Slic3r 1.35.1 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.35.1 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This is the Slic3r 1.35.1 - Prusa Edition release. This is a beta release mainly providing improvements of multi material printing and a new Smart Wipe Tower for the Prusa Multi Material Upgrade.

Following improvements are significant to multi material printing:

• A new configuration value "single_extruder_multi_material" informs the Slic3r, that the printer is capable of swapping and extruding multiple filaments through a single hot end. This new option influences handling of the heater: If enabled, Slic3r will only set the nozzle temperature of the active extruder, and it will omit the "T" tag from the M104/M109 codes.
• The Prusa Smart Wipe Tower has been integrated into Slic3r. Until now, the Prusa Multi Material beta testers had to use an external post processor. With this Slic3r release, the post processor has been integrated into Slic3r, allowing one to position the wipe tower on the print bed, to define an amount of wipe per filament change, and to visualize the wipe tower print paths in the print path preview. The following configuration vaues were added for the wipe tower: "wipe_tower", "wipe_tower_x", "wipe_tower_y", "wipe_tower_width" and "wipe_tower_per_color_wipe". Please note, that the Smart Wipe Tower is not generic: As of today, it is only applicable to Prusa Multi Material Upgrade. We will likely extend the Smart Wipe Tower in the future to support other tool swap scenarios.
• A new filament parameter "filament_type" has been added to support the Prusa Multi Material filament switch procedure. The Smart Wipe Tower generator uses this new parameter to control the ramming sequence over the wipe tower.
• A new tag "initial_tool" has been introduced for the start G-code script to set the first active extruder based on current assignment of extruders to print objects. Your multi-material start G-code shall begin with "T[initial_tool]" to set the correct extruder for priming and printing.
• The 3D print path preview has been extended to allow coloring of the print paths by extruder or filament color. We found it inconvenient to have the print path color set at the filament level as one usually maintains a single filament settings for a single material of multiple colors. We therefore added a new parameter "extruder_colour" to the printer extruder definition, overriding the filament color for the 3D print path preview. One can now change the extruder preview color conveniently by clicking on the color field at the filament selection of the platter.
• The "ensure_vertical_shell_thickness" feature has been improved for multi material. If the "interface_shells" feature is disabled, the "ensure_vertical_shell_thickness" used to add excessive solid infill where one volume intersects another. Now the multi-material prints will be lighter.
• Up / down buttons were added to the Object Settings dialog to change the order of parts of a multi-material object. If the "clip_multipart_objects" settings is active, the multi part volumes are clipped by each other in the order they are displayed by the Object Settings dialog. #277
• The list box at the Object Settings dialog showing the multi-part volumes was made resizable #278.

This release contains the following new features and optimizations:

• The retract / deretract functionality has been extended to better support bowden extruders:
  1. A new parameter "deretract_speed" can be set differently from the "retract_speed". This allows one to pull the filament quickly while loading the filament slowly.
  2. A new parameter "retract_before_wipe" allows one to do a partial retract before wipe. This feature allows one to reduce the wipe length for printers with long retracts (bowden extruders). Pulling the filament quickly before wiping the extruder reduces retract time and it also potentially reduces stringing.
• If there is no M104/M109 code mentioned in the G-code start script, Slic3r used to insert an M104 code to set the extruder temperature without waiting. Now Slic3r will possibly emit M109 instead based on the new "set_and_wait_temperatures" configuration #199. Thanks to @lordofhyphens.
• Performance improvements in refreshing the 3D scenes: Refresh of the 3D scenes is now postponed until the particular 3D scene is visible.

This release contains the following bug fixes:

• Fixed an "avoid crossing perimeters" bug introduced in Slic3r 1.34.1.24 #311 #317 #323.

Slic3r 1.34.1.24 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.34.1.24 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This is the Slic3r 1.34.1.24 - Prusa Edition release. This is a beta release fixing some issues and introducing optimizations of extruder ordering for multi material prints.

Following changes are significant to multi material printing:

• The G-code generator has been rewritten to minimize the number of tool changes.
  1. Support is printed before or after an object to minimize tool changes.
  2. All islands of multiple objects are printed with the first extruder before switching to the next extruder.
• The support interface pattern has been changed from zig-zag to concentric for soluble supports to improve surface quality of the supported overhangs.
• Soluble supports will have their layers synchronized with the object layers to minimize tool changes #197.
• Non-soluble supports will be printed with a current extruder without triggering a tool change by assigning a special "0" extruder ID to support base and support interface.

This release contains the following new features and optimizations:

• Added a Notes Tab to Printer Settings #210.
• Earlier Slic3r versions printed the support base and support interface extrusions separately. This Slic3r release interleaves the support base with the suport interface if possible (when extruded with the same extruder).

This release contains the following bug fixes:

• Fixed a bug in the layer height editor for high diameter nozzles #247.
• Fixed a bug in the layer height editor when max_layer_height is set to zero #267.
• Fixed a support generator issue, where the XY gap has been ignored for the top contact layers, and a fixed 50% was used instead.
• Fixed loading of multi part ASCII STLs #255.
• Fixed a "Synchronize with object layers" support feature for soluble support interfaces #197.
• Fixed some missing first support layers with soluble supports #280.

Following features were removed:

• Removed an Arc Fitting feature. This feature never worked and it is difficult to implement it correctly. Also apart from making the generated G-code somehow shorter, the arc fitting does not bring benefits to the print quality with existing printer firmware implementations.
• Removed the questionable Pressure Advance feature. It is better to use the firmware implementation of the same feature.

Internal changes:

• Ported the G-code generator from Perl to C++, improved the performance of the MotionPlanner.
• The GCodeReader and SpiralVase were ported from C++ to Perl, thanks to @alexrj.

Prusa3D specific:

• The OSX builds are signed.

Slic3r 1.34.1 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.34.1- Prusa Edition

Summary:

This is the Slic3r 1.34.1 - Prusa Edition release. This is a stable release, mostly fixing some long standing issues and new issues introduced in 1.34.0.

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

Please note, that Slic3r may fail running on some Windows computers with Intel HD Graphics after the latest graphics driver or Windows update, see issue #233. If you have this issue, please let us know by adding a note to #233. Updating a graphics driver from Intel usually helps.

This release contains following new features and improvements:

• Implemented import of a "Prusa Control" project file format. The .prusa file is a zip containing STLs and an XML file describing their position, orientation and scale on the print bed.
• "ensure_vertical_shell_thickness" will be disabled for the vase mode automatically.
• Windows specific: Added a slic3r-noconsole.exe wrapper to start background slicing from Repetier or Prusa Control without opening a console window.

This release contains following bug fixes:

• Fixed some support issues: Supports should not leak through the object wall #66, #181,
  sometimes base support was generated over interface layers #232.
• Fixed some rare dents and kinks in perimeters #214.
• Fixed #235. From now a zero layer height is not allowed to be entered into the layer height table and the layer height is validated to fall between the minimum and maximum layer height values configured for the printer.
• Fixed a long standing bug of the Cut function, where entering a numeric cut height behaves chaotically #218.

Slic3r 1.34.0 - Prusa Edition

Slic3r 1.34.0 - Prusa Edition

Summary:

This is the Slic3r 1.34.0 - Prusa Edition release. This is an alpha release, bringing a significant performance boost to the slicing process and visualization.

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

Improvement of the slicing speed

Most of the time consuming slicing algorithms were parallelized using the Intel Thread Building Blocks, also some time critical algorithms were fine tuned for performance. On a 4 core CPU, the improvements often provide a 3x to 4x speed boost compared to the previous Slic3r Prusa Edition release.

Improvements of a visualization speed

If available, this Slic3r release will use OpenGL 2.0 features, namely the Vertex Buffer Objects and OpenGL shaders. Contrary to the old Slic3r, the new Slic3r pushes the geometry data onto the GPU, thus significantly increasing rendering frame rate for complex scenes. This is noticeable for the 3D print path preview of complex finely sliced objects and the frame rate boost is radical on high performance graphics cards. On dual graphics card Windows laptops, the new Slic3r will advice an NVIDIA or AMD GPU driver to take over the rendering tasks.

Improvements of memory requirements of a 3D print path preview

The old Slic3r allocated 528 bytes of memory per print path segment for the 3D print path preview. This made the 3D print path usable for large models on high end computers only as the old Slic3r allocated up to 10GB of RAM for objects fitting a common 20x20x20cm build volume. This Slic3r release lowers the memory requirements to 160-232 bytes per print path segment by reducing redundancy in the 3D path preview geometry, requiring around 60% less RAM on average.

Other changes

This release contains following improvements:

• Significantly reduced loading times of the 3D print path preview.
• Rewrote the file IO layer from Perl to C++.
• Support generator has been extended to respect a minimum layer height value.
• "Reload from disk" command at the object popup menu, thanks to @alexrj.
• Cooling Buffer rewritten to C++, thanks to @alexrj.
• Generic modifier volumes, thanks to @lordofhyphens.
• Changed default infill pattern to Stars and an infill-perimeter overlap to 55% to match the defaults of @alexrj.

This release contains following bug fixes:

• Improved the speed of AMF import drastically. Fixed a scaling issue when loading an AMF file #7.
• Rotation and scaling did not support decimal values, based on work of @alexrj #41, #104.
• Improved "Seam position aligned" behavior #44.
• Fixed A large fractal pyramid takes ages to slice #117
• Fixed "Zero extrusion print moves and overlapping regions in first layer" #175 #184
• Reworked the variable layer height visualization to use OpenGL 2.0 shaders, fixing many issues #179.
• Fixed Window selections wrong #191, thanks to @uclaros.
• Fixed Slic3r ignoring "slow down if layer print time is below" setting alexrj#3515 thanks to @alexrj
• Fixed "When the Voronoi diagram contained very large coordinates" alexrj#3776, thanks to @alexrj.
• Support generator sometimes Base layers are trimmed by the briding bottom surfaces.

Prusa Research specific:

• On Windows, dropping an STL file over a slic3r.exe icon will open Slic3r and load the STL file #201.
• Windows builds were switched from Strawberry Perl to a homebrew perl distribution, compiled with Visual Studio 2013. This change made the debugging on Windows much easier, also it brought another 10% speed up to the slicing process. The build process is documented on Wiki.
• Our Linux binary packages were missing some Perl modules needed for the OctoPrint discovery to work #36

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.