prusaslicer versus simplify3d

[curious aardvark]

yep - found it. Seems weird that it's not part of the machine setup routine.
Well the phione stand damn near worked.
Looked good.

Some of the print speed settings can be set as percentages - and some can't. This just makes no sense to me.
Instead of just changing a single print speed I still have to go and do 4 or 5 different settings.
And as print speeds are something I change a LOT. That's really bloody annoying.

I think on balance if i were starting printing today and not 6 years ago.
Would i pay £117 for simplify3d when PS is free ?
I would not.
I might go find a 'free/hacked' version. And yes they are out there - and no don't ask me where :-)

I think I paid around £70 for my sed licence and at the time - there simply wasn't anything else around to touch it.

I actually got a fairly comprehensive demo and run through of s3d at a TCT show by the very nice people behind the 3DP giant printers.

Also s3d was the only slicer to fully support the replicator clone mighty boards and the s3g file format at the time. well appart from the worst slicer ever: makerware desktop.
So it was money well spent and I have definitely got my moneys worth from it.

And today if i did need the s3g capability - I'd just use flashprint, great little slicer and free. And in fact while my klic-n-print does use s3g files - I don't use s3d for it anyway. I've never managed to get dual extrusion to work with s3d - while it's really easy and works well with flashprint.

While s3d is good and really easy to use and the print preview is the best in the industry - honestly if I were starting today I'd probably use PS and flashprint.

One thing I have spotted in PS is the top layer infill patterns.
External infill patterns. s3d offers rectilinear and concentric, while PS offers some interesting aklternatives: hilbert curves, archimedean chords (i have no clue) and octagon spiral as well as the two s3d has.

Going to play with this - actually having an interesting pattern on top of something could work really well and look good too :-)

So while I do think s3d is the easier to use software, from a print quality point of view - it's no better than PS or flashprint, come to that.
And while some of the settings in PS are annoying, it does have some useful features that s3d does not have.

Profiles - I use profiles in s3d a LOT. I have 4 working printers all with their own settings and material profiles. And I can load as many as I like and switch between them with no hassle.
I can't see any options for something similiar in PS.

There must be a way to save something similiar in PS - but I have yet to figure out how.
perhaps as project files.

On balance s3d is definitely still the most user frinedly slicer around - particularly if you have a bunch of totally different printers and use a lot of different materials and different settings.

But I do really like Prusa slicer.
And there's nothing in s3d that would be a deal breaker.

Like a lot of software companies - I think s3d got their marketing wrong.
Sell the software at a much lower price to a LOT more people, would bring in more money and also a rolling supply of new customers.
By aiming at industrial users and people with more money than sense - they've cut themselves off from the largest and constantly growing 3d printer market: the home/hobby user.

How many people would still fight cura if they could buy simplify3d for $29.99 ?
An awful lot less than do now that's for sure.

[Roberts_Clif]

How many people would still fight cura if they could buy simplify3d for $29.99 ?
An awful lot less than do now that's for sure.

If two things would happen they might have a better chance of selling me Simplify 3D
1. A demo to test the program before purchase, though the purchase price is still higher than I would pay. Have purchased many programs that do not do what they claim.
2. Even at half the price "simplify3d" would be a stretch for a lot of us hobbyist, and a third would bring it in closer to my budget though still stretching.
3. A lower price like was suggested "simplify3d for $29.99" would surely bring a large increase of buyers, And myself for one would have no problem with this purchase.

I would still like to have an offline serial number for the product, As I have a program I purchased some time ago the company is now defunct.
I cannot install into windows 10 correctly because the registration servers are offline. in order to restore this program after locating a computer registry.
I had to find a windows 7 with it loaded that did not have this corrupt registry then re-install all my other programs an upgrade to Win 10, this was a real pain.

Still you need to know that I am getting supper good prints from all the free slicers that our at my disposal, an have tested most of the free ones.
My 3D Printer slicing is still done in Cura / PrusaSlicer, and it may knock your socks off to know with Cura 15.04.6. PrusaSlicer is basically Cura 15.04.6
And PrusaSlicer will import my Cura 15.04.6 profiles.

If someone can get them to drop the price I will help promote simplify3d to all.

They can call it the " Hobbyist Package not for Commercial use. "

[Roberts_Clif]

I found more about Modifier meshes tutorial Here