3D printing software

I use S3D primarily, but occasionally Cura. I posted my FFF file for my A350 at the bottom of this post: Snapmaker 2.0 Initial Calibration Settings / Experiences. I made a few changes to the one provided by Snapmaker.

S3D has fewer bridging and support controls than Cura. Overall I find “standard” supports in S3D easier to remove, but for small models the Cura Tree supports are fantastic. And the Cura experimental multi-layer bridging controls are second-to-none, and give much more fine-grained control than the S3D controls offer.

I’m more comfortable with the gcode previewer in S3D and find it very easy to use to preview the toolpaths and ensure there is nothing that will cause problems. I’ve found floating supports, inadequate supports, etc, by carefully previewing the toolpaths ahead of printing, greatly reducing the number of failed prints. I especially like viewing layer by layer and making sure nothing is suddenly printing over free air unconnected to the rest of the model. For complicated models, being able to use section views to cut away part of the model or gcode to view the insides of a print is essential. I’m sure Cura has similar tools, but S3D is great.

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