@Tom_Keidar A lot of the nicer S3D features really aren’t important to typical Slic3r users. For example, it natively exports x3g for Sailffish bots or json for Makerbot 5th gen bots without needing to set up a post-processing script toolchain for gcode conversion. MOST people using Slic3r don’t have Mightyboard-based printers so that’s not super important. There are some other quasi-proprietary formats (like the Dremel Idea Builder or FlashForge Dreamer) that S3D can do as well. It’s the “one slicer to rule them all” that can support practically every printer out there. That’s really important to people like me who have a diverse printer “fleet.”
The dualstrusion support is really, really good since 3.0. Again, not important to >90% of Slic3r users, but pretty useful for printer ecosystems like Makerbot clones, FlashForge, Wanhao that usually have dual extruders.
The front-end/UI is also very clean and stable, and the actual slicing is practically instantaneous even with million-poly models. The process system is also easier in my opinion for power-user customization options (like varying infill density or perimeter count by height) than doing the same in Slic3r. If you’re used to Slic3r, you probably don’t mind the UI/UX stuff so much so that may not be a big decision driver for you.
I do use x3g postprocessing, but it’s not like it’s inconvenient. It took a half hour to figure out the first time, then no problems, it just happens. I absolutely hate Sailfish, I can’t believe they can sell printers with such abysmal firmware.
I have dual extruders, but I’ve never found a reason to use the second one. I guess it’s just there as a spare in case I ever wreck the first one
I just don’t do complex models.
It looks like Simplify is going to refund me. I haven’t heard back for the final time but they instructed me to de-register my software. They didn’t have to do that, so that’s a feather in their cap. And it does have the look and feel of a nice professional program, and I guess that matters to some people.
@John_Ridley What do you dislike about Sailfish? Most people I know who use it strongly prefer it over other 8bit firmwares. It’s admittedly EOL and “terminally mature” due to lack of program memory on 1280 Mightyboards, but in my opinion it’s still by far the best 8bit firmware. It has the most speed/performance optimization, fewest bugs, least crufty old code residue, best LCD UI, most functional pressure advance algorithm for corner quality. My three Sailfish printers are still my workhorses despite having pretty much every other controller option at my disposal. (I have also Repetier, Smoothie, and RepRapFirmware printers all with 32bit boards.)
All that said, I don’t think anyone should be buying 8bit controllers anymore. We should all be migrating to 32bit. Even the chief Sailfish author and maintainer encourages people to go with RepRapFirmware on Duet or Due/RADDS.
@Ryan_Carlyle The completely unforgiveable thing is that they’re not using PID temperature control, as far as I can tell. Temperature control is horrible. It drifts up and down as much as 5 degrees.
Also the ability to dynamically control prints in process is almost nonexistant. With Marlin I can speed up and slow down prints instantly, change motion characteristics, change bed and nozzle temperatures in mid print, etc. With Sailfish, if a print isn’t exactly right, throw it away and reslice.
I am so unhappy with Sailfish that I actually spent a very long weekend a while back trying to cram a RAMPS/Mega board into the printer, but it failed due to voltage and sensor mismatches just being too great. But I’m kind of thinking about either giving it another try, or just scrapping the printer and building another RepRap. And all because I hate the firmware so very, very much. Honestly, it’s like driving a modern car, then being told you now have to use a horse cart.
Not sure what is to be gained by going to 32 bit. Seems like the 8 bit stuff works as fast as the printer is capable of running anyway - so what’s the benefit?
If you’re getting 5C swings, there’s either something wrong with your hardware (like an off-spec heater cartridge or loose thermocouple) or you’re using highly non-standard hot end hardware (like you installed a Merlin or something). The PID works just fine in ~150,000 printers, dunno what’s wrong with yours. You can adjust the PID tuning via RepG if you think it’s a tuning issue but the defaults work for almost everybody.
Sailfish also lets you control quite a few settings mid-print from the LCD, eg print speed, hot end temp, and turning the fan on and off. Push the left button during the print to bring up the menu. Heatbed temp is also adjustable in 2560 Mightyboard builds in the latest beta release. (FlashForges have used 2560s for a while now, but genuine Makerbots use 1280s unfortunately.)
Are you using Makerbot’s stock firmware? That might explain some of your issues, it’s an old buggy stripped-down version of Sailfish. Updating to the most recent “real” Sailfish build is strongly recommended. http://www.sailfishfirmware.com/
@John_Ridley if all you do is blocky, low-poly prints on Cartesian printers at speeds below 60mm/s, and don’t care about modern features, easy printer configuration, or clean codebases, then no, you don’t need 32bit. The rest of us like the superior speed/quality tradeoffs, features, and development growth potential that RepRapFirmware or Smoothieware provide. (Or Redeem or MachineKit if you’re brave.)
All the 8bit controllers are COMPLETELY maxed out on processor capacity. For example, when Marlin recently added a functioning pressure advance algorithm for better corner quality, it took a big max print speed performance hit because the added clock cycles to do the advance calculations pushed it over the edge of what the processor could keep up with. So you get better corners but more pause-zits on curvy perimeters. Just firing step pulses to the motors takes up vast amounts of processor time on these chips. The Atmega AVR is from the 1990s, for heaven’s sake. There are all sorts of tricks and kludges in the code to allow 8bit controllers to work as well as they do, and that holds back progress on things like motion planners and creation of new features.
@Ryan_Carlyle I suppose I should toss together a printer from spare parts and look into the 32 bit stuff. Almost all the new designs I’m doing are still 8 bit, but mostly I’m doing stuff like single remote moisture sensors with a wifi dongle, and even 8 bit is overkill for them.
When I build my next printer I’ll give it a try. Probably within the next year. I don’t seem to be able to go more than 6 months without building a new printer, and I’m starting to get the itch now.
FWIW they did refund me, kudos to them for that. I appreciate it. I’m back to using Slic3r and again, for what I do, it works as well, if not a little better. Probably S3D could be tuned to work better, but I never really did any tuning with Slic3r. Last time I remember having to actually tune a slicing program was back in the horrible dark ages of Skeinforge (ugh).
