanks a lot.

If you run 'auto fix' in Photon File Validator, that fix doesn't carry over to your model, so when you do the final slice of the model, those pixels are still there and were not removed. NOTE: The Photon File Validator has a 'pencil tool'! You can use it to connect a small island to the rest or you can just erase the island if the next layer has a good connection to the rest. Just click on the red spot and a zoomed in view appears and you can edit the layer. However, if you use the 'pencil tool' to edit, use it as a final step. The steps to take when using Photon File Validator: 1) Open, scale and position your model in Chitubox 2) add supports manually 3) slice model and save 4) open the sliced data into The Photon File Validator 5) run auto fix (this doesn't remove those pixels from your model sitting in Chitubox) 6) go through the remaining layers one at a time and skip over those layers for now that you can fix with the pencil tool later. 7) otherwise add supports to your model where needed by going back and forth between Chitubox and the File Validator. 8) once you have added all the supports, slice the model and Save. 9) now, open the new sliced file in The Photon File Validator. 10) run auto fix again 11) go through the remaining layers that need fixing and edit those with the pencil tool. 12) should be done at this point. NOTE that these edits don't change the model you have open in Chitubox. 13) so you need to save and use the The Photon File Validator file to print from. On any printer?...no idea.

A Very informative video! One of the best ones on this subject I have watched yet. Thank You! :D

Thanks for this, but I have a question. If you don't save your product through the PFV, then all pertinent fixes it made to reduce your number of islands are not fixed and still there. For me and my EPAX, I follow your method. But in the end of fixing, I still send the ChiTu files back through PFV and fix the ones I personally didn't support due to PFV's initial fixes. Doesn't this make sense?

That makes supports seem so much more doable. Thanks

Just got a Resin Printer because I need to make parts that are strong in all directions. Any chance you would make Resin 3D Printer Videos about: 1) Comparison of Plant Based,Water Washable, or Eco Resins 2) Comparison of Cleaning Products for the Eco Resins. 3) Comparison of Ultrasonic Cleaners vs Mixing type Cleaners with different cleaning products for the Eco Resins. 4) Curing Time & Hardness with different Wavelengths of Lights. ex. LED Grow Lights 600nm red / 450nm blue vs the Recommended 405nm violet.

Great démonstration of manual support. A question about weight, so few support will stand the weight ? Bravo for your video

It's worth noting that the current release build of Photon Validator is a bit dated. The source code has significant updates to autofix islands. If you have a friend that knows how to compile code it's worth grabbing the latest source and using that.

I just bought photon, my first, printer, not used, but gathering information, so this will help

This workflow has been described by plenty of people in the Mars Facebook groups for quite a while

Will the file validator run chitubox ver. 7? Aaaaaand, I went to the link and I'm not sure how to download it to my laptop. I'm a big-time beginner in all things computers and printing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I mean I don't even know how to rename files or how to change them. I just ordered a photon mono se and am still waiting on it. which is why I am trying to learn as much as possible before it gets here. your channel is really informative and I'm so glad I found it. Please for the love of god help. That is if you have the time and understand my question. The file validator looks most like something I will need. Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a blessed day. ----Anxious Newbie Printer and Computer enthusiast

Very helpful! Thanks for teaching me how to do it properly, until now I was using the automatic support feature and it was too much!

Thanks for the tutorial. How do you supports the more complex models?

Thanks for this tutorial. I print with waaaayyyy too many supports. I´ll try it your way!

Wonderful! Love how you've simplified it.

Great video! Can you get Chitubox anywhere close to the efficiency of your manual supports by tweaking the settings?

It looks like Photon Validator doesn't support the newer Chitubox format .ctb. Is there any way to get around this issue?

Awesome video! How do you know where the number is, look for an island? When you said, 503, here is 504, was that because you saw the island or was there something to lead you to that area? I've had one I can't find the island for nothing....Thanks!!

You rock! Farmer + 3D printing coach, how fantastic is THAT!? Thanks very much!

Great video and workflow - but your title is a little misleading - it doesn't work with ANY resin printer. I have a Elfin 2 NOVA 3D printer... hopefully Chitubox will support my printer one day.

Do you HAVE to have the settings set to Elegoo Mars? I only own the Photon S and don't have any settings for the Mars, nor were there any presets included in Chitubox when I downloaded it. I can't get the Photon File Validator working with how I'm currently slicing and saving things with the Photon S settings. The PFV is stuck in a perpetual 'loading file'. Unless theres something that I've failed to download and install along with the program I'm completely lost.

got a mars coming in the mail tomorrow, thanks for the guide

thank you so much for your videos, they're perfect. Just facts and reasons, no fluff.

You should put a hole at the beginning of the print so you don't create a vacuum/suction and lessen the force required to separate the model from the FEP during the print.

Great walkthrough! 👍🏻 Did you ever try this with Lychee Slicer and UVTools ?

I'm surprised there isn't software that can automatically add a minimum amount of supports to just those island areas.

I always had problems with the File Validator step until tonight. I have a 4k monitor and need to use the UI scaling, but that didn't play nice with the little popup that shows up in ChituBox that shows exactly what layer you're on, usually cutting off the bottom 7/8th's of the layer number. Quick tip for people using ChituBox (hence now referred to as CTB because laziness), on a 4k monitor and use Window's UI scaling: Navigate to your installation file for CTB, find the executable (.exe) file, right click and go to properties. In the window that pops up, look for and click on the "Compatibility" tab. Close to the bottom of that page should be a button that says "Change high DPI settings", click it. When the new window pops up, close to the bottom of that window just check the "Override High DPI scaling behavior." checkbox There's a dropdown menu below it labelled something like "Scaling performed by:", change it to be either the "System" or "System (Enhanced)" option. Now the layer numbers display perfectly! :D Thanks again mate, I really love this channel and it's completely underrated for the value it's provided. You're the first channel I refer people to when they tell me they're just starting out in 3d printing.

Mystery solved. Thank you. Confidence gone up 100%

Extremely helpful, many many thanks for sharing information..

just a question the support of the "eyelid" why did you choose to have it standing on the model and not from an angle really far away? Is this better practise or not?

How bad is it to use the auto-support function in chitubox? It’s always worked great for me. Sometimes I can even go in and delete some of them, but most of the time I don’t have to. What am I missing here? Or is it just kind of a prestige thing?

So as I understand it; the Photon File Validator has a mechanism which fixes minor (1px) errors automatically but it cannot fix the larger ones. So you run the validator, it finds ALL errors, it fixes MINOR errors (leaving major ones) and then you go back to ChiTuBox and support those major errors (leaving the minor ones, which aren't a serious issue) in place?

Hey Printfarm, thanks for this helpful Video! But there is one open question for me: What's happening with all these unsupported 1-pixel islands. That will be cured in the vat, right? Is ther any problems with it after time? Thanks for your help! Keep up the good work. Greetings Mike

Hi! Ordered a Photon Mono today and never before had a resin printer in my hands.. Did you have a video where every setting is a little bit described? Like off time, bottom layer time .. Kind regards

In Photon validator, you can also click on the screen where the problem island is and manually remove them or add pixel by pixel

Great video! Thank you! literally just unboxed my Elegoo Saturn, Doesnt the inside need supports?

So these supports are stronger than one would assume? IE If I suspend an average sized 4 sided die to a raft and it gets 12 medium supports, it should in theory hold, specially considering it's a smaller print? I would normally just try and print it directly to the bed but most if not all people printing with SLA seem to mention ALWAYS using supports and not directly printing to the bed.

Thank you so much for this. I'm actually excited to try and print something now, without failures....LOL

Question from a new printer: It looks like chitubox has an island detector function when slicing. What's the benefit to using the photon file validator (or UV tools) instead of what chitubox has to offer?

Hi Garret, I'm trying to follow your instruction but each time I'm trying to put support in Chitubox it crash ( 5 part model)! I try with 1.6.1 and 1.6.3 and it crash? Any idea?

Hi - if you are using the workflow of also using PrusaSlicer to get better auto supports, how could you incorporate the Photon Validator? (great videos by the way :-))

What an elegant solution you've bring! Many thanks, man!

i think the holes are not necessary like that. Since the piece is built upside down, you only need to put some smaller holes at the top of ears, head and horns. During the print the resin will have time to flow out, without needing to mutilate the print like that. In this case it can be acceptable since there is a back side of the mask, but it is not the case in general.

whoa, why doesnt everyone do it this way. nice video

That big happy face at the start of the vid tells me Im onto a winner thanks mate....keep up the great work

Is there an updated version or another program that works with ctb files that the newer printers use?

Why doesn't the slicing software use a built in validator to create automatic supports following the same workflow? It seems obvious that the way to place supports is post slicing. So why doesn't slicing software take that approach to begin with?

One question I have is why do most people printing with resin not print with internal supports (honeycomb?) is it primarily to save resin or will that method generally fail in resin?

Why not choose photon as printer and save in that format? The Photon-S can also read photon files with the latest firmware

I'd love to adopt this workflow, but every time I load a certain file, PFV freezes during the "Fix" procedure. Even after 30 minutes of just letting it sit, "OK" never becomes clickable. I can't tell if it has something to do with the file, a bad PFV install or user error on my part.

Now to get comfortable with how many supports are needed to prevent the model from separating from the supports.

Thank you this was just info I needed 💚✌️

I seem to keep getting lines in my prints , I’m using an elegoo Mars pro2 . Hi do I fix this ? Any advice would be so helpful as I’m burning through resin and every print has lines , please help.

I tried Phrozen Transform on the settings of Chitubox v1.63 tho, it couldn't make a cbddlp file. What should I do? Chitubox doesn't support Phrozen Transform yet?

That is immeasurably helpful!! Thank you!

Can I use this process if I only have an anycubic mono X ? It only saves in like a pmwc format or something , not sure if that will open in the validation program

Nice but i cant seem to get it to work with Chitubox 1.7.0 ... any ideas ? thanks

Really good stuff! Thanks for the info!

Q: are the holes for the resin to drain out or just so that it can cure under UV ? Reason I ask is cuz u didn’t show if the model was pointed in such a direction that the holes are parallel to the resin vat for draining.

Are you using the pro version of Chitubox? In one of my other responses I had said that Chitubox didn't create the cbddpl files for either of the Photons, I will try the Igloo Mars tomorrow.

What software is the best to download for a diy laser cutter machine. I've had it for a couple of month but been hesitant cus iam not sure which one to download.

It seems, that this method doesn't work with the new version of Chitubox.You can't export in the fileformat you were saying. Is there a Workaround?

With any resin printer you could also name the file and at the end add .cbddlp extension Photon File Validator should recognize it as well.

QUESTION ON FILE VALIDATOR: I have Java installed and am launching Photon File Validator using the latest .jar file - the app launches fine, but when I try to open either a Chitubox project file OR a .STL, nothing happens. The app doesn't crash; it just acts like I selected no file to open. What am I doing wrong? Sorry to ask here; I can't seem to find help from the devs anywhere. =( Thanks - great info! Subscribed... =)

Why if I slice the file, open in Photon File Validator, correct in chitubox and then slice again and re-open it in Photon I get new errors? Does every slice is different from the others?

You can just set the Z-axis height setting in the support tab, instead of manually moving the base model.

you can also go to the hamburger menu on the top left corner and click on Save As, then under File Type select All Files, then just remove the file ext from the file name and add .cbddlp in its place and viola!

I have a Creality 002R. I did as you suggested and chose Elegoo Mars. Brought the file in and tried saving it and it didn’t have the ddlp file, just Chitubox.

Any reason why my Chitubox V1.6.4.3 will not save slice as a .cbddlp file? I'm using Photon File Validator 2.1 thank you in advance!

Very instructive thanks a lot for that tutorial!

Such an excellent tutorial thank you.