Is messing with Settings a thing of the Past

I have just bought 2 Ender 3 Pros and am very pleased with them. On the Micro SD card that came with them there was a Creality Slicer that I am using and basically I have now printed over 70 items and never changed or got involved with a setting yet. I am using the Creality Slicer in its 'Quickprint mode' This slicer is a very robust older version of Cura but it seems to work so well.

I read so many things where people are messing with settings and spending money on Slicing programmes. For me this Creality Slicer is all I need and no need to know about settings. Just slice and print.

This is how it should be in my view

It's all well and good that you're comfortable with the "point and shoot" mode in which you operate. As long as the filament you use matches those specifications, you'll be happy.

Once you decide to try a different composition or the manufacturer changes the formula, or even if you change to a different color, you can run into a situation where the print will be less than optimum. It is that point where knowing how to use the settings will allow you to continue to use your machine.

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by fred_dot_u

It's all well and good that you're comfortable with the "point and shoot" mode in which you operate. As long as the filament you use matches those specifications, you'll be happy.

Once you decide to try a different composition or the manufacturer changes the formula, or even if you change to a different color, you can run into a situation where the print will be less than optimum. It is that point where knowing how to use the settings will allow you to continue to use your machine.

Good luck!

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Well so far I have been printing for over 6 weeks on 2 machines and have used about 8 different PLA's of varying colours and suppliers and no issues yet.

I kind of think that those who were in this some years ago needed to know about settings but now you don't but they cant seem to accept that fact..... All about a shroud of detail and cleverness that is no longer there.

Sort of like Knowing how to wire a plug but now they come on the device and you just plug it in.

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Originally Posted by Bigplumbs

I read so many things where people are messing with settings and spending money on Slicing programmes.
For me this Creality Slicer is all I need and no need to know about settings. Just slice and print.

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We can post many models that you cannot print with the Creality Slicer ever, no mater how many years learning how to change the settings.
Creality slicer is a copy of Ultimaker Cura 15.04.6, This slicer is not able to do simple tasks that more sophisticated Slicers can easily do.

The truth is that most advanced 3D Printer users have long left Cura 15.04.6 because of its short comings. This list now includes myself.
Creality slicer is not dead you still use for simple 3D Printable models, but why maintain more than one slicer when an excellent slicer is free.

I can see fighting to pay Hundreds of dollars for a slicer that refuses to put out a demo of the slicer but when there is a excellent free slicer why.
Try the Free PrusaSlicer 2.3.0 final release. It has a list of pre-configured 3D Printers that include the Ender 3 you will not have any regrets.
There an many you-tube videos and tutorials of how to learn the settings, Prusa Also has a large selections of models ready to slice using PrusaSlicers

I use Cura. What I do is save a custom config file for uses, although the stock configs are pretty good.
I'm building a hexabot with our son. I use a low grade config for test parts, and a tuned Dynamic config for the final prints.

I found stock temperature settings are low from what I use so I adjust those and saved the config.

lmao - there are two approaches to this.

1) hey it works and I don't want to know how it works.
That's great - if it works !
As you can see from this forum and the millions and millions of youtube videos on the subject - most printers do not work out of the box with un-modified slicer settings.

2) I want to know how and why my printer works. That way if i want to use abs or pet-g or pc or flexible filaments, I will know what I am doing.

So if your printer works - and does exactly what you want it to do - you do not NEED to know why it works.
However like pretty much everything in life, when it goes wrong or you want to do something else - knowing how it works is a REALLY good idea.

For most printers you will still NEED to know how to use a slicer.

For the few printer and slicer combinations that work out of the box - knowing how to use a slicer will probably allow you to adjsut things to produce better prints and it will ALWAYS allow you to make faster prints.
You can also adjust the models to use less plastic, or make it stronger using the same amount of plastic - or to make a print significantly stronger.
One setting does NOT suit all purposes.

But if you are happy - that's great, it's one less forum member we need to help :-)

But learning to use a slicer would still benefit you in the long run :-)

Here are the programs I use;
Ultimaker 4.8.0 https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura
This is a SLICER that you need to prepare the .stl files you download from places like thingiverse or stlfinder.
The slicer is where you set things such as temperatures, quality of the print, and other tuning paramaters.
It creates a Gcode file that the printer uses.
Another slicer is Prusaslicer https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/