General Best Practices

1. Getting columns, posts, and arcades to resolve during printing:

Anytime you have a column or post in your model, do your best to make sure it is attached at both the top and bottom. Granted you won't always be able to do this, but any steps you can take to ensure the model survives printing and handling you will be better off. Dangling parts are just waiting to be broken...

For example:

This CAD model of a hospital was to be printed on Z-corp machines and integrated into a urethane milled terrain base. The columns are within the printing tolerances of the z-corp and are greater than .05", so they will indeed resolve.

If the terrain mesh is removed, and the part to be printed is seen with out it, those columns on the front of the building are free hanging.

Again, the chances of them being bumped and broken are pretty high. Even if the part is infiltrated with CA or epoxy, they are still very "spindly" and fragile.

You best best is to either Boolean Split the section of terrain below it and combine it with the 3-d printed part, or just add in a basic block that is the appropriate shape as shown here.

The smaller the scale or the smaller the part, the greater the risk of breakage and the more important it is to follow this hint. I have found this technique to be useful regardless of the print machine or medium. The part survives, looks correct and everyone involved is happier because of it.