#3dprinting
Printr, a Dutch startup, has announced Katana. A new and free slicer engine, cross-platform (will be available soon to Windows users), aiming at simplicity and quite easy on the eye.
http://printr.com/katana
Looks nice, I’ll check it out when I get myself a printer.
Windows not supported yet. 
#oops (How to miss a moment of the highest media attention. Windows have almost 86% market share.)
I’ve tried it on Fedora, and it is indeed nice. The 3d printers supported list is mostly mainstream (I couldn’t find a generic prusa i3, only a prusa i3 plus) but there are controls to adjust to most printers. Now it’s a pity it’s not open source, but a new and free slicer is always welcome. It will be available for Windows soon enough ^^.
Looks a whole lot like they stole the cura engine. Same settings. Same output. Same internal settings.
hmm … I don’t know about that : it seems kinda quite normal to me that settings from well-known 3d printers end up similar from one app to another. But again I wouldn’t know …
We checked a few tell tail Cura engine features. They act exactly like in Cura.
Even odd features like miss-named “simple mode” and “GCODE_FLAVOR_REPRAP” as flavor value is 100% copied.
Just to name random simple examples.
Horrible user interface, very short list of available printers, I’m not even willing to try this out. There are so many slicers out there with more of everything, so why even bother?
The “very short list” of preconfigured printers expand itself when you began to write the name (ex : prusa is not in the list, but you will see “prusa i3 plus” appears out of nowhere once you wrote “prusa”). This app is to be considered in a early stage, but don’t forget its purpose, some kind of very minimalistic “ready to go” slicer engine. But I understand what you mean, I myself prefer to have more control (especially since I use a chinese prusa i3 heavily modified ^^). Note that we’re supposed to access some more advanced controls once a STL file is loaded. I’m trying it as we speak.
Also, well, the user interface is a matter of preference (and a whole debate in itself). I find Pronterface and Repetier absolutely hideous, crappy, and coming from another century (and they’re still very good apps though). I use MatterControl for myself. Totally like this one.
@Daid_Braam Are you going to challenge them to come clean on their product’s origin?
@Didier_MEDIAKLAN Ah, yes, for users of MatterControl this would be an upgrade.
But for anyone that is used to the versatility of the Cura engine, or Slc3r, it is a p.o.s.
And since when is Repetier host a slicer? It can slice, but gives you the choice of 3 different slicers. Katana is a waste of time, and if @Daid_Braam is right, it did not take too much time to make it.
It’s ok @Rien_Stouten , I was talking about ‘user interface 3d printer apps’ in general, not actual slicer engines. And actually, for anyone that is used to the MatterControl profile system, Cura is nowhere as convenient. Plus I can STILL use the cura engine inside Mattercontrol. Or Slic3r. Or MatterSlice. That’s said, if @Daid_Braam is right, I deeply regret to have publish something about Katana, and as a penance, I will serve as a guinea pig and test this app even if it could reduce me to the size of a sea cucumber.
Note that I’ve just realized that we can import Cura Settings, maybe what he founds is related to this ?
If not, i’m willing to ask them too about it (I think i saw them on twitter)
No windows software… bummed
Strange, I can find settings for raft, infill, etc etc, but I can’t find the nozzle size parameter anywhere. Not even the filament diameter. Bad start.
OK, so … It worked. And I’m not burned to death (for what I’m considerably grateful). So, settings are heavily related to the 3d printers list, meaning that for the others who don’t own these fancy printers, the best way is to get past the list (choose a 3d printer close to yours) and import Cura settings. From there it’s pretty much automated. You can give it a try or flame it to the ground, your choice ^^ but if you try, please consider first if @Daid_Braam statement is true . Now, please keep in mind I honestly thought it was good to have another 3d printing app to try. Thank you !
I’ll look out for that
@Neil_Darlow @Jaime_van_Kessel already did challange them from his personal email. They said it’s not the CuraEngine. However, I recognize the work of my baby quite well. Could be for a number of reasons that they denied the origin. (For example, they simply didn’t know any hire someone to do the work who did not tell them, based of MatterSlice which is also based of CuraEngine, but not everyone knows that)
So, I’m going to do the most sensible thing. Send them an email explaining what I see, and invite them to the office for a quick talk. After all, they are close by to the Ultimaker HQ. Face to face problems are much easier.
Well at least MatterSlice don’t try to hide its noble origin : https://github.com/MatterHackers/MatterSlice/wiki/InternalOverview
Not nice from Printr to show off proprietary stuff without at least acknowledging the source. Not to mention that in this day and age, it’s almost stupid. If I was able to create a slice engine, i would be glad to start the intro speech with “Based on the robust open source CuraEngine bla bla bla”. Sounds like a huge selling point to me ^^.