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3D printing is very important in ceramics, hobby and industry. A slicer is software that slices up a 3D model and runs the printer to lay down each layer.
Key phrases linking here: the slicer, 3d slicer, a slicer - Learn more
Slicing software converts a 3D model (created by CAD software like Fusion 360) into G-Code that a printer can understand. The G-Code contains head movement, extrusion and temperature instructions. Many free and paid products are available. They can exist because of standards developed over the years in the 3D design industry. Slicers handle infills (e.g. a honeycomb pattern instead of printing pieces solid) and print supports to hold up sections that flare outward (most 3D technologies cannot print over thin air!).
While each 3D design package saves files in its own optimized format (e.g. F3D for Fusion 360), it can also export 3D geometry into standardized formats that slicers can import (e.g. STL, 3MF). While standard formats have limitations, historically they have enabled the companies producing 3D design software to offload the complex slicing task (and driving the hundreds of available 3D printers) to other companies.
We have experience with Slic3r (of which Prusa Slicer is a fork), Simplify 3D and Cura. We drove my first cheap 3D RepRap printer via USB cable using Simplify 3D (it costs about $150), that machine was frustrating but that slicer eased things quite a bit (it was very good at generating support and had drivers for hundreds of printers). Simplify 3D has also turned out to be better than the version of Cura used in our Creality K1 Max, the latter is unable to handle any STL produced by Fusion 360. But Prusa Slicer wins, it is a truly beautiful piece of software. We use it in on our Prusa MK3S and MK4S (it's free and included). It’s major advantage is how intimately it is tied with all their printer models. Through its default settings and easier interface I have discovered rafts, better fills, manual filling, better overhang printing, cutting, placing, rotating, sizing.
I have learned to depend on tools in the slicer for things that I used to do in the CAD software (especially replication and cutting objects up to print them in multiple pieces and orientations). Experience with using your slicer can cut print times dramatically (especially with avoidance of printing support), I am doing prints now it one-quarter the time simply because of being smarter about it.
The advantages of printing via an SD-card or USB stick and letting the printer handle everything are also significant (e.g. it is possible to pull the plug out of the wall and recover a partial print on restart!). That being said, printers now have web interfaces, either by directly acting as an independent access point or as an agent tied to cloud services of the printer provider. This sounds great but, like me, the frustration of getting and keeping that complexity working may send you scurrying back to printing via memory stick.
One issue with printing is that sometimes models are not "airtight". Some slicers can simply fail a print, others are able to join any unconnected lines and print the item anyway. This happens when doing surface modelling (e.g Blender or editing STL files), not likely in solid modelling where the software generates all the surfaces from the geometry of the piece.
Slicers can also handle the burden of updating the software in a 3D printer (when printing is being done from a computer via USB or Wifi and the slicer is tied to a particular brand of printer). Typically, when the slicer itself updates it can also download printer firmware or configurations.
Simplify3D knows how to convert the 3D geometry generated by Fusion 360 into G-Code (shown in the black text window lower right). I have just told Fusion 360 to print this and it automatically launched this and passed the 3D geometry to it. Simplify3D is a "slicer" because it knows how to convert a 3D object into slices that a 3D printer can lay down (one on top of the other). Simplify3D is fairly expensive and competes with a number of free products (like Slic3r, Cura). It gives me a 3D view of the object and enables positioning and rotating it on the bed and configuring dozens of parameters. It is about to deliver the G-Code (via a USB connection) to my RepRap 3D printer (although it is often preferable to use the "Save Toothpaths to Disk" button to generate G-Code and write it to an SDCard which the printer can accept). The black text-edit window shows what the G-Code looks like. It is just text. With hundreds of thousands of commands that mostly move the head to successive X-Y positions and a defined filament feed-rate.
I have just 3D printed from Fusion 360, it has handed over the geometry to the Prusa Slicer app (shown here). Slicers are not just for printing, they are getting more and more powerful at manipulating, orienting and sizing images before printing - relieving the CAD program of some of the burden. As an example, I have cut this mold in two and turned the top section upside down. In view of the fact that this creates an unneeded join, why do it? Because it minimizes the amount of printed support needed (the insert on the bottom shows the support it deems necessary). The flat tops of both pieces are down therefore they require zero support. And, because prints are precise the two halves fit together so well that the seam is barely visible.
Glossary |
3D Printer
Standard 3D printers (not clay 3D printers) are incredibly useful in ceramic production and design, bringing difficult processes within reach of potters and hobbyists. |
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Glossary |
3D Design
3D Design software is used to create dimensionally accurate objects by sketching 2D geometry and transforming it using tools to rotate, extrude, sweep, etc. The software generates the polygon surface. |
Glossary |
3D-Printing
Standard 3D printing technology (not printing with clay itself) is very useful to potters and ceramic industry in making objects that assist and enable production. |
Media |
3D Printing a Clay Cookie Cutter-Stamper
Create a clay cookie cutter by exporting a vector image from Illustrator into Fusion 360, adding width to lines and extruding them to form the cutter, stamp and base |
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