IdeaMaker Profile for M2E?

Have questions or comments about Simplify3D, Slic3r, Cura, Reptier, etc? Or wondering about which CAD software to use...discuss it here...
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Gwhite
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Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:38 pm

IdeaMaker Profile for M2E?

Post by Gwhite » Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:28 pm

I have been using Simplify3D (S3D) for several years. They have been promising a major update for close to a year, and despite their original claim that updates would be free, this one is going to require $$. I don't have a big problem with that, but they have been completely silent on what all the wonderful new features might be, and they have missed their release schedule big time. They have managed to tick off a LOT of users, not so much with the delay, but with the completely inadequate communication that has accompanied it.

Someone on their forum mentioned that the "IdeaMaker" slicer had all kinds of new features now that S3D is missing in the current rev, and that they have stopped recommending S3D to clients in favor of IdeaMaker. I took a quick look at it, and it does appear to have a lot of nice features that are absent in S3D, like adaptive layer height.

IdeaMaker appears to be a bit like Cura, in that it was developed in-house to support a particular brand of printer (Raise3D). They don't appear to have as wide a 3rd party printer following as Cura, and I haven't found any mention of anyone using it with MakerGear printers. The software forum on the Raise3D web site isn't particularly active, and the main mention of MakerGear appears to be people who wish their Raise3D printer was a good as their MakerGear machine...

Has anyone explored IdeaMaker, and has anyone got a profile for an M2E? Frankly, I'm not convinced that either S3D or Raise3D are long for this world...

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ednisley
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Re: IdeaMaker Profile for M2E?

Post by ednisley » Thu Feb 13, 2020 1:48 pm

Gwhite wrote:
Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:28 pm
I'm not convinced that either S3D or Raise3D are long for this world...
You could put a checkmark in Slic3r's "Use Adaptive Slicing" option and see what happens:

https://slic3r.org/

You probably don't want to run Slic3r's nightly auto-builds, but I've been trotting along a few commits behind the bleeding edge for years and it works fine for my simple needs:

https://github.com/slic3r/Slic3r

The last time I looked, an Expert Mode toggle reveals the hideous complexity required for the kind of results most folks with an M2 care about. Can't find it now, but I've always deployed All. The. Controls. anyway, because I'm that type of guy.

Bonus & liability: active development!

Opinion:

AFAICT, there's no commercial potential for software intended to run on what's now commodity hardware, so pure software plays are extinct. Machine-locked software on proprietary hardware remains feasible, but only with commercial-grade pricing far beyond what most of the "maker" community can afford.

Worse, any single company has a very small developer staff, because really good developers command higher pay than small outfits can afford and, in today's market, they get many other job offers. What seems to work for smaller companies is funding Free Software development, perhaps to add desirable features & specific configurations, although getting over the "must not fund a benefit for competitors" mentality is tough.

Which means we can either:
  • spend (IMO) far too much money on proprietary hardware / software
  • devote the effort required to use Free Software / Hardware
There's not much left standing in the middle.

airscapes
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Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:36 pm

Re: IdeaMaker Profile for M2E?

Post by airscapes » Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:25 pm

Prusa slicer is slic3r. They are also actively developing it. I only played a little bit with it as I am fluent in s3d 4.01 which is doing what I need. The one thing that seemed lacking was the supports..

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