lee webster
Well-Known Member
My 3D resin printer has sat idle for a while now because of two things.
One, I am not going to waste expensive resin printing something I can't use (in casting).
Two, the "slicer" programme, Photon Workshop, that came with the printer wouldn't work on either of my computers. My "internet" computer, this one. Or my CAD computer, never connected to the WWW. I searched the WWW for a third party slicer, they are a bit thin on the ground. I tried Chitubox, it crashed on computer 1, and I couldn't install it on 2 because of registration with the Chitubox website. I then tried Lychee slicer, it worked very well. It has a feature that will determine if your STL file is damaged and try to repair it for you. That feature was handy. I couldn't install it on 2 because the programme logs on to its home site to check in, I don't like software that does that, a bit too much like F360 and other so called "free" software. When you ask Lychee to slice your file, you have to watch a 20 second advert on how wonderfull the programme is (fair enough) before it will do the slicing. If you upgrade to the pro version there is no ad and you get more features. I then looked at the Prusa slicer. It hasn't got the correct drivers for my printer, yet, but it might have in the future. But it did have one feature that caught my eye. Once you have your STL prepared the way you want, hollowing out the middle to cut down on resin use, putting holes in various places to allow resin out and cleaner in, and the placement of supports, the file can be exported as an STL with all the above work intact. And in runs on my CAD computer. So I can now design things on 2, export them as an STL, import the file into Prusa slicer, do the biz, export the file as an STL, and import said file into Photon Workshop which will then slice it and save it in a format my printer understands. Phew! I did try PW on a third computer I have. It is a Windows 7 machine with lots of memory and a powerful graphics card with lots of memory. It took a fair bit of work to get the programme to run on the machine, and they don't really like each other. Are there any other slicers out there?
One, I am not going to waste expensive resin printing something I can't use (in casting).
Two, the "slicer" programme, Photon Workshop, that came with the printer wouldn't work on either of my computers. My "internet" computer, this one. Or my CAD computer, never connected to the WWW. I searched the WWW for a third party slicer, they are a bit thin on the ground. I tried Chitubox, it crashed on computer 1, and I couldn't install it on 2 because of registration with the Chitubox website. I then tried Lychee slicer, it worked very well. It has a feature that will determine if your STL file is damaged and try to repair it for you. That feature was handy. I couldn't install it on 2 because the programme logs on to its home site to check in, I don't like software that does that, a bit too much like F360 and other so called "free" software. When you ask Lychee to slice your file, you have to watch a 20 second advert on how wonderfull the programme is (fair enough) before it will do the slicing. If you upgrade to the pro version there is no ad and you get more features. I then looked at the Prusa slicer. It hasn't got the correct drivers for my printer, yet, but it might have in the future. But it did have one feature that caught my eye. Once you have your STL prepared the way you want, hollowing out the middle to cut down on resin use, putting holes in various places to allow resin out and cleaner in, and the placement of supports, the file can be exported as an STL with all the above work intact. And in runs on my CAD computer. So I can now design things on 2, export them as an STL, import the file into Prusa slicer, do the biz, export the file as an STL, and import said file into Photon Workshop which will then slice it and save it in a format my printer understands. Phew! I did try PW on a third computer I have. It is a Windows 7 machine with lots of memory and a powerful graphics card with lots of memory. It took a fair bit of work to get the programme to run on the machine, and they don't really like each other. Are there any other slicers out there?
