Just noticed that new #PrusaSlicer version 2.6 got into #ArchLinux package repository.
It has several important new features:
🔌 You can place knobs to a horizontal cut to easilly align pieces when glueing them
🏗 It has new "organic" support structure
⌨ It can add text to the object surface (cut, emboss or as modifier)
As I'm putting my lathe's quick change gearbox back together to start getting the #electronicLeadScrew going, I realized that I don't have a proper bent funnel to get the oil in. The fill port is on the side (the top isn't accessible). But I have a #3DPrinter#FreeCAD and #PrusaSlicer handy.
The angled top is intended to let me print it upside down without supports. The angled bottom faces help the oil go where it is supposed to.
We'll see how that goes.
Hopefully in a bit, some lovely fresh ISO68 oil will fill the sump in the gearbox and I'll be back in business. 🤞
I wish #Prusa allowed for native plugins and a similar marketplace for #PrusaSlicer. Imagien if we could have native support for slicing modifications and processing rather than post-processors, which can get quite complicated.
I am really enjoying #OrcaSlicer. I've printer probably 30 hours with it.
I created my profile by copying over my #PrusaSlicer profile, but actually found it not to work as good, so I tweaked it and found that there is a clear difference in extrusion rates. My OrcaSlicer profile uses 0.98 extrusion multiplier and PrusaSlicer 1.06, with other values also being different.
I don't know how to put my finger on it. But looking at a part, I decide which I am going to use to slice it, and it always comes out good.
It won't be replacing PrusaSlicer anytime soon for me, but it is now another tool in my arsenal.
Fun discovery of the day: PrusaSlicer (at least for the Mini) actually enforces the machine limits by emitting appropriate G-code when slicing. Among other things, this means that if you want, say, higher accelerations, you can just request them.
This is probably because the Mini can't save anything to EEPROM, which means any change to presets requires a firmware upgrade.
Unfortunately, I stopped caring about the acceleration limits and everything in #PrusaSlicer since I started to run #Klipper because it actually tells you that the limits are only for time predictions and aren't Ctually emitted to #Gcode.
But when you use #OrcaSlicer and you insert custom accelerations and dynamic-overhang-speeds and limits, the printer actually honors it.
So, not only are my time predictions with OrcaSlicer more accurate, but I am actually printing at the rate that I want to and chose in the slicer.
But then finally, I have to say. OrcaSlicer does not honor flow-rate limits as well as PrusaSlicer does. If I tell PrusaSlicer to never exceed 12mm^3/s, it would slow itself down.
OrcaSlicer justs YOLOs itself past that limit, and my exteuders start to skip!
I just tried #OrcaSlicer for the first time, I've just not had time to test it until now.
Because it was based on #PrusaSlicer, #SuperSlicer, and #Slic3r, I hoped that I could just import my PrusaSlicer config, but could not because it expected a .json file and PrusaSlicer outputs a .ini, but I might have done this incorrectly.
So I configure a "Generic Klipper setup" and copied the values by hand by comparing settings with my PrusaSlicer setup and a bit of experience and intuition.
My first resulting print, a custim part by me compared to the PrusaSlicer, was worlds apart. The finish was greatly improved with bridges requiring no supports, however it did print a bit slower, 28 minutes instead of 18 minutes, but this might still just be speed settings.
I like the UI, although I am more used to PrusaSlicer, and I especially love that I can access #Mainsail and #Klipper from within the app.
#Cura was great when I got my printer. It is very easy and user-friendly. You choose the "detail" setting which ditectly transaltes to your layer height and it does everything for you. For my first 2 years, I didn't change anything in the settings.
Buy I then switched to #PrusaSlicer and created my own profiles there. Now, it is my daily driver, and I enjoy it more than Cura for advance settings and adding and changing #Gcode.
Since I've started using PrusaSlicer 2.6.α, supports are good enough and easy enough that I'm not really trying to avoid them in my designs. If anything, I'll try to keep them in hidden areas, as they usually leave visible artifacts.
Even better than the organic supports is the automatic support painting. The slicer knows where supports are needed better than I do.
The part came out pretty clean. It took less than a minute to remove the supports. I rubbed most of them off with my thumb, and got a couple of them by rubbing with one jaw of a pliers. (A plier?)
Here's the final piece. Our house came with an electric awning over the back porch. Since we're really good at losing remotes, I printed this holster that keeps the remote next to the light switches for the porch.