@Xenomorpheus yeah, I work as a mechanical engineer so I have all kinds of software to do so. It’s just more work though. Lol.
Prusa control for most things because it just works, slic3r prusa edition when I need finer control.
KISSlicer. Grew up with it. Recently dabbled with Cura that comes with Repetier Host.
First impressions: Crap. Doesn’t auto-increase infill rate as the print gets close to a ceiling, leaving a scarred crappy ceiling. Tries to be clever with perimeters to save time - ends up jumping around leaving weird pimply scars on the side walls.
So far, only thing it seems to do better is print a nicer/easier to remove support structure.
Sticking with KISSlicer for now.
Kisslicer. It’s the fastest, once you have all dialed in just load model and slice. I’ve tried them all, bought them all, but kiss just works for my kind of work flow.
@Whosa_whatsis I find manually messing with Cura’s settings to usually just wipe out Cura entirely. One wrong move in the material profiles and it’ll forget I even have any printers at all. In the end I just got fed up with having to manually edit config files. Slic3r PE can be upgraded from version to version, copied from one computer to another, messed about with, and all the while not forget any of my settings.
Cura might be fine if you have an ultimaker, but if you have multiple custom printers, with custom gcode for start and end scripts (anyone else remember when you had to manually edit files just to even add a custom printer?) and multiple material profiles that (for one excuse or another) don’t get migrated, the constant headache of will I upgrade or won’t I, just isn’t worth it.
All in all it was a great slicer that gave me amazing prints, but the stability and usability is about 1/10, or at least it was when I stopped using it at about version 2.5. Now that I have slic3r all set up, I see absolutely no reason at all to ever even try Cura again. Not after losing my trust in so many ways (not just losing my profiles).
S3D for me because it can slice & preview huge models to a couple thousand layers in 5-10 seconds. I don’t pretend it’s great, but I like the machine controller and previewer better than other offerings. I think it looks and feels less dated other the options.
Cura’s vase mode was definitely weird for a couple years. It looks like it would do about 98% of a layer as a flat layer then it made a short s-curve hop between layers. I never understood how anyone thought that was what a vase mode user wanted.
S3D, for a few reasons:
- It works well and I’m used to it. No real incentive to burn energy configuring and trying other slicers. My time is way more valuable than the initial software cost… which in any case I consider to have paid for itself years ago through a good print success rate.
- It handles a wide range of different printers and material profiles (including non-gcode printers Makerbots that require post-processing scripts) very easily, which is important since I have 6 wildly-different printers and print a lot of exotic filaments.
- The process system is really powerful for print optimization without a ton of hassle. In particular, changing slicer settings by layer height is extremely easy.
CuraEngine (15.04) because there is good integration with OctoPrint. Slic3r also works with OctoPrint, but I’ve not gotten into the habit of using it yet.
I use slic3r b/c profiles are so straight forward. I use MANY different models at my shop and cura has updated so many times with significant changes in workflow, I suffer from upgrade fatigue. I think cura is walking a dangerous line of trying to let it be reasonably useful for others while making it very obvious that UM printers are the #1 concern for the software. I don’t fault them for the decision. But I think it’s jumped the shark now and it’s now appealing less and less to Makers who have used it for years for their non-UM printers.
For my Simple Pro printers, I am always very happy to live w the caveats of our ultra simple feature set at Printrbot.cloud b/c the files are in the cloud, it works every time, and I often just want to hit print and forget slicers exist. I live with the longer print time (.1mm is standard) as a trade off to simple workflow and autonomous trouble free printing. (Btw, we use Cura engine in the cloud )
Brook
@Brook_Drumm I think the rebranding of Cura to “Ultimaker Cura” was inevitable, they have a whole department of people working on the software, and the only “Unbranded” version of Cura was the Ultimaker one, all the forks was very clearly marketed as “Lulzbot Cura”, “Wanhao Cura”, “BCN3D Cura” etc, so i don’t blame them at all for going the “Ultimaker Cura” way.
I also agree that Cura has changed a lot between the versions during the last year or so, but i also see that as a positive thing in that they are working hard to push new stuff out the door and improving the interface and the workflow in line with the feedback they are getting from users.
The only real problem for me is a lack of documentation on how to properly set up a custom printer + materials in Cura in combination with a bit too minimalist “custom printer” interface in the GUI.
I recommend cura all the time. For newcomers, it’s z great match. For an old timer like me, I’m slow on the new tricks 
Brook
Flashprint. Works great for me