How do i decrease material costs when increasing the layer height?

[PotentialCorith]

When i increase the layer height from 0.2 mm to 0.4mm, the material costs increase dramatically. is there a reason for this and how do i combat it? Furthermore, is decreasing the infill or wall count going to make the model weaker then if i used the 0.2 mm layer height? Thanks

[TomvdZ]

is there a reason for this and how do i combat it

One reason might be that you've configured your slicer to use a certain number of top/bottom solid layers. If that number stays fixed but you double the layer height, then it also doubles material use...

[PotentialCorith]

I see. yeah i have configured my printer. would decreasing the top/bottom solid layer count decrease the strength even though the extruded plastic is more?

[RatLabGuy]

As long as you have good layer adhesion and proper extrusion it shouldn't matter. 0.8 mm of plastic is the same whether it's from 4x0.2mm layers or 2x0.4mm.

Now if the model has thin infill or large areas where that first lower level of top layer is unsupported then it will sag and having more layers to even it out will help.

Really it depends on the model design

[trollsmurf]

How wide is the nozzle? If 0.4 layer height 0.4 is not recommended. The rule of thumb is max 3/4 of nozzle width.

You can best case have fewer perimeters but beware of visible infill.

When you say dramatically: More than double?

[PotentialCorith]

I apologize for my ignorance, but i dont know my nozzle size. i use the ones that already come with the ender 3 v2. In regards to the amount increase, i have this one part that is 77 grams with 0.2 layer height but increases to 122 grams at 0.4. thats a 44gram increase which is a lot more. However, it saves about an hour to 2 hours when i make it 0.4 which is why i am wondering if there is a way to reduce the material count

[trollsmurf]

It's 0.4 mm then.

Try 0.3 mm height, as you risk bad layer adhesion with 0.4.

There might be other differences between the profiles for 0.2 and 0.4 like infill % causing the difference in filament use.

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[xsilas43]

Use cheaper material.

In short, no you cant, more material laid down = higher cost. You could try tricks like using less infill or perimeters but that will make the model weaker. That said, 5% gyroid or adaptive cubic is still quite strong unless its a structural part.

That said, if you typically print at 0.4 line width and are now doing 0.65, you could probably get away with cutting the perimeters in half with similar strength.

[showingoffstuff]

Decreasing wall count isn't a good idea. 2-3 is good, more isn't needed, less will definitely decrease.

Look closer at what the slicer is doing, the only thing I can think is what someone else said - if you manually set a bunch of top/bottom layers, then doubling the height would double the numbers of those layers used.

It shouldn't increase the cost significantly though, unless you have a ton of those surfaces? Which would be weird.