What Is Infill In 3D Printing And Is It Necessary?

Your 3D prints probably don't need to be rock solid, but what goes inside them still matters.

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You may have noticed a weird web of lines inside 3D-printed models. That's infill. Typically, the interior of a model is not solid plastic in FDM or FFF 3D printing. Rather, the slicer (software that prepares files for 3D printing) generates an internal structure that supports the layers above it and provides some extra rigidity to the final product without wasting a whole spool of filament.

Infill isn't part of every 3D-printing process. For instance, resin printers tend to create solid models unless they are intentionally hollowed out. However, on the filament printers most beginners will be using, infill is one of those settings that can subtly alter the length of a print, the amount of material used and the strength of the finished part.

Infill density changes more than...

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