Perhaps someone with the relevant experience would care to explain the relative merits of SnOrca and vanilla Orca, now Orca seems to have the U1 in its machine definitions. Thanks.
I use both. SNAPMaker Orca is supposed to be the better option since SNAPMaker developed this software specifically for the U1 and updates it regularly. However, I prefer the Vanilla OrcaSlicer because it does a better job of syncing the filaments installed in the printer (or at least it works at all). That said, SNAPMaker is supposed to release an update for their slicer next week. I’m curious to see how it turns out. Otherwise, there isn’t much difference between the two. That said, the Vanilla OrcaSlicer is a bit more advanced in development.
Reading back through the forum, that was one of the concerns about a Snapmaker fork of Orca – the fork was needed to get U1 support into it ASAP, but as a result would lag developments in Orca.
Vanilla Orca is developed by Softfever in Singapore. Snapmaker are coding their slicer in China.
So what?
Currently, I prefer the original Orca Slicer, as the Snapmaker Orca (Snorca) is now 4034 commits behind the original (as of today). This includes several essential commits that have already ruined some of my prints. For example, Snorca changes the bed temperature after the first layer in multi-material prints (PETG and PLA in my case) (see my GitHub issue report (#552), because the corresponding changes from the original were not adopted. Another example: In the original, you can set ironing values depending on the filament (setting overrides in the filament settings), but these settings are missing in Snorca.
Therefore, my recommendation: Only use Snorca if its features are truly needed (such as Color Mixing). The original has many features that are much more developed and bugs fixed compared to Snorca.
So, just to confirm, you have no difficulty with U1 compatibility using mainstream Orca?
As if I don’t send the jobs directly to the U1, but save the gcode-files on my Hdd before and upload to the U1 via the Klipper-interface, I haven’t any issue by now.
Yes, I can see the main issues are likely to be on the device tab.