3D Printing Slicers

[H_Rocket]

So I've experimented with the slicers by Creality, Prusa, and Ultimaker. Easch seems to have strengths and weaknesses. I was getting into Cura by Ultimaker, but Ive found it was not making the most efficient gcode when a fair number of supports are needed.

I'm interested in other folks opinions on these (and any others I can get for free).

Do you use one in particular for everything or do you find different ones do better for different jobs?

 

[rharshberger]

The Creality slicer IS Cura, just a trimmed down/customized version. I have used the Creality version and several versions of Cura, prefer the standard Cura. Have not used the Prusa slicer.

 

[cwbullet]

PrusaSlicer is probably the best free slicer. Simplfy3d is pretty good but costly.

 

[Troy3003]

I use superslicer, a fork of prusaslicer. and really like it. Only other one I have tried that I can compare against was cura.

 

[H_Rocket]

I use superslicer, a fork of prusaslicer. and really like it. Only other one I have tried that I can compare against was cura.

Is there an install package posted or is it strictly DIY off GITHUB?

Never mind, I found it.

 

[Kelly]

PrusaSlicer is probably the best free slicer.

Just curious, but why? I've only used Cura so I have nothing to compare against. What makes this better? I don't have too many issues with Cura but would be happy with switching to something else that is free, but better.

 

[cwbullet]

Just curious, but why? I've only used Cura so I have nothing to compare against. What makes this better? I don't have too many issues with Cura but would be happy with switching to something else that is free, but better.

Once you get really good at slicing, the expert setting on PrusaSlicer gives you a higher level of control.

 

[OzHybrid]

Once you get really good at slicing, the expert setting on PrusaSlicer gives you a higher level of control.

Just loaded it. Like the add negative space blocks. But there is no profile for the Tronxy printers. Which CURA does have. There is a lack of support for other printers. You would need to know a fair bit of info to set up properly. Which I could use the TRONXY CURA profile to get it from.
Initial gut feeling is that CURA is more intuitive, but I can see some opportunities with some of these options.

 

[cwbullet]

Just loaded it. Like the add negative space blocks. But there is no profile for the Tronxy printers. Which CURA does have. There is a lack of support for other printers. You would need to know a fair bit of info to set up properly. Which I could use the TRONXY CURA profile to get it from.
Initial gut feeling is that CURA is more intuitive, but I can see some opportunities with some of these options.

I am not familiar with how to set that brand up. I am sure someone has done it,

 

[ghostfather]

CURA also has hundreds of settings under the hood, which can be easily explained and accessed using a plugin. Export mode is always on, but sort of hidden in the menu's.
https://github.com/Ghostkeeper/SettingsGuide
My son (Ghostkeeper) is the head programmer for CURA at the moment, and wrote this guide to explain all the settings.

 

[Huxter]

Yeah - get the Cura slicer - must better/more options then Creality! I've used Cura and PrusaSlicer. I've had better experience w Cura and supports. The PrusaSlicer supports are very hard to get off the object compared to Cura. Cura's default support settings work fairly well.

Chuck has made a great tutorial for 'stringing' - very helpful - would love to see a tutorial on Supports in PrusaSlicer! IE how to make minimal supports that come off easy.

 

[cwbullet]

Yeah - get the Cura slicer - must better/more options then Creality! I've used Cura and PrusaSlicer. I've had better experience w Cura and supports. The PrusaSlicer supports are very hard to get off the object compared to Cura. Cura's default support settings work fairly well.

Chuck has made a great tutorial for 'stringing' - very helpful - would love to see a tutorial on Supports in PrusaSlicer! IE how to make minimal supports that come off easy.

For me in PrusaSlicer, Your nozzle temperature must be at the minimum temp for the material or your cooling must be perfect. The higher the temperature the more likely the support will fuse with the body. I also had to make subtle adjustments in the following parameters:

• 0.25mm z distance.
• 75% xy distance.
• 3mm support spacing.
• 4 interface layers.
• 0.2mm interface layer spacing.

You have to adjust these up a little more with some filaments. I have gone as high as 125% spacing.

 

[Huxter]

Great info - thank you Sir! I will try these settings tonite.

 

[cwbullet]

Let me know if it works for you or if you need to tweak it. I am always looking to improve it.

 

[0011001100]

For me in PrusaSlicer, Your nozzle temperature must be at the minimum temp for the material or your cooling must be perfect. The higher the temperature the more likely the support will fuse with the body. I also had to make subtle adjustments in the following parameters:

• 0.25mm z distance.
• 75% xy distance.
• 3mm support spacing.
• 4 interface layers.
• 0.2mm interface layer spacing.

You have to adjust these up a little more with some filaments. I have gone as high as 125% spacing.

Kinda funny that I have worked my way to having setting very similar to yours for use on my printers. I've found the default settings are great on a Prusa machine, other machines not so much.

 

[cwbullet]

Kinda funny that I have worked my way to having setting very similar to yours for use on my printers. I've found the default settings are great on a Prusa machine, other machines not so much.

My experience is that it depends in the type and brand of filament.

 

[dr wogz]

My experience is that it depends in the type and brand of filament.

me too. we have since settled on one colour and a particular brand to keep the settings & quality

 

[dr wogz]

I've resisted chiming in, but I have a few minutes to kill (end of lunch time! )

I use Simplify3D. it's not free, but it is free to me: work pays the license, and it came bundled with our printer (Fusion3) we use it here at work for prototypes & some assembly jigs. it has numerous settings and a few other features which seem to be lacking in the 'other' slicer (Cura)

I have a friend who has a printer, and I've designed a few parts for him. He isn't the techie-est person around. SO, the part I sent him, he couldn't print. I drew them up in Imperial, Cura is Metric. so the parts came in really really small. I told him, "Just scale it up." surely Cura has a imperial-metric-imperial converter". Apparently it doesn't. Cura's website / user forum seems a little arrogant about it too, 'that all the world is Metric, learn it", so the magic number to scale imperial parts is 2540% (SImplify3D atomically detect this, and asks 'the part seems small, maybe it's imperial? do you want to scale it?") Seems the scaling needs to be done each & every time a part is imported. (I know draw up his parts in Metric, converting my CAD environment to Metric for him..)

there were some other issues, but the main one was this, seemed rather 'rigid' in only 'metric'..

 

[cwbullet]

I've resisted chiming in, but I have a few minutes to kill (end of lunch time! )

I use Simplify3D. it's not free, but it is free to me: work pays the license, and it came bundled with our printer (Fusion3) we use it here at work for prototypes & some assembly jigs. it has numerous settings and a few other features which seem to be lacking in the 'other' slicer (Cura)

I have a friend who has a printer, and I've designed a few parts for him. He isn't the techie-est person around. SO, the part I sent him, he couldn't print. I drew them up in Imperial, Cura is Metric. so the parts came in really really small. I told him, "Just scale it up." surely Cura has a imperial-metric-imperial converter". Apparently it doesn't. Cura's website / user forum seems a little arrogant about it too, 'that all the world is Metric, learn it", so the magic number to scale imperial parts is 2540% (SImplify3D atomically detect this, and asks 'the part seems small, maybe it's imperial? do you want to scale it?") Seems the scaling needs to be done each & every time a part is imported. (I know draw up his parts in Metric, converting my CAD environment to Metric for him..)

there were some other issues, but the main one was this, seemed rather 'rigid' in only 'metric'..

Do you ever use 0.8mm nozzles?

 

[dr wogz]

Do you ever use 0.8mm nozzles?

No. came with a .4, and is fine for most of our bits..

maybe on the next one..

 

[cwbullet]

No. came with a .4, and is fine for most of our bits..

maybe on the next one..

I have started printing with 0.8 to speed them up. Supports are hard to remove, but the prints are much quicker.