Learning Through Educational Tools: Infill Style

Slicers have several types of infill, with different purposes for each style. I will cover each of the primary styles available, and discuss how they are used. The 3D printing community is somewhat mixed on which is the strongest form of infill.

Rectilinear infill is one of the first types of infill that most people will use. It provides a decent balance of speed and strength. It is not very complex, and works well as support for further layers to be laid upon. It is a good, all around infill style. I often use it, simply because it is simple, and quick.

Hexagonal (Honeycomb) mimics the design of a honeycomb. People's views (1 and 2) vary in the community, as to whether this is the best infill style. Two articles that I found suggested that it was most efficient with speed, strength, and filament usage. They also suggest that it provides strength in pretty much every direction. Though, neither offered empirical evidence.

Another person performed tests with a few different infill styles. Their results suggested that rectilinear infill is most efficient in print time and filament use. Offering as much, if not more strength than hexagonal infill. I am inclined to agree with his evidence.

In my experience, hexagonal infill requires more movement of the print head. Which is likely to increase print time. I haven't done any empirical tests, but that is my experience. It may very well offer more strength, I use it when strength is required, just in case. I don't recommend using it for more than 50% infill, it makes the printer dance a jig for every line printed. On the other hand, rectilinear is very smooth when printing. I assume it puts less wear and tear on the machine.

Triangular infill is exactly that, infill in the shape of triangles. It has been suggested that it offers strength in the shell direction, but takes longer to print. Honestly, I haven't really used it, so I can't say too much about its practical uses.

Concentric infill basically goes in circles. I use Simplify 3D, which doesn't have the same kind of concentric infill. This is largely just a surface finish, instead of internal circular infill. I mostly use it for effect, like terrain. I have heard some suggest that it is also great for flexible filaments.

I also should mention that there is an infill style called Wave/Wiggle, that basically creates a bunch of wavy lines inside a print. It can be used for effect, or support inside a flexible print. I haven't really tried wither of these with flexible filament, I will try to at some point in time.

While there are several more infill styles, these are the ones that most people use. When you are thinking of printing something, it doesn't hurt to consider using infill style for a visual style, or functionality. Either way, don't ignore any style, consider each, and use them to make your prints amazing!