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Thanks for the advice!
Yeah, raising most of the surface off the bed was definitely a mistake. The underside of the thing looked like garbage, even with support structures in place (is that normal?).
On my second run, I actually rotated the two parts so that they printed upright. This massively reduced the amount of horizontal overhang, and that helped a lot, but it was still a workaround to a problem that didn't have to exist in the first place.
cyclotron3k-
The underside of the thing looked like garbage, even with support structures in place (is that normal?).
yes, although you can always finish surfaces by hand after printing if you need to get a smooth surface, but it's not something I've done much of.
rotated the two parts so that they printed upright.
print direction and overhangs is a main consideration for me when I'm designing stuff. e.g. I always try and orientate curves / holes so they print vertically from the bed as this makes them circular rather than faceted
bigshape
another thing I try and do when designing parts is to make things as simple as possible.
for example on your tile cover, I wouldn't have introduced any unnecessary shape to the outer surfaces as you are using up extra filament on support structures when it could have sat flat on the print bed.
also, any shaping can become a weak point structurally where things may need to flex such as saddle rails.
maybe sounds a bit boring, but that's just my thought process when I'm designing something.
feel free to ignore!