1 Topic by Portland_Joe

  • Portland_Joe
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Topic: Newbie questions Re: Slic3r versus Skeinforge? And supports

I've only just yesterday gotten my solidoodle to print reliably. But I'm stuck only printing things with no significant overhang, because I can't seem to make supports work. So here are some dumb questions...

1) When is the best time to add supports? Do I need to put them in before Repetier-Host sees them?

2) What is the difference between Slic3r and Skeinforge? Do they both allow support printing?

3) If I only want to print half of a model at a time, do I have to edit the .stl file? Or can I get a slicer to begin at a particular point?

4) I'm pretty sure I hosed my skeinforge defaults, because when I try to slice with that one, it spews too much filiment for the print, making a mess. Is there a default setting list somewhere where I can compare my values? Or should I just reinstall the whole damn thing?

5) When I *do* get supports to work properly, will they show up in the pre-viz screen next to the G-code editor?

2 Reply by ronsii

  • ronsii
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Re: Newbie questions Re: Slic3r versus Skeinforge? And supports

Hi PortlandJoe, If you are adding/making your own supports they will be part of the model you will be slicing, ie... in a cad program you need to modify the object to include the pillars/supports where they will be needed to make the print work.

If you want the slicer to add support automatically it can be turned on with simple settings in the slicers config.

Some slicers work better at generating support than others... kislicer is much better at it than slic3r and I have not used skeinforge for slicing with support so can't really comment there.

Hope this helps you some... I am sure others will pop in here and lend a hand smile

3 Reply by Serin

  • Serin
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Re: Newbie questions Re: Slic3r versus Skeinforge? And supports

Slic3r has an inbuilt support function that will generate supports for the model automatically.
It's under the 'support material' menu when you're in slic3r.
Not sure about SK though, haven't gotten around to trying it.

As for cutting up models, I believe the full version of Netfabb has the ability, but the software costs a fair amount.
I use Blender's 'boolean' function to slice up my models.

And yes, if you've added supports they will show up in the G-code viewer.

This is a crowd funding thing that I'm running: http://www.gofundme.com/bvi140 It's for pretty selfish reasons tongue

4 Reply by MartinFahrer

  • MartinFahrer
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Re: Newbie questions Re: Slic3r versus Skeinforge? And supports

I turned on my support material. do I just keep the default settings there?

5 Reply by adrian

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Re: Newbie questions Re: Slic3r versus Skeinforge? And supports

ronsii wrote:

Some slicers work better at generating support than others... kislicer is much better at it than slic3r and I have not used skeinforge for slicing with support so can't really comment there.

Hold that thought ronsii wink - The new Slic3r-1.0RC1 blows KissSlicer out of the water on auto-support. And speed... You should play with the dev-version I posted.  But if talking release versions - Ronsii is correct. As of next month though, it should all change wink

6 Reply by ronsii

  • ronsii
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Re: Newbie questions Re: Slic3r versus Skeinforge? And supports

adrian wrote:
ronsii wrote:

Some slicers work better at generating support than others... kislicer is much better at it than slic3r and I have not used skeinforge for slicing with support so can't really comment there.

Hold that thought ronsii wink - The new Slic3r-1.0RC1 blows KissSlicer out of the water on auto-support. And speed... You should play with the dev-version I posted.  But if talking release versions - Ronsii is correct. As of next month though, it should all change wink

Yeah, I saw your other post about that last night, will have to play with it....the speed thing has me salivating... never enough time wink and now with winter weather setting in here and daylight getting scarce it's even worse :eeek: