Hi guys's can people give me a run down on the pro's and con's

3D Printing
, , ,
1

Hi guys’s can people give me a run down on the pro’s and con’s of the different open source slicers? is there a closed source one that is just much better that is worth looking at it also?

2

I get by just fine with Cura and Slic3r. Usually one can do whatever the other cannot, I keep both configured and updated all the time.

3

I use three - Kiss, slic3r, and cura - sort of in that order. KISS is by far the fastest with complex geometry, for example, whereas I prefer silc3rs vase mode. I guess the long answer is all have strengths and weakness and you can pick and choose based on the model and what your output needs to be.

4

I have used, Skeinforge, Slic3r, Cura, Kisslicer and Craftware (Free but not OS).

My favourite is Craftware for customisable supports, Then it’s Slic3r for it’s modifier meshes. Cura and Kisslicer are fast but Craftware is the same if not faster. Kisslicer has the easiest of all for removable supports.

I have heard great things about Simplify3D but then its $140 a pop, it may be worth it for some.

5

Start with Cura. If you don’t like it then there are others but I haven’t had a problem with cura yet.

6

@Mark_Rehorst Slic3r faster? In my tests, Slic3r was quite a bit slower. This was Slic3r 0.9.10b, versus the Cura that was out at the same time.
Note that the latest Cura release (out yesterday). Has some improvements that can speed up slicing up to 40% on models with lots of infill.
I have the data from these tests if you want it. I sliced different sized cubes, different amounts of cubes (next to each other), and cylinders with different amount of faces.
Pretty much all of them Cura came out at the top. Example, 100x100x100 cube took Cura 1.37 seconds, while Slic3r did it in 9.71.

Anyhow. I would say Cura to start with. But you don’t have to listen to me promoting my own software.
You could pickup the latest “Make’s annual guide to 3D printing”. Which has the words “although we recommend starting
— and sticking with — Cura”. But it has quite a bit more info on slicing and printers.

Anyhow, it kinda depends on what you want. Slic3r has more configuration options then Cura for example.