Top 3 FREE 3D Printing Slicers 2017 Video Lecture | What is 3D Printing: Basic Knowledge - IT & Software

back in 2015 I produced a video series
on a shootout between popular 3d
printing slices on my trusty when Hal
duplicator a three but let's set forward
to 2017 and things have changed a lot
actually so much that I'd say that video
I did back then is completely out of
date and I would not actually reference
it but things have changed so much that
I can't actually see it being possible
to do a shootout between slices in 2017
because we've seen such a dramatic
change in the 3d print space for example
now you can buy a 3d printer for a
hundred and fifty dollars u.s. or even
less and also you can get incredibly
powerful slices for zilch
so in this video I'm going to go through
my top three picks of free 3d printing
slices say that 10 times fast
and I test them all out on my trunk cx1
3d printer which is a 150 US dollar 3d
printing kit just to make sure they all
work and you should be able to use them
on any FDM 3d printer let's get started
okay so kicking off the list with slicer
crusher Edition so I did test slicer
back in 2015 and it was powerful but it
was a little bit difficult to use so
just Josef crusher has gone a long way
into investing time and effort and
aleeah's dev team to make slicer just
that little bit better and easier to use
and it now has some incredibly powerful
features in it such as 3d infill which
is called cubic infill and the ability
to very layer height using gradual layer
changes for areas you want to print
quicker with less less detail and then
areas with detail to print with final
layer Heights to resolve those curves
nicer so it still has that neo
utilitarian look on it but it does have
everything you need in a slicer which is
the ability to preview your prints
before you go send them it can do
support material and it actually even
has support for multi material now with
their upgrade some of you might be
wondering though why would I suggest a
slicer that's only for the process ready
printers well it's not let me just
quickly show you this is important how
you can change the bed size and details
and print set
to match your machine so you just go to
print settings and see it's got original
Purusha I three mic - but I've got some
other words that I've made so for
example I can go to bed shape and change
my bed shape here you can even do a
delta printer you can change it to
circular and let's say we're changing it
to the tron cx1 so 150 then 150 okay and
then when we go to save it
don't override it just enter your new
your printer name Kroenke x one just
like that so once you've got your
printer saved just select from a
drop-down like this and then yet be able
to discard those changes and the platter
will update to suit and you can start
printing from there one major limitation
of the slicer Pro tradition is the the
rotation and orientation of prints it is
still kind of archaic you need to go to
object then you can rotate like this by
entering specific numbers but it is a
little bit difficult to use so try to
have your models object your objects
oriented correctly before bringing them
into the Purusha Edition slicer but
apart from that you can just click slice
slicing speed is not bad in all of the
programs are going to test now really
slicing speed is not painfully slow so
unless you've got a model with millions
of polygons you're not really going to
notice any major lag or issues with
slicing it's going to preview here and
under the preview menu this is the most
important part you can check your G code
you for committing it to the printer
then you can just export g-code on to
your SD card and send it to your printer
I was really happy with the results
using the slice of pressure Edition
considering I didn't change anything
other than just the bed size so this is
a Bowden style machine and this the
settings are designed for a direct drive
extruder so I could definitely improve
the stringing and improve little dag
like it remove those but yet overall the
accuracy is fantastic and I could
definitely use this on a day to day
basis on the trunk seat let's move on to
the next slicer next in the lineup we
have curacao cure again has come a very
long way since that video I did in 2015
in fact it's now completely rebuilt new
version we're up to 2.6 completely
different than the old one and
has an incredible suite of features
personally I'll be honest I'm not a huge
fan of the cure a layout but it's still
one of the most popular free slices out
there and it's developed by Ultimaker
specifically for their machines but
again like the pressure Edition slicer
you can define your own print settings
in here quite easily for other printers
so if you want to add your own printer
specifically into curate your security
settings printer and then add printer so
it has lots of defaults for of course
all the LT makers you might be might be
printing for but of course there's
custom as well so just get a custom
printer we can do song cx1 ad printer
and then we can go through all the
settings you want to change to define
your print bed so that example the
kongsi is 150 150 150 it does not have a
heated bed your machine may may turn it
on and off you can define the center if
the bed Center is zero or not if you're
not sure then maybe consult the forum
for your printer whether it's not
usually it's not though for a Cartesian
printer usually in the bottom left hand
side corner and you have printhead sides
that's if you're doing sequential
printing wouldn't worry too much about
that number of extruders and of course
material diameter is very important if
you're running 1.75 into that if you're
running two point eight five three and
enter that as well engi kind of starchy
code is important I don't really want
the Machine to prime itself so that's
what it's got default for all tea makers
it's going to remove that completely so
just get rid of that and we don't need
easier either actually we don't need any
of that
we just want g28 home to start and then
at the end yeah that's fine so we'll do
finish and there we go so we now have
our new custom profile and you have all
of these settings here on the left-hand
side to change and you can actually you
can simplify it hugely by this going to
recommended settings or you can go into
way more depth with custom you can even
you can even go to more depth in this by
you know changing the visibility here of
different settings Kyra has gone in
same with custom settings and you can
really dive in deep if you want to but
for everyday printing you probably won't
want to turn a lot of those on like I
mentioned before you want a good g-code
preview so cure it does allow that so
you go to View mode and then layers and
you can see your g-code preview
they haven't proved it since previous
preview modes in in cure before it used
to be very hard to actually see what was
going on they've actually made it a lot
better now and you can you can show
travel movements that's the thing so
that's really handy to make sure you
print to double-check your print before
you actually commit it to the printer
I'll be honest the print I got off cure
was the worst of the lineup I'm not sure
exactly what happened here it's a little
bit a little bit munted but the rest is
fine it might be a cooling issue and
fully a settings issue as well to be
honest but it is still decent and I
could definitely tune it to make it
print better the actual beams that
didn't go all munted are actually really
clean and yeah I could definitely use
that as well but again like I said Keira
from my personal choice isn't my
favorite slice to use that's just me and
for number three we have idea maker you
may have never heard of idea maker but
I've been playing with this for the last
month or so and I honestly think this is
one of the underdogs in terms of free
slicing programs so idea maker is
produced by Ray's 3d who make the end to
plus method to any printer I've been
testing out and they they produce this
software for free you can download it
you don't have to have a machine to try
it out and the really cool thing is they
haven't locked it down to their models
so you can go into the software go into
printer current type of printer and you
can choose one or you can also go to
printer settings and add one so you can
add a new printer just like I showed in
the other software so for example you
could add again Truong cx1 go through
change the build diameter so I build
with build depth and height as well
don't change any of the steps of
millimeters or XY compensation unless
you're getting incorrect sizes and again
with offsets we don't want anything
there and
primary extruder PLA 1.75 just like that
so in my opinion idea maker is actually
one of the best in this lineup because
it offers manual supports it's actually
the only one in this lineup to offer
manual supports as well as some really
high detail settings within the print
parameters but for example I can just go
to support and I can choose a pillar
size tray Auto supports overhang angles
- great let's go to 30 there we go so
you can add support in like that but you
can say for example I want to remove
this one I'll remove this one or you
know I want to add in my own for example
I can add it in there rather than that
so manual supports is fantastic for
really detailed models where you don't
want to just let the auto stuff take
control and put support where you don't
want it or leave out areas where you do
want it also you can change your color
size to be really large you want to give
something a good supporting area so I've
only ever seen this sort of layout into
the 5 3d which is of course the same
price as the trunk cx1 so it's really
cool to see this in a free bit of
software and if you go to go to slice I
would quite like their profile layout so
if you got to start you can choose the
printer and then it has different
settings based on that so so I have a
default here for example anything ok
there's not much options here we can go
straight into advanced and then you can
change things again very similar to
simplify 3d I think they may have cloned
a few things or taken very much
inspiration from it for example the fan
control you can change fan control
layers
retraction settings there there is no
ability to do custom profile custom
multiple processes which is fair enough
I wouldn't expect that in a bit of free
software but you can do multi extrusion
printing as well and I'll just close
that so once you have you with defaults
you never have to go in and change them
you can just save them as separate
separate out separate defaults here and
then slice it's clever enough to say do
you want to turn supports on yes that's
fine and of course like I mentioned
before you definitely want AG code
preview so here we've got preview of our
other print this model of course doesn't
needs
support I'm just using it to demonstrate
the manual support capability goes up
like net like that the brim seems to
work quite well and the result of idea
maker are pretty much the same as the
other the results of slicer a little bit
more stringy because I think my
retraction settings were a little bit
more conservative in this than in slicer
again very easy to tweak to get it right
and I think for a bit of free software
it's pretty darn powerful a lot of other
settings like the cutting you can change
and cut models in the software as well
and also the rotation is a lot more
intuitive than it is in slices so
definitely give idea make sure a go if
you're keen to try it out I also really
like the sleek black interface it has so
there you have it guys if you've just
gotten a new 3d printer and it's like a
cheap kit or you're just getting into it
you can use free 3d prints Lices with no
issues they're not going to have the
full suite of features that a paid
solution might have but as you've seen
they're still pretty darn powerful and
they've come an extremely long way since
2015 let me know in the comments if
there's another slicer you would
recommend there I know there's loads I
haven't even mentioned this video that
people do swear by that's totally fine
choose the tool that you're comfortable
with but in this lineup at least I think
I dare make is probably my favorite and
I'd like to see other people try it out
and see what results they get if you
enjoy this video on makers meets guys
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look forward to see you again very
shortly here on makers Muse have you
printing guys bye
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