How much filament are you wasting on the infill of display pieces that just sit on a shelf? Cura's lightning infill prints them almost hollow, with just enough internal support where it's needed. I've been using it for all my big tabletop prints.
What lightning infill is
Lightning infill arrived in Cura 4.12, at the end of 2021. It's a completely new infill type that delivers high-quality top layers while using much less material and printing faster. Instead of filling the whole part with a grid, it grows thin, branching arcs from the inside of the walls, only where they're needed to hold up the top surfaces and overhangs. I like to call them "internal supports", because that's really what they are.
It's not the strongest part you'll ever print, so it isn't for functional pieces. But for tabletops, display models and anything that just needs to look good, it's perfect.
My test prints
Before making this video I tested it a lot, because I wanted to be sure the results were worth it.
- A medieval castle in 3DJake's Magic PLA, about 25 cm tall, printed on my Artillery Genius Pro. It's completely hollow apart from the lightning infill, took about a third of the usual time and used less than 200 g of filament. The top layers are perfect.
- A 40 cm filament astronaut in AzureFilm silk. Vase mode wouldn't have been possible with this model, and imagine the weight at 10–20% infill. Instead it's very light.
- "Mini Alex", a figure designed by Vic De Carlo, who turned the 3D Printing Nerd mascot into me, with a beard, a T-shirt and a filament spool under his foot. Totally empty inside, and it still looks great and can be painted.
How to turn it on
- Open your model in Cura (version 4.12 or later).
- In the print settings, go to Infill and set the Infill Pattern to Lightning.
- On larger parts, add one or two extra wall lines beyond what you normally use.
- Slice, check the preview, and print.
That's it. It's a feature everyone should use on tabletop pieces, because it's silly to waste material.