Support for 3d Printing

[LeonardoZampi]

Hi all, as the title says, I was asking myself if it was possible to consider the idea of including at least 1 software for 3d printing in Theodoric. To be honest, I must say that I have been trying to create a Linux custom distro for 3d printing, but unfortunately I am not a programmer, and my knowledges do not allow me to do that. Anyway, I think we should all agree that 3d printing can be a great resource for archaeology (the Taung Child's experience is a proof); if we included these softwares, even non-archaeologist should be interested in downloading ArcheOS, because they could find pre-installed softwares for what I call the "whole cycle of 3d": 3d scanning (PPT, RGBdemo), 3d modeling (MeshLab, Blender) and 3d printing. It should be a great advertising for this community. So, which software? Fedora's team has already included a 3d printing tool, and here (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/3D_Printing#3D_Printing) there's the full list of softwares. My personal opinion is that Cura is the best one, but it is not open-source. Instead Replicator G is open-source (http://replicat.org/usage)

[rjanvier]

I Agree. Can be a nice thing to start some packaging work.

[LeonardoZampi]

Good. Sorry for having opened 2 issues, I'm not used to GitHub.

[rjanvier]

To begin to package, you can meet us on IRC. Just a question for now : I'm not really familiar with 3D printing. Is there any open hardware related to these software ?

[lucaarcteam]

HI Leonardo, sorry for the stupid question: did you already tried Replicator G with A RepRap? I just downloaded the software and it seems simple to use, but when I read the list of machines to be connected I cannot find RepRap, also when in the website is written it should work with a RepRap... BTW, the code is on GitHub: https://github.com/makerbot/ReplicatorG

[LeonardoZampi]

@ORNis Yes, Arduino (http://www.arduino.cc/) @lucaarcteam Actually I didn't try Replicator G, usually we use Slic3r and Cura...I talked about Replicator because is open-source and it is all-in-one. BUT today, talking with my boss about this project, he told me that one of our collaborator (Francesco) has created a custom version of Cura (another all-in-one, more efficient). I've just written an email to him asking if he can collaborate (also because he has much more informatic knowledge than me) Cura is on GitHub too: https://github.com/daid/Cura

[lucaarcteam]

Hi Leonardo, I tried to install Cura. In the main website (http://software.ultimaker.com/) is written that is open source and the source code is on github (https://github.com/daid/Cura). In the website is also a deb package (they say for Ubuntu) that worked on my Debian Wheeze. It seems to work with a lot of the rapid prototyping machine (especially the open source hardware). I think you are the most expert between us about this topic, do you think Cura would be the best choice?

[LeonardoZampi]

Hi Luca, first of all, sorry if I did not update you all before, but we are still working on our customer version of Cura (I mean KURA, a modified version made by one of our collaborator, created to work properly with Kentstrapper machines). Unfortunately, there still are some problems, especially on Linux distros. Our intention was to publish the Windows version on January 2014. In general, Cura is the best choice, because is an all-in-one and more user-friendly.

Il 18/12/2013 17:12, Luca Bezzi ha scritto:

Hi Leonardo, I tried to install Cura. In the main website (http://software.ultimaker.com/) is written that is open source and the source code is on github (https://github.com/daid/Cura). In the website is also a deb package (they say for Ubuntu) that worked on my Debian Wheeze. It seems to work with a lot of the rapid prototyping machine (especially the open source hardware). I think you are the most expert between us about this topic, do you think Cura would be the best choice?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/archeos/ArcheOS/issues/80#issuecomment-30854663.

[Patola]

I will try to adapt my own bug report on Canonical's Launchpad concerning this same issue, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1225612 - please take a moment to read it too if you can. :-)

3D Printer controlling software:

• ReplicatorG: old, seldom used, complicated to setup. Not recommended.
• Repsnapper: old, unmaintained. Not recommended.
• Cura: very fast and beautiful 3d model visualization software with a blazing-fast built-in "slicer" software and scripting capabilities. It is easy to use and very good, however sometimes its slicer does not get a very good quality on 3D prints and also its 3D printer controlling part is still very buggy and featureless. It is best if used as a fallback for the more complete alternatives.
• Pronterface (previously know as printrun): a simple but feature-full package, has very fine control of slicing and interacting withe the 3d print as it goes. It also has a text-only interface called pronsole.
• Repetier Host: written in mono, very complete, with a stunning 3D view, can use two different slicers - slic3r or skeinforge/sfact - and has visualization of the gcode to. It is sort of the 'vanilla' choice today.

All these software are multiplatform (Mac + Windows + Linux) and free and open source.

Slicer software. This is the software that gets a 3D model (.stl file) and, usually via the 3d printer controlling software, transforms it in commands in a machine language called "gcode" which are the instructions the printer will receive:

• slic3r: written in perl, which makes it sort of slow (might take minutes to slice a medium-size table), but ensures good quality prints. Sort of the default choice.
• skeinforge / sfact: old, very complete and confusing slicer, with too many choices and parameters, also slow.
• Cura engine: very fast slicer which comes with cura The three above are open-source. There is also a proprietary, 'non-reverse-engineering clause' slicer called KiSSlicer, for intel systems and raspberry pis.

There are also 3d modelling software that are quite appropriate for 3D printing, namely openscad, wings3d, meshlab and blender.

The Fedora 3D printing page is the best resource I know for this information: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/3D_Printing

[Patola]

Please note that strictly speaking, there are many people which do not use their 3D printers via USB, because it takes long hours and keeps the computer busy. Instead, they have an LCD + SD extension on the printer where you save the resulting gcode in a SD card, then print and control via the LCD buttons on the printer itself.

So you would just position the .stl files on the virtual table then slice them, and save the gcode for printing.