Hello Makers,
We’ve brought you a Summer Surprise: a special edition of OrcaSlicer Nightly Build, specifically tailored for our dedicated community.
What’s New?
Orca Slicer is a popular and powerful open-source slicer in 3D printing community. Special thanks to community contributors, especially macdylan (Dylan) and hliebscher (Heiko Liebscher) for adding initial profiles for Snapmaker machines. We can select Snapmaker machines directly from Orca Slicer’s default Printer list. As more Snapmaker users adopt Orca Slicer, we’ve listened to community feedback and identified some pain points. So we are developing a special edition that incorporates the latest improvements for our users.
In the past, some of our machine’s cool features - like independent dual extrusion - weren’t fully compatible with the Orca Slicer. But that’s changing! The recent dev branch of Orca Slicer has added support for multiple extruders/toolheads. For example, the Prusa XL 5T support has been added!
We’ve adapted this feature and rolled out a special edition tailored for Snapmaker machines. These new settings deliver higher efficiency in extruders switching, minimizing downtime and maximizing print quality.
Development Version
New Features
- Seamless Extruder Switching: Say goodbye to long waits! With our special edition, the inactive extruder now preheats while on standby and begins printing as soon as the active one finishes. This feature is optimized for Snapmaker Artisan, J1/J1s, and Snapmaker 2.0 with Dual Extrusion 3D Printing Module.
You can view and fine-tune the Temperature variation and Preheat time settings for this feature in Process - Multimaterial - Ooze prevention.
Improvements
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Optimized Material Profiles: Default profiles for PLA, PETG, TPU, ABS, and PVA have been fine-tuned for all Snapmaker models.
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Streamlined G-code: The default Machine Start G-code routines for Snapmaker 2.0 and Artisan have been streamlined for better performance.
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Enhanced Speed and Support Settings: These adjustments reduce missed steps, minimize layer shifts, and make print removal easier for Artisan and J1/J1s.
Known Issues
- You would get a large Prime Tower for multimaterial printing. In the Multimaterial setting, the default Multiplier value for Flushing volumes is excessively large, leading to material waste and increased time consumption.
What is a Nightly Build?
Introduction
Nightly builds are the latest versions of Orca Slicer, automatically compiled after every new commit to the main branch. This means that each build incorporates the most recent changes and improvements. While these builds offer a glimpse into the ongoing development of OrcaSlicer, keep in mind that they are still works in progress and may contain bugs or unstable features.
Warning
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OrcaSlicer Nightly builds are developmental and may contain bugs.
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Developmental Build: Remember, this is a work in progress. Not recommended for all users. If you’re an experienced user looking to explore the newest features for your Snapmaker machine, this build is for you!
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Installation Warning: This special edition currently shares the same name, version number, and profiles as the official Orca Slicer. If you have the stable version Orca Slicer installed and want to prevent overwriting it, do not install this special edition.
Download & Installation
1. Make sure you have read the Warning above and understand that this is a development version.
2. Select the version that corresponds to your operating system, then download and install it.
OrcaSlicer_Linux_Ubuntu2404_V2.1.1.AppImage
OrcaSlicer_Linux_V2.1.1.AppImage
OrcaSlicer_Mac_arm64_V2.1.1.dmg
OrcaSlicer_Mac_x86_64_V2.1.1.dmg
OrcaSlicer_Windows_Installer_V2.1.1.exe
OrcaSlicer_Windows_V2.1.1_portable.zip
Welcome Feedback
We greatly value feedback and testing contributions from our users. Your feedback will help us to further develop this special edition of Orca Slicer for our community.
Please report any issues and test findings in this thread or email us at support@snapmaker.com.
Note
Currently, G-code files cannot be transferred wirelessly from Orca Slicer to Snapmaker machines. We will update this discussion thread with instructions if this feature becomes available.