The Cura Fuzzy Skin printing mode is perfect for giving your 3D prints a distinctive appearance resembling fur or microfiber. Ultimaker Cura provides several options for adjusting how “fuzzy” the skin will be. They are simple enough to comprehend and play around with. Starting with the lowest density and thickness settings, we advise working your way up until you achieve the desired look.
Since 3D printing gained popularity, there has been a preoccupation with creating finished 3D prints that are incredibly smooth, sometimes to the point where they resemble mirror images. The more recent versions of Cura provide the new Fuzzy Skin mode. Here is a tutorial on how to use this special 3D printing mode.
Uses of Cura Cura Fuzzy Skin
The Fuzzy Skin mode is quite distinctive because it aims to achieve the exact opposite of what most 3D printing projects do. Printing in fuzzy mode results in exterior walls that appear uneven and clumsy rather than as smooth as possible. What are the benefits of using Cura Fuzzy Skin for 3D printing? When is the appropriate time to make use of it?
Hides imperfections
Have you ever worried about how to make your 3D print’s layer lines less noticeable? You won’t have to worry about this with Fuzzy Skin. Cura Fuzzy Skin-made external surfaces can hide various 3D print flaws, including prominent layer lines. By doing this, the need for post-processing or fine-tuning slicer settings is eliminated.
Simulates the look of fur
The Fuzzy Skin mode is ideal if you’re 3D printing models of furry animals. Your 3D print’s exterior surface can be made to resemble fur almost precisely with the correct slicer settings. It appears incredibly distinctive and unusual for a 3D-printed object. It’s also encouraging to see models embracing the somewhat haphazard way 3D printers move.
Provides a good grip
Cura Fuzzy Skin mode can produce items with a good grip for functional parts. These are perfect for 3D printing projects like tool handles or bicycle handles. Even though 3D printed objects naturally have uneven surfaces, using Fuzzy Skin magnifies this flaw by several orders of magnitude.
In conclusion, Fuzzy Skin can be an effective tool when applied appropriately. If done incorrectly, it’s easy to make it look ugly. Making the most of it also necessitates fiddling with slicer settings, as we’ll see later.
How does the Cura Fuzzy Skin Mode work?
The fuzzy skin setting in Cura produces a rough surface texture on the exterior walls, as shown in the image above. The slicer accomplishes this by instructing your printer to move the nozzle back and forth while printing outer walls.
The result is an uneven texture, much like a print might appear if the nozzle were unintentionally vibrating. The shaky motion of the printer is entirely under control, though. The surface seems to be a printing artifact because of the seemingly arbitrary placement of the nozzle jittering points.
Prints’ top and bottom surfaces do not produce fuzzy skin when the Cura setting for fuzzy skin is used. Due to the part’s extreme fragility, if the entire model were printed with a wobbling nozzle, fuzzy skin would only appear on the outer walls.
Even though printing on fuzzy skin requires more movement from your printer, the print time doesn’t change much, which is fantastic. The rapid changes in printing direction may also cause the printer, specifically the motors, to produce more noise when printing the fuzzy skin. Users claim that it isn’t noticeably louder, but this may also depend on the stepper motor drivers in your machine.
A Cura feature called “Cura Fuzzy Skin” adds random jitter to the outer wall to create a rough texture on the exterior of a 3D print. Only the bottom and top of the print receive this texture addition; the top is left out.
Remember that the Fuzzy Skin affects your model’s dimensional accuracy, causing it to be larger than the actual model, so you should avoid using it for models that fit together. In this article, I’ll go into more detail about a special setting that gives you fuzzy skin on just the outside.
Since the print head experiences much greater acceleration when printing the outer wall, the model’s printing time increases.
Advantages of Fuzzy Skin:
- You won’t need to use as many post-processing techniques to hide flaws because the layer lines on the sides of prints will be less noticeable.
- It can simulate the appearance of fur, allowing you to create incredibly original 3D prints of animals like cats and bears.
- It gives 3D prints a good grip; many objects, like handles, can be made to have a better grip if you need it for models.
- Looks excellent for some prints; one user used the texture to create a great-looking bone print of a skull.
Disadvantages of Fuzzy Skin:
- Noise is produced when the print head jitters due to the movements that give the surface its rough texture.
Cura Fuzzy Skin slicer settings
Every version of Ultimaker Cura, starting at V2.1 and up, has fuzzy skin mode. To activate Fuzzy Skin mode, you must open the Print Settings window and select the Experimental tab at the bottom. This will display a list of various modeling tools, including the Fuzzy Skin option. You can modify the sophisticated Fuzzy Skin parameters after checking its checkbox.
Here are some details about how these settings operate:
Fuzzy Skin Outside Only
By selecting this option, you can instruct the slicer to only use the Cura Fuzzy Skin texture on the model’s outermost surfaces. This option is perfect if you want to keep the interior holes and channels smooth. The effect is immediately applied, allowing you to see how the model appears in the preview.
Fuzzy Skin Thickness
This setting regulates how much the nozzle will sway while printing the outside surface. The surface will appear more uneven with deeper and thicker variations when the thickness is higher. Suppose you want a more understated appearance for the finished product. In that case, we suggest setting this at a low value (0.2 to 0.3 millimeters).
Fuzzy Skin Density
The external surface of the 3D print’s surface imperfections will be closely packed depending on the density setting. It is measured in terms of millimeters. The surface appears more detailed while the fuzzy texture is accentuated by increasing the value of this parameter. Setting a high-density value is recommended to hide any model flaws.
Fuzzy Skin Point Distance
The parameter’s replacement is merely the setting. It is essentially the opposite of the density setting. A high-density setting automatically sets a low-distance setting and vice versa. You can experiment with this parameter if you’re having trouble visualizing how the fuzzy skin density will change your model’s appearance.
The Cura Fuzzy Skin mode’s parameters make it incredibly flexible and entertaining to play with. We advise starting with low thickness and density values if this is something you want to try. A more subdued Fuzzy Skin appearance will result from this. Afterward, you can raise the values based on how much you like the final product.
Final thoughts
One more intriguing and original way to add personality to your 3D printed parts is by using Cura’s Fuzzy Skin printing mode. It’s welcome to have a print mode that takes advantage of 3D printing’s flaws rather than tries to cover them up. We advise downloading the most recent version of Cura and giving it a try if you haven’t already.
