Author Topic: Anyone tried Slic3r?  (Read 1205 times)

ssstraub

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Anyone tried Slic3r?
« on: March 24, 2015, 09:21:40 am »
I've read a lot about Kisslicer but wondering if anyone has tried Slic3r? It looks much nicer than Kisslicer and has some cool tricks like real-time layer preview.

I'm going to try both Kisslicer with Bobo's settings and Slic3r and see if I can make it work / how they compare.  :)

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Dan

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Re: Anyone tried Slic3r?
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2015, 03:58:48 am »
I use slic3r.   Some neat features allowing you to really nail down presets specific to various sections of features.   Being able to mix and match presets of various sections of features makes fine tuning easy and removes alot of the pain that would typically occur when changing nozzle sizes for example. The preview feature rarely gets used on my setup as pronterface already does that for me.  I notice much of the pro features of kisslicer already exist free in slic3r.   

ssstraub

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Re: Anyone tried Slic3r?
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2015, 09:52:13 am »
This weekend I'm plan to go through a 3D hobbyist rite of passage and compare slicers: Cubify, Kisslicer, Cura, and Slic3r.  ;D

Do you use Pronterface directly with your Cube somehow or are you talking about using it with a different printer? I guess I don't understand how it could ever be used with the Cube since there is the requirement of decoding/recoding cube files with CodeX each time. I so wish that code was open source or that the tool could be easily scripted because that step is super annoying.

Dan

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Re: Anyone tried Slic3r?
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2015, 02:07:01 am »
Hi sss.   

I use proterface with whats left my cube2 (Frankencube).  I've ripped the guts out of my Cube and replaced all the electronics with a Mega2560/Ramps 1.4.  I've also changed the hotend.  I use a Merlin hotend. 

spegelius

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Re: Anyone tried Slic3r?
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2016, 04:26:39 am »
Inspired by the python code ssstraub used to get Simplify3D print to work with Cube, i started hacking away with Slic3r. After ~5h of coding, got my own script to process Slic3rs output to proper format that Cube undestands :).
Just got the first print done, but there are some issues that need to be addressed, currently the extrusion amounts for different paths (solids, perimeters) do not match -> perimeters are fine, but base and top get too little material. Also there's some areas where extruder is not turned off during moves so i need to check those. All doable, just needs time.

For those interested testing work in progress stuff, the  Python script is here: https://github.com/spegelius/CubePostprocessor

My Slic3r config bundle is attached to this port

spegelius

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Re: Anyone tried Slic3r?
« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2016, 03:36:15 am »
I got most of the problems addressed, now extruder is properly set on/off. Also tuning the M227 values to P200 S200 (works fine on my Bowden extruder) seem to have fixed oozing problem. Current Slic3r settings add wipe moves, not sure if those help.

Only problem now is the filament feed rate, perimeters seem to get more material versus solids. Currently i'm calculating feed rate by reading the head speed while extruding and multiplying that value with 0.015. Tuning that value will help with solids, but as it effects every type of path, perimeters will get also more material -> still uneven.
Better solution might be to read the actual extrusion length that Slic3r puts to each move and calculate feed rate from that value.

Did a test print (Torture_test.stl) and it's looking quite good, apart from the solids. More tuning needed...

spegelius

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Re: Anyone tried Slic3r?
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2016, 12:18:39 pm »
Got the flow working properly. I changed the script to read the actual extrusion length and calculate proper flow rate using it and head speed. Working nicely.

Pictures of some test prints here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qyosfww7zud15l4/AAAp6i1h_ljRp9sGNML-bRyya?dl=0 in Testprints folder.

I took some comparison shots from Cura, Kisslicer 1.5b and Slic3r. I used Cube black ABS for and same temp for all prints (270 C). Temp was bit on the high side, so there's some extra challenge for the printer to handle oozing.

In the TortureTest obejct i had too little flow so perimeters have a gap, which is not good. In the Ctrl-V object i had it almost correct.

For me, Slic3r is currently the tool i use. Good balance of amount of options and automatic settings.
Kiss is good for most of the prints, but i've had some trouble with some objects and sometimes it's hard to get the settings correct.
Cura is also good, but there's some corner cases where it's actually unusable, like not generating supports for places where there is definitely need for them.