Why so fluffy?
I’m new to 3D printing and don’t really know if this is something that can be prevented on Ultimaker 2. I exported an *.stl from a *.max file in 3D Max and set it to high quality print in Cura.
Maybe something to do with your retraction?
@Michael_Johnson hmm… I did not tinker with the temperature settings yet, might try and see how that goes.
@bryson_oneill (looking up retraction)
@Dan_Petrovic Retraction is when your drive gear pulls plastic out of the hotzone of your extruder during travel (IE movement where your machine doesn’t print.) Those hairs follow your travel so that means either your machine is under/over retracting your filament, causing plastic to ooze out. By default, 1mm is common but I found 1.2mm on by Spitfire to work best. Too much retraction will cause the plastic to tighten & swell, causing its own issues.
Another likely scenario is that plastic you are printing with is oozing (which you won’t notice as easily with lower layer heights), this is due to excessive heat. I run rather high temp PLA (210C) but some PLA runs as low as 175C with certain extruders.
Try to print two small cubes at .3mm so you can see the layer consistency better, alongside your travel. Often time new users mistake print “resolution” meaning accuracy. You actually make it harder to determine what’s wrong with your extrusion at lower layer heights.
Visit Fab Lab Brisbane.
I believe in ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’
@Ben_Van_Den_Broeck wow what a phenomenally detailed answer thank you!
No problem @Dan_Petrovic feel free to update us or ask more questions (as I bet you’ve got 'em!) That’s what were here for…mostly 
Also to note, I don’t own an Ultimaker. @Ryan_Matthews does though and maybe he could give his two cents.
@Ben_Van_Den_Broeck I’m repeating the print in “ulti” quality now (0.04mm layers) and will come back to it on Monday (80+ hours estimated…Jesus!) as I wanted to see the best possible result I can get on default settings before I start tweaking. I noticed after very long prints my nozzle always clogs up and I have to manually push some filament through to unblock it. I monitor it from time to time to make sure it’s still going as planned: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/guk7y4qnuocxtdmchg2qswi7fea
I’d avoid high quality settings until you understand every function of your settings. Start simple.
Edit: Tweaking prints that take 8 minutes to finish is way more efficient than 80+ hours!
LOL… I know… I just really wanted to print this one, it’s a complete bottom floor of the house I’m building currently. Wanted to take it to the builder next week as a reference.
I believe that you are talking about retraction. It’s a setting in Cura. Might want to bump up the speed and distance a little bit.
You’ll find retraction settings will get most of it, but there’s no sin in post-print cleanup with an Xacto knife. Other types of plastic are more or less susceptible to these hairs. ABS, while requireing a heated bed, won’t swell if pulled out of the melt zone, giving you more opportunity to play with speeds and distance of retract without having to unclog the nozzle. PET variants (Taulman T-glase, Nylon 618) are pretty spiffy, too. Now I’m kinda curious what a frosted, semi-transparent T-glase floorplan would look like. 
@Dan_Petrovic Looks like a fun project. As per everyone’s suggestions, adjusting those retraction speeds and temps will solve your problem.
stringyness is due to using too high a temp for the specific PLA. Each different colour reel you use will need to be set slightly differently. You need to adjust this before starting another long print, simply setting it to high quality won’t help. You will end up with more strings with more layers!
@Ben_Norris oh wow ok… I’ll swing by the office and check up on the progress… might end up aborting it if I see a spider web.
I know the temptation is strong to go big or go home with your new 3D printer @Dan_Petrovic , just know it’s very much worth the wait (and cost!) of getting your 3D print operation running. You’ll get frustrated quickly otherwise.
Start loving the look of layers as you should be working your way “down” to low layer heights. Just start with the two .3mm cubes like I suggested, 20mm square and decent distance apart from each other. Adjust settings, print, repeat until strings are gone. Also take note of how smooth your top surfaces are.
Finally, be sure to measure each cube. If it’s 20mm square on a digital caliper on all sides, you’re good to go.
Thank you @Ben_Van_Den_Broeck sounds like I have some tweaking to do when I get back to the office. I’ll go pick up my print in the morning and will post back images in case anyone’s curious to see what my “high quality” 2nd attempt ended up looking like.
Update: As you guys said… https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-PiHL3rkSag8/VOlMAoe8SeI/AAAAAAAAq1c/JBHxWSifMC0/w1598-h899-no/ It did print in more detail, but the fluff is just as bad if not worse. I’ll have a play during the week and see what works from all the suggestions in this thread.