I chose the first option and printed a small cylinder along with the finials. The first option wastes a small amount of filament, the second can be tricky because plastic can drool out of the nozzle while it is waiting and that will put a blob of plastic on the print every time it starts a new layer. You can print an additional object at least as tall as the finials to give the printer something to do while the tiny finial parts cool between layers, or you can add custom gcode for every layer change that just makes the printer wait for maybe 10-20 seconds to start printing after each layer change. There are a couple ways to prevent the print quality problems that printing tiny layers can cause. If the nozzle goes back to a small area before it has had a chance to cool, you'll end up with a blob.

Notice that when the printer gets to the top of the print, the area on each finial will be very small and will complete printing quickly. Switch to a different browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari on Mac) to run the Java plug-in.' Anyway, that's an incidental matter.I printed four of these at the same time using ABS. My preferred browser is actually Google Chrome, but when I try to 'Verify Java Version' in Chrome I get the message: 'The Chrome browser does not support NPAPI plug-ins and therefore will not run all Java content. Windows 8.1 Control Panel shows Java 8 Update 60 as the only Java installed. In the process of installing that version, I had uninstalled the older Java 8 Update 31. Running 'Verify Java Version' in Internet Explorer confirms that 'You have the recommended Java installed (Version 8 Update 60)'. Then I get the popup message 'This feature requires the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and for Java to be enabled on your system. In the exercise 'Importing and Working with 3D Models', I get to the point where I have selected a part from the library and now I am to click on the option 'Insert in my Design now'. I'm working my way through the Getting Started examples that appear in the right-hand column when DesignSpark is started up. In short, my DesignSpark installation seems to think Java is not installed. This really should go in the DesignSpark support forum, and I have posted it there, but I've noted that very few posts get a response over there, so I'm hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction.

Designspark mechanical 32 bit