Slic3r 1.33.8 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.33.8 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This release fixes the following issue: Infill patterns triangles/stars seem to be mixed-up 0061733
Also the Variable Layer Height shaders were updated to present a Level of Detail effect, where the layer strips disappear as the camera moves away from the object, and the Variable Layer Height palette was modified to show the thin layers in green and the wide layers in a red-brown color.

Slic3r 1.33.7 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.33.7 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This release fixes a possible infinite loop in the support generator due to a numerical rounding #141, #142.

Slic3r 1.33.6 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.33.6 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This release fixes some nagging issues:

• Some of older computers, mainly Windows boxes, do not support OpenGL shaders correctly. Slic3r has been updated to detect the missing OpenGL capabilities when trying to enter the "Layer Editing" mode and to report the missing OpenGL capabilities without crashing #136.
• To be able to better diagnose various customer issues, a System Information dialog has been integrated 70229be to gather important statistics on the user installation, for example the Slic3r build, operating system, Perl version and include paths, and OpenGL capabilities. Also a "Report New Issue" menu has been added, which opens a web browser on the github Issues page of the project.
• Slic3r starting scripts were updated to unset the PERL5LIB and PERLLIB environment variables to avoid mixing of system wide PERL libraries with Slic3r's own #140.

Slic3r 1.33.5 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.33.5 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.33.5 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This release fixes some issues introduced in the releases 1.33.3 and 1.33.4.

This release contains following bug fixes:

• Slic3r 1.33.4 hangup on start #136. Most likely Slic3r hangs on some computers due to buggy OpenGL drivers. This release does not treat the problem, only the symptoms. Namely, Slic3r may still hang, but only when enabling the new Layer Editing tool due to the use of OpenGL shaders. If Slic3r hangs on you on Layer Editing, please provide a log printed by slic3r on the console (you have to run slic3r-console.exe on Windows to get a console log).
• "Export G-Code" Disabled After First Export #137.
• Slic3r does not start (crashes) on Windows, when installed in a localized directory #133.

Slic3r 1.33.4 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.33.4 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.33.4 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This release fixes some issues introduced in the release 1.33.3.

This release contains following bug fixes:

• No support generated when the layer height was set in percents #114.
• Crash when disabling the variable layer height on OSX or Linux #116.
• Raft incomplete with soluble interface material #120.
• Large skirt generated #122.
• Weird/Slow movements after finishing skirt #126.
• Fixed a problem when saving a G-code on localized Windows ce8973b.

This release contains following improvements:

• Improved the layer height spline editing tool behavior close to the top of the object.
• The new "slicing info" box with the filament weight and cost is now displayed only if it is current, which is after the G-code is exported. #130

This release contains following new features:

• Clip multi-part objects one by the other. When printing multi-material objects, this settings will make Slic3r to clip the overlapping object parts one by the other (2nd part will be clipped by the 1st, 3rd part will be clipped by the 1st and 2nd etc).

Prusa specific

• From now on, our binary OSX builds will support retina displays (thanks @kelchm #97) and the 3D rendering is anti-aliased.
• From now on, we will provide an AppImage binary distribution for Linux. Just download, "chmod +x" and start. Thanks @probonopd #78.
• OSX & Linux start-up scripts were updated to support path names with spaces #128.

Slic3r 1.33.3 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.33.3 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This is the Slic3r 1.33.3 - Prusa Edition release. This is a beta release, introducing two new features: Variable layer height and reworked supports.

When using this release of Slic3r with the Original Prusa i3 MK2 printer, following configuration files shall be used: https://github.com/prusa3d/Slic3r-settings

Variable layer height

The idea to vary a layer height to improve finish of sloping surfaces is certainly not new. A paper by Pandey, Reddy and Dhand 2003 gives an extensive overview of algorithms to vary the layer height to limit the surface roughness, Florens Wasserfall integrated automatic layer height into his experimental Slic3r in year 2014 as a part of his diploma thesis and Autodesk has shown their flavor of the variable layer height algorihtm the last year.

We argue though, that while the automatic layer height looks good in scientific papers, it is less useful in practice as implemented in the above mentioned works. We want the layers to become invisible, which requires the layer height to vary smoothly, and we want the layers to be as thick as possible as long as the step artifacts are not disturbing. For an automatic algorithm it is difficult to judge the importance of a feature to be printed in a high detail, therefore one often ends up with the whole object being printed with the thinnest layers allowed, making the automatic layer height useless.

We therefore implemented a slick and quick manual layer height editing tool to give the user a complete control over the details and smoothness of the prints. The user interface is easy to use and the layer simulation gives a realistic real-time feedback of the layer height effects on the appearance of the printed object.

The variable layer height feature offers following settings:

• Minimum / maximum layer height could be configured per printer nozzle, limiting the user adjustments. On Prusa i3 MK2 printer, a reasonable layer height span is from 0.07mm to 0.25mm for the standard 0.4mm diameter nozzle.
• Interactive layer editing could be disabled per printer settings.
• The layer height profile is loaded from / stored into an AMF file.

New supports

The supports were completely rewritten.

• The old supports were very slow, for some objects they did not finish even after couple of days #91.
• The new supports are aligned with a regular grid to guarantee their stability and a speed of calculation. A support tower covers at least a single grid cell, where the grid has the spacing of the base support lines.
• If placed on top of an object, the old supports often fused to the object, being impossible to remove without leaving ugly scars. The new supports control both the top and bottom gaps with a high accuracy, therefore the supports could be removed easily while ensuring a good accuracy of the object overhangs.
• The support interface layers were covered by "interface loops" by default in the old Slic3r. Now the "interface loops" are switchable and disabled by default. With the interface layers enabled but the "interface loops" disabled, the objects overhangs are well defined.
• Spacing between the object and its support in the XY plane could now be configured by a new parameter "support_material_xy_spacing". Credit for some bits to @lordofhyphens.
• Maximum support layer height respects the new maximum layer height configured by Printer/Nozzle/maximum layer height settings. This is the same parameter, which sets the cap on the maximum layer height in the variable layer height editor.
• When the support extruder index is set to 0, support is printed with the current material without a tool change. This is useful for multi material print with non-soluble supports, where the tool change is an expensive operation, which should be avoided if possible.
• As before, the supports are printed with layer heights independent from the object layers to speed up the print. To keep a tight control on the vertical gaps between an object and its support, the layer thickness is now being modulated during the print head movement to achieve a variable layer height effect without a movement in the Z axis.

Other changes

This release contains following improvements:

• Calculation of used filament weight & price, thanks to @lordofhyphens #21. The filament statistics is displayed first after the G-code is exported.
• Write the G-code to a temporary file before renaming to a final name, thanks to @alexrj. This prevents the user to copy an incomplete G-code to the printer.
• Added an experimental "rear" seam option. While Slic3r is good at hiding seams into corners, there are no corners on round objects. The "rear" seam option moves those seams to the rear side of the object. It is left to the user to orient the object with the less important details facing the rear side of the print bed.
• Background processing is now disabled by default as the background processing makes Slic3r unstable, and the default mode is set to expert.
• Added Repetier G-code flavor to support its acceleration settings #106 , thanks to @lordofhyphens.
• Added logging capability. A logging level is set by an environment variable SLIC3R_LOGLEVEL in the range of 0 to 9, where logging is disabled for SLIC3R_LOGLEVEL=0 and the most detailed logging information is produced for SLIC3R_LOGLEVEL=9.
• Speed-up due to the parallelization of the slicing step, perimeter generator and fill-ins, thanks to @alexrj.

This release contains following bug fixes:

• Number of solid top/bottom layers ignored #79, #60, #101, #108.
• Fixed flickering on zooming in a 3D view by a scroll wheel.
• Fixed an issue when loading an AMF file with multiple objects: Object names are now retained.
• Fix of "Post processing scripts not working" slic3r/Slic3r#3698.
• Fix of "Avoid placement of seams on bridging perimeters, if random seam is enabled" slic3r/Slic3r#3526.
• Fix of "Stuck on 'Processing triangulated mesh...'" #75 slic3r/Slic3r#3613 slic3r/Slic3r#3614 , thanks to @alexrj.
• Fix of a crash when a new Perl OpenGL module version 0.70 is used. Thanks to @lordofhyphens for investigation.

Prusa Research specific:

• Our binary packages were missing Asian locales, without which the Slic3r refused to start on Asian Windows #73. The new Slic3r binary packages contain locales for Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.
• OSX builds have now the multi-sample anti-aliasing enabled for the 3D visualization and Slic3r declares itself as "retina compatible", therefore the UI is now displayed sharply on retina displays with the exception of the 3D visualization. The 3D visualization, while now anti-aliased, is still rendered with half resolution on retina displays.

Slic3r 1.31.5 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.31.5 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This release fixes some issues introduced in the releases 1.31.1-1.31.3. Two UI tweaks were added for user convenience.

This release contains following bug fixes:

• GitHub issue #32

New features:

• Propose to enable "detect bridging perimeters" when the supports are first enabled. The supports require this feature to be enabled to work correctly.
• Disabled live preview at the "Cut object" dialog by default as it is not stable and/or the calculation takes too long for interactive usage.

version_1.31.4

Slic3r 1.31.4 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This release mainly fixes issues introduced in the releases 1.31.1-1.31.3.

This release contains following bug fixes:

• GitHub issues #12, #26, #27

New features:

• A new "stars" internal infill pattern has been implemented. The "stars" pattern is very similar to the "triangles" pattern with the main difference, that maximum three lines intersect at a single position.

Linux support:

• Arch Linux: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/slic3r-prusa3d/

Slic3r Prusa Edition 1.31.3

Slic3r 1.31.3 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This is the Slic3r 1.31.3 - Prusa Edition release. This release mainly fixes issues introduced in the 1.31.2 release. Also some long standing stability issues of the Windows 64bit builds were resolved.

This release contains following bug fixes:

• GitHub issues #3, #12, #15, #16, #20
• Fixes of compilation issues on newest Linuxes.
• Prusa3D specific: The Windows 64bit builds should not hang on various occurences, for example #11

Thanks to @flannelhead, @CReimer, @Sebastianv650, @voodoo-bravo, @mgroel and @MartinMajewski for their precious help.

New features:

• A "single layer only" checkbox has been added to the 3D path preview. If selected, the bottom/top layer sliders will be synchronized and only a single layer will be displayed at a time. The checkbox may be toggled with a S key (Synchronize).
• In the 3D path preview, the U / D keys are used to set the last layer displayed. Newly, if the U / D keys are pressed with a shift key, a single layer only is displayed and shifted up / down.

Platform specific issues (Windows 64bit specific)

It has been found out recently, that the Windows 64bit builds compiled with the newest Strawberry Perl hang if a C++ exception is catched and converted into a Perl exception. See slic3r/Slic3r#3561 for details. The latest Strawberry Perl 64bit known to work is quite an outdated 5.18.4.1. This is an unfortunate situation as Slic3r relied on the C++ / Perl exceptions for various validation tasks. Namely, Slic3r hanged when trying to inform the user, that a model does not fit the print bed, or that a sequential print is not possible for some reason.

An automatic test case has been added to Slic3r Prusa Edition to detect the buggy Perl: If using a broken Strawberry Perl, the build will rightly hang on a new test case t\22_exception.t (see #25 for comments and screenshots).

To avoid this problem, one can compile Slic3r using an outdated Strawberry Perl 5.18.4.1. Also Slic3r Prusa Edition has been modified to avoid most if not all of the hang ups by not using the C++ exceptions for validation, but some cases may have slipped under our radar. To compile Slic3r on a broken Strawberry Perl, please set an environment variable

set SLIC3R_HAS_BROKEN_CROAK=1

before running Build.PL. In that case the t\22_exception.t test will be skipped. Also Slic3r will show an error message and die in the cases, where it would hang before. This should not happen as the exceptions issued by the older Slic3r were converted into harmless return values, but if you nevertheless experience an error message "Closing the application", please add an issue to this project "Issues" section. The attached Windows 64bit build has been built with a "broken" Strawberry Perl.

Slic3r Prusa Edition 1.31.2

Slic3r 1.31.2 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This is the Slic3r 1.31.2 - Prusa Edition release. We at Prusa3D decided to push the Slic3r development forward at a higher pace, meaning that our Slic3r Prusa Edition now contains features, which are not yet implemented in the official Slic3r. The source code of the Slic3r Prusa Edition is freely available, so the authors and maintainers of the official Slic3r are more than welcome to integrate our changes and extensions into the official Slic3r. This release of Slic3r does not contain any Prusa3D specific fatures: All newly implemented features are general, so the community could benefit from our work.

This release will be contained in the Prusa3D drivers package version 1.7.5 available here: http://www.prusa3d.com/drivers/
When using this release of Slic3r with the Original Prusa i3 MK2 printer, following configuration files shall be used: https://github.com/prusa3d/Slic3r-settings

This release contains following bug fixes:

General

• Fixed a problem in 3D preview of huge models, where the preceding Slic3r allocated oversized OpenGL vertex arrays. After such an incident, the OpenGL driver often bailed out and stopped displaying the 3D scenes.
• Fixed the vase mode with relative extruder coordinates enabled.
• Disabled the automatic extrusion width adjustment for infills as it sometimes picked excessive values. The automatic extrusion width adjustment has a questionable value, as it really works only for rectangles parallel to the infill direction.
• Bugfix: Use Lift-z option for 2nd extruder slic3r/Slic3r#3392 . Thanks to https://github.com/platsch
• Prusa3D specific: The builds missed libraries for the AMF format. Now the AMF format is supported by the Prusa3D builds.

Supports

• Fixed a typo in the automatic detection of overhangs for supports slic3r/Slic3r#2098. Thanks to https://github.com/hyperair
• Fixed a problem in support generator: When the number of interface layers was set to zero, Slic3r would put infinite number of interface layers over top surfaces.

Bridging

• Fixed a problem in internal bridging over sparse infill, where the bridging infill could overflow out of the object shell.
• Bugfix of bridging nearly touching regions. Slic3r would bridge each letter of a label separately, often leading to an infill starting in the middle of a region. Now these close regions are merged before bridging.

Infill

• More consistent perimeter / infill overlap for rectilinear and grid infills. The old Slic3r silently added a 30% overlap to the rectilinear infills, which was inconsistent with the other infill patterns.
• Fixed a bug in fill density of a rectilinear infill pattern. The old Slic3r placed 2x more material into the rectilinear infill then configured.
• Fixed a bug in the Octagram Spiral pattern. The old Slic3r did not fill the space completely for 100% infill.

Following new features were implemented:

General

• Command line only feature: Don't arrange the objects on the build plate. The model coordinates define the absolute positions on the build plate.

Perimeters

• Suppress placement of perimeter seam points on overhangs.
• Ensure vertical shell thickness. This is similar to extra perimeters, but it uses a solid infill to guarantee the vertical shell thickness instead. Cura, Kisslicer and Simplify3D use this strategy.

Infill

• Two new infill types: Triangles and Cubic. The Cubic infill style is the pattern popularized by the Type A Machines.
• The rectilinear and grid infills are now following the perimeter lines for better bonding, and the infill paths are stitched to longer continuous draws, meaning less non-printing moves.

Supports

• Sheath (single perimeter) over the base support was made configurable. Supports without the sheath are less stable, but much easier to remove. Kisslicer has the sheath configurable, Simplify3D does not use a sheath at all.
• Smarter rectilinear pattern for the supports. The new pattern follows the enclosing perimeters and it strives to print the pattern in as little as possible continuous draws.
• Support material could now be constrained to touching build plate only.

User Interface

• "Background slice now" button, initial implementation by @lordofhyphens slic3r/Slic3r#3501
• 2nd scroll bar is shown at the 3D paths preview to set the bottom layer displayed.
• New View menu to set the camera to default positions / orientations.
• Suppress the '- default -' selection of Print/Filament/Printer settings if there is any valid option available. This feature has been asked for by the Prusa3D customers as the '- default -' option has nothing to do with the actual printer and when selected accidentally, it could even lead to a printer damage.
• Implemented filament notes.

Experimental Features

• Extrusion simulator. Under/over-extrusion is visualized in the Layers view by colors. Just press the numeric button 1 to 5 to switch between the simulation modes.
• Pressure Equalizer. Print speed is regulated to limit the slope of the change of the volumetric extrusion rate. The Pressure Equalizer is not finalized yet, it does not work well with gap fill.
• Filament specific maximum volumetric speed (filament_max_volumetric_speed config value). This feature is very helpful when mixing rigid and soft materials.

Following features were removed:

• Vibration Limit has been deprecated long time ago, now we removed it.

Internal changes:

• C++ implementation of the infills to fully replace the Perl implementation. The C++ infills run faster.
• Integration of an intrusive profiler Shiny. The Shiny profiler will help us to pin point the performance bottlenecks in the code.
• Slic3r build has been adjusted to compile with Visual Studio 2013. The Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 is free and offers a superb debugger.
• Slic3r code has been reviewed by Vojtech, commented and FIXME were added where the current code seems to be non-optimal or not correct to Vojtech (which may or may not be true, but these places are worth looking into).
• Debugging outputs by the means of SVG images were added in many stages of the Slic3r calculation to better understand the internal work flow and to help analyze problems.

In the pipeline:

• C++ supports. The current Perl implementation of supports does not respect the gap setting when generating the interface layer on an object, so the supports are difficult to remove. Also the current support generator is very slow.