What is Reddit's opinion of PrusaSlicer?

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There's no essential relation to Linux, because all the first-rate slicer programs are cross-platform. But there are a number of excellent and inexpensive 3D printers available right now.

> Anyone here have a 3D printer they love and a good recommendation for a GUI software to run it?

Unlike many technologies, and with rare exception, any slicer program will work with any 3D printer. This is true because designers of slicer programs are motivated to create profiles for as many 3D printers as possible. Again, there are only a few exceptions.

The Prusa 3D printer line, and the Prusa slicer program, are both open-source, meaning in principle you could download all the instructions and build your own Prusa printer from the provided information. I haven't owned a Prusa printer but I use the free Prusa slicer program (first-rate) configured for my Chinese knockoff 3D printer and it works very well. I have to say I'm very impressed by Josef Prusa's open-source philosophy.

The latest build of ChituBox is free and supports the newer Anycubic Mono printers.

Lychee Slicer also supports the mono printers. The free version has ads (I believe when you slice).

Or with UVTools you can convert most sliced files to the mono format, which opens up a huge range of slicers - PrusaSlicer is my usual recommendation.

All the above software should hollow and generally be less stressful/buggy to use than Anycubic Workshop.

Hello /u/Tank_Shot, you seem pretty new to 3d printing by what I've read here so far. Most of the comments here are correct but I figured I'd build on it a bit.

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You can download Cura there. I personally prefer Prusa and the officially supported slicer for Creality is their own version of Cura found on the Creality website. Why have multiple slicers installed at once you might ask? I do it for troubleshooting or added function. I used Cura religiously until I got an OctoPi and found Prusa to work with it better, in my opinion. If odd things are happening I'll print a test from one slicer then the other to ruleout slicer issues. Stupid vase mode making me think I was losing my mind...

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Now, what's happening here is kind of leveling, kind of z stop positioning. As you're relatively new it's safe to assume you don't have a bunch of odd ball tools some hobbyists pick up over the years so the good ol' Mk. 1 Eyeball will have to do. Drop your Z stop down a little bit and home everything. Do this bit by bit until you're about level with the bed. Then start with your leveling process.

I personally prefer having my bed as "loose" as possible, or as high as possible depending on how you view it during this process. Then I bring my nozzle slightly below the bed, like level with the silicone sock. This way I can compress my bed down onto the springs and tighten it versus loosening it. Do this all by hand, don't have your printer move the nozzle for you across the bed. It will crash into it and make nasty noises and generally make you question your life choices. Compress the bed, move the nozzle into the first corner, and start tightening. Repeat for each corner. A recent video from Maker's Muse taught me that paper leveling is kind of wrong but as a starter it'll do the trick.

I think technically it can, the symbol up the top looks like of like a pie graph. From memory though its super weird to use.

PrusaSlicer has a rudimentary cutting tool (like, select a plane and slice whatever is on either side of that in two - Video of what I mean) which is good enough for simple things. Very basic but gets the job done.

Not sure about Lychee Slicer. I don't think Chitubox has a feature for this, at least not that I've seen.

Otherwise I think Meshmixer is reasonably straight forward and will do what you need. Also offers other features for more complicated editing of models. Theres a quick guide in the video above I linked about PrusaSlicer.

Hope this helps!

Download from here....but I believe what you downloaded is the same thing. https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

Anyways, after you installed it, launch it. Then up top, click Configuration > Configuration Wizard. Then Other Vendords, check Creality and a new row should show up called Creality FFF. Click on that and pick Ender 3V2. Then just next next next and finish.

The slicer is the software that prepares the STL for use with the printer. It will generate GCODE that the printer can read. It's called a slicer because it slices the STL into multiple layers that the printer can print. You adjust a lot of parameters like temperature, print speed, amount and type of infill, number of perimeters and so on. The amount of filament used will depend greatly on these settings. For example if you print a cube with 10% infill it will use significantly less filament than if you print it with 100% infill.

I use PrusaSlicer, can be downloaded here: https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

Meshmixer is not a slicer.

Using PrusaSlicer (free slicer program https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/) you can have the program optimize the orientation of a model and then have it auto build the supports. I've been using it to optimize, then auto generate between 70-80% supports before exporting to Chitubox to slice. Sometimes you need to tweak it a bit, but I've had very few failures using that method.

Sure, think this video will cover the issue you are having? If not let me know!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il1sierB4Yk

Also check out PrusaSlicer

https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

Its free and has an Ender 3 profile that quite good, I like it more than Cura, but its all a question of taste I don't think one is better than the other its a question of what interface you like the most.

I think that's a good start.
I went looking for some better Slic3r parameters which might be more suitable for your specific printer and ran across this, I was going to suggest upgrading/changing from Slic3r to PrusaSlicer (Prusa's modified Slic3r) as it has a great set of default values and I've recommended it to many friends without Prusa's as a great slicer with some polishing not in Slic3r yet, and it looks like PretendPrusa has a full config kit for your printer allready.

The link provided in the comments didn't work, but just going to https://pretendprusa.co.uk/ then downloads and Artillery Sidewinder X1 Pro turned up the BLtouch zip and config files within it.

Good Luck! Your getting closer, then something else will change and you'll have a whole new set of problems to figure out... ;) the joys of 3D printing...

I too bought the same printer used and I love it.. High quality, consistent output.

I had to re-level/calibrate the bed and axis - you do that thru the menu.

Here's a good resource for maintenance..

I love this mount..

I use the Prusa Slicer app.

All the versions of Creality slicer are merely re-skinned versions of older versions of Cura, lacking newer features but including any bugs. Get an up-to-date version of Cura, or PrusaSlicer. Both are free.

If you want to experiment (probably not wise until you have some experience) you could try IdeaMaker or Kiss. Also free.

Cura or PrusaSlicer to slice STL files and make Gcode.

Octoprint for 3D Printer interface and ease of use.

Fusion360, Blender, Freecad, for design. I'm just learning this stuff.

The stock (factory installed) firmware is fine to begin with. Initially, I'd say it's the slicer that'll have the most impact. In which case, I think I'd have to recommend PruseSlicer.

The Voxelab slicer is just a stripped down version of Cura.

You should choose Ender 3 Pro as the model in Cura. Thats closest to the Ender 3 V2.

Also have a look at prusaslicer I get some pretty good results from the built in Ender 3 V2 profile!

I had an issue where my printer was not using my slicer settings I actually switched slicers and I have not had issues since. so my first layer prints slow and the next go fast. try to use the prusa slicer. It has a profile for the ender printers. You can also adjust settings in their advanced options and now my prints work great and it follows my slicer requests. https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

I had an issue where my printer was not using my slicer settings I actually switched slicers and I have not had issues since.. I use the prusa slicer and It has a profile for the ender printers. You can also adjust settings in their advanced options and now my prints work great and it follows my slicer requests. https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

In Prusa Slicer (I'm not sure about mainline Slic3r), go to the Print Settings tab, then to the infill section. Under "Reducing printing time," you'll find an option to "Combine infill every ______ layers." Set that to two and your printer will do what has been described here.

Here's the documentation on it.

Pretty sure that Creality printers don't use the x3g file format.

You'll need to use a slicer like Cura or PrusaSlicer to slice the STL file to gcode, which your printer will use.

If your going to cut objects up, try Prusa slicer it's free and the cut function is easy. Simply import the part, rotate and cut as many times as you like arrange and export as needed. Hope this helps https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

Yeah, I've tried that and had funny results too. Honestly, you'd probably be surprised what you can print with zero infill. But when you need infill, you need infill.

I haven't played with it yet, but I saw that the most recent release of PrusaSlicer has a "hollowing" feature that looks like it'd be a great way to save plastic on larger prints. Check out the 2.2 release video in the "video guides" section here: https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

Slic3r or PrusaSlicer (I use PrusaSlicer) have the Archimedean chords pattern. Not sure if the non-Prusa Slic3r has the gyroid infil, but I'd guess any of the infills would look cool.

It depends on what you intend to do. Are you interesting in modeling something yourself that you would end up printing, or do you intend to simply download models others have created and print those?

If you aren’t going to be modeling, then you don’t need a high spec computer. The slicing software for most printers is free though. It’s what you upload the model/object you wish to print to, and then translate it into G-code the printer can understand. For example, I have a Prusa i3 MK3S. The slicing software used is PrusaSlicer, which is free.

You can’t model with the slicing software though. For the modeling and model prep (fixing up the mesh), I use Fusion 360 and Meshmixer. Both can be downloaded for free.

My computer does not run my printer. I export the G-code file to a SD Card and the printer runs off of that. So again, it really depends on what you intend to do, that determines what kind of laptop to look for.

Well I don't now enough about Blender to talk about what mistakes you can make! In seriousness, give it a try. I don't remember if you have access to a 3D printer, you can load your model into slicing software (the tool you use to create) as a feasibility check. I use Prusa Slicer. Even without chugging through spools of plastic, you'll still learn from this.

By the way, the Argosy, Hawk, and Scoutship have all been released.

PrusaSlicer is my personal preference, because I use it for preparing my models, so its easy enough for me.

If you load the .stl into PrusaSlicer, it will (Or at least, should if this is the cause) have a warning icon next to the model name indicating an error, and you can click it to automatically repair through netfabb. You can also do it directly through netfabb if you want to create an account rather than installing PrusaSlicer. The link I mentioned above has a list of alternatives as well, as far as I know, all stl repair features are the same. I think Meshmixer is another common one, but haven't used it myself.

If the above doesn't solve it for you, I'd look at what version of slicer you're using. And double check there aren't any infill options selected in your slicer. The part of the comment above that I crossed out might be half right. Could be the slicer being weird and trying to put infill where it has no right in being.

If you really want to use your Chromebook, you could look into running Lunix on the Chromebook and use the Linux version of PrusaSlicer https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

I’d personally recommend physically running the printer to your desktop machine rather than hack away at a Chromebook. Or can you temporarily move your desktop down to the garage?

I want to recommend a different approach.

Get Prusaslicer here and set it up for the Prusa SL1. Import your model, right click it and use "Optimize orientation". After it processed, click "SLA support points" on the left side (last button). After Prusaslicer placed the supports, export the fila via "File" -> "Export" -> "Export plate as STL including supports". Load that file in Chitubox and slice it for your printer.

The auto orient feature in Prusaslicer gives you best results 99% of the time, the prusa supports work much much better than the ones from Chitubox. Prusaslicer will also fix minor issues with the mesh so that supports arent placed inside of non manifold structures (which looks like what happened in your picture, the spheres are likely support interfaces).

Ok, it could just be an illusion from the pictures but something seems to have changed in the second cube. Did you check if the extruder is correctly calibrated? If you don't mind experimenting a bit, try also slicing the same cube with Prusa Slicer (it's compatible with any 3D printer, not just Prusas).

Also worth trying to calibrate the hotend PID, which is essentially how the printer calculates the way of keeping the hotend at the correct temperature. If the hotend temp fluctuates too much it can create artifacts similar to the ones you have. Worst case scenario, as with the extruder calibration, nothing much will change.

Are you still using the original frame for the printer? Is it plywood or acrylic? Now that I think about it I had similar issues when I had the original plywood frame. Reassembling the printer from scratch helped a bit, but the real game changer for me was to switch to an auminum frame, Creality style. Hopefully we can fix it without having you to buy a new frame.

If it's a file with the extension "stl" you're missing a step, the software to turn it into a printable one (.gcode) while if it's a gcode it might not be for your printer and cause weirdness. Try one of those https://ultimaker.com/en/software/ultimaker-cura https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/ and see what you like. You might also need to Google a profile for your printer for the software you end up using.

Also, if it's a bundled sd card it might just be dirt cheap and have caused issues, so a decent one could be the fix.

use the Prusa Slicer To auto-orientate the model and auto-support it, then export the STL with supports to Chitubox or the photon slicer, and slice/save it from there. This is a post I made a few days back that will give you tons of basic information on 3d printing and making your workflow/cleanup/supports/etc a ton easier.

I didn't even touch the included Cura 15.04.6 as it is hilariously outdated. Do yourself a favor and get the newes Cura from https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura - the settings in the manual is applicable to this version also.

I use PrusaSlicer personally (download: https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/), you can find my slicer settings here.

I have had to use hairspray on the bed to get PETG to stick properly.

I would start by downloading PrusaSlicer 2.1. It is a modified version of Slic3r with more features and bugfixes. Slic3r itself has not been updated since 2018.

https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/

You shouldn't need 5 perimeter shells to print a decent Benchy, so you are right to ask the question. The Benchy is not intended to help you set up your printer. It is really a demo/test piece that can be used to diagnose subtle printing faults.

Before you try printing a Benchy, you need to set up your printer by performing calibration tests and printing temperature towers to establish a useful range of temperatures for the filament that you are using.

So... first of all, calibrate your extruder:

How To Calibrate, Tune and Fine Tune your printer and filament

Then, print a temperature tower to establish an good printing temperature for your filament. I don't have a link for this, I'm afraid.

Then, get your retraction settings and move speeds dialled in:

Retraction: Just say "No" to oozing

Then, print your Benchy. You may want to try using PrusaSlicer 2, rather than Cura (which is what I suspect you are using). It is very good at hiding zits (blemishes created at layer-change point), which are clearly visible in your print.

Finally, if you are really having trouble "dialling in" you printer setting, you may want to try another filament. Is possible that your filament is defective in some way, but do the calibration step, first.

Can you print an XYZ test cube? You may find Prusa Silcer 2 easier to use than Cura, which seems a little flaky right now.

I've been using Cura for a year, and I recently started using PrusaSlicer with the purchase of my MK3s. Apparently, PrusaSlicer has a level of automatic patching (it tells you how many STL patches applied after slicing), and I've been exceedingly pleased with the results. Once I get my older Printer back up with a .25mm nozzle, I'm probably going to switch to using PrusaSlicer over Cura for it as well.