In the screen shot below, I have a hollow octagonal column with a 135 degree internal cut from the shell to the top solid 1 mm layer so that no support is required.
But Cura seems to do the right thing, until it gets to this layer below, and decides to deposit some material where there is not only no support, but no need for support if Cura had drawn the layer in the proper order.
Assuming I’m not missing some obvious non-default setting (like a check box that says “Do not drop plastic in mid air when an alternative supported option is available”), what slicer do you recommend? My enclosure designs have a lot of symmetrical internal structure so an ability to control things like mirroring and rotation of patterns on alternate layers would be really nice.
I’ve been tempted by synplify 3d. I am more concerned about wasting time on a dead end software product than spending a few hundred dollars on a slicer.
Thanks in advance to all who reply. And don’t be offended by my critique of cura if you have volunteered your time. Keep at it, you are doing a service and you are learning…getting good at developing and implementing algorithms doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people…
There are numerous free slicers available if CuraLE isn’t doing the right thing. The obvious one is Ultimaker Cura. Others include IceSL, KISSlicer, SuperSlicer, Craftware, ideaMaker, etc.
You’ve mentioned Simplify3D which I bought and feel like I am getting my money’s worth.
I’m not sure if any of these slicers will do a better job but it will only take time (and some download bandwidth) to to test them.
Can you share what you like about Simplify 3D? One thing I am wondering is if I can control on a layer by layer basis (e.g., even/odd, or 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4 basis) the way it constructs a concentric or symmetric layer.
I use Simplify3D most often with my Dual Extruder V3. It is also easy to set up multiple processes which start and stop at specified heights. I don’t believe this extends to even/odd.
At the time I bought it, its support of supports was better than CuraLE. Now I think other slicers have improved in this area. I also bought the upgrade for KISSlicer as the basic version doesn’t support dual extruders. I’ve been happy with the other free slicers.
I did contribute TAZ 6 single extruder specifics to IceSL but I never finished Dual Extruder support.
I’m not printing as much these days so I usually start with CuraLE and then move to other slicers if I don’t like the results.
As seen in the images above, I do. But the problem is Cura is not doing it in the right sequence. With a 45 degree overhang it should be able to do this correctly.
It’s only a 45° build up to a point … but then it looks like it’s flat. At that point the print has to “bridge over” from one side to the other. You can’t use a concentric pattern where bridging is required.
Actually, good point, and that is how I actually fixed it…but I forgot about that. I am solving so many problems as a newb all at once I lost track. Anyway, I did a revolve around a z axis in fusion 360 to fix this.
But I still think it shouldn’t extrude in thin air if it is possible to extrude and touch existing plastic, and I think it could have in the cura screenshots above.
