Hi everyone, I have a question for you: Is there any software that allows me to know the time spent on a 3d printing prior to making? Thanks.
Most host control software will estimate time but it is difficult to do so accurately.
All the slicers will give you a time estimate. It usually will be wrong.
Which one is it the most accurate?
Hard to say. Why do you need accuracy ?
Planning
For me, the answer would be because the librarian where I have used their printers would prefer that any one of the three are used by any one patron for much more than an hour (if folks are waiting). But the program would have to be able to be used on a web site because of how locked down the IT has the library’s computers.
Have you thought about slicing the file yourself and taking the resulting gcode with you to then print. This would let you use any slicer you like.
I only need to know the time my 3d printer would spend printing any file, just before printing it.
Gcode.ws does a decent job estimating and visualizing gcode. It’s not perfect but it gives you a roughly useful time estimate.
If you are time-constrained on the printer and the facility it is in then get the settings file for that printer (that tunes your gcode) and pre-slice at home, especially if the onsite computer is old and slow. This gets you closer to walking in and printing right away. I do this for my makerspace to maximize my time.
Robert, would a file saved to SD card from Makerware software qualify for the Gcode.ws? If not, what file format skies this site accept and if using Makerware software how can I convert it to estimate the approximate time it would take printing? Thanks for your help!
on a MakerBot:
~900kByte x3g File / h
Thomas, so it does support this format?!
@Renat_Z I use my MakerBot Replicator 2 only stand alone. I save the x3g-File, created with MakerWare, on the the SD-card. The longest print was 14h with 12MByte.
Surely if you know all the parameters, e.g. step rate of the motors that drive the print head from point A to B, how much time the controller adds to each operation and the slice data you could have a script do a simulated run, quickly adding all the many thousands or millions of moves up?
I’ve found that the reason my times are inaccurate is that my host software doesn’t accommodate well for accelerations, only velocity. My accelerations are low, and it appears that the host only handles the first order math. So I end up having overly optimistic time estimates, very bad for your purposes. I’m using repetier host
Renat, http://gcode.ws/ accepts *.gcode files. I don’t know anything about Makerbot software but I would be surprised if they had a different format.
Thanks for your answers ! I think, there is no accurate software yet, but http://gcode.ws works pretty well.
Makerbot does not accept slicer or kiss slicer code out of the box. There is a converter on thingiverse though, but it converts directly to x3g for use directly on the printer