IanJohnson wrote:Some people in RepRap don't use any version of Slic3r after 072b. Skeinforge can make a smoother surface, but often wants to make a lot of unnecessary solid layers. Some of Slic3r's paths aren't as good, but it is more configurable. There are a lot of options for thread width and speeds that let you balance print time vs quality. It can create gcode for .1mm prints that tends to crash 072b and Skeinforge. Skeinforge has better support generation, but is so much slower.
All of the slicers have strengths and weaknesses between them. Kisslicer is actually very strong. It has quality support generation, volumetric extrusion, gcode visualization, and is even faster than slic3r. It doesn't have all the speed options of slic3r, and no Z lift during retraction, but otherwise it is a good alternative.
Perhaps we should do a slicer comparison chart on the Wiki. I personally prefer the prints that come from Skeinforge, but it seems development of it has ceased, and the GUI is horrid. I don't think it would take much development to fix the GUI issues, and make it a much more professional program.
We spoke to the Slic3r developer a few times about making a standard release of Slic3r with Solidoodle presets included. He wasn't very pleased with the idea, and said something to the effect of "I can come to New York and charge you consulting fees if you like."
Setting up Slic3r is easy enough, but one of our requirements is that the Slicing software just start out of the box with a proper profile loaded - no wizards. At one point or another I mucked about in the Slic3r source code for where the defaults are stored, but I haven't had the time to decipher the perl source code on Github. Perl is about my weakest language, and of course the developer was very little help finding where the defaults are set.
Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.