Mouse ears are used to avoid warping the corners or thin parts of your model. They are also helping with the model adhesion to the plate as an alternative to brims. While brims can be messy and can leave a rough edge all around, these mouse ears have a small footprint and can be placed where really needed. Their removal is super easy.

The standard mouse ears are just thin, round, one-layer parts, but I had very good results with the alternatives that are more elongated and have fewer contact points with the main model.

These mouse ears should not be printed by themselves, they are additions to other models as brim replacements.

How to use:

When you have a model that you think needs brims, think about adding mouse ears. If you want to try out the tweezers in the images below, you can check out my model here: https://makerworld.com/en/models/52414#profileId-54189

1. Download and then add mouse ears to an existing project: either as stl or 3mf. If you add 3mf make sure you choose to add the geometry-only

2. After the mouse ears are added split them into separate objects:

3. Pick the ears you want to use and move them to the desired position. Duplicate to use in multiple places or delete the unneeded ones:

4. At this point you might see some object collision warnings. No worries. You'll have to select all objects and assemble them.

Selection shortcuts for Windows:

1. Hold Shift+mouse drag over all objects
2. Or, hold Ctrl+click on each object

5. After the objects are assembled, you're ready to slice and print. Enjoy!