Stringing with Cura  

Re: Stringing with Cura

Good afternoon,

I am a new user with a MK3 which is working great. I used to use Cura with my old printer so I followed the instructions on the Prusa site to setup Cura for the MK3. To test the slicer I attempted to print the "3D printer test" by Marian Trpkos found on thingiverse. I used the 0.2 fast settings. Although it printed OK there was lots of stringing all over the print. Using the Prusa Control and Slic3r PE slicers printed without any stringing at all, I tried 0.1, 0.15 and .2
So I wonder if anyone knows why Cura (3.4.1) gave the problem ?

Don't assume the profiles you see posted online are perfectly tuned. They're probably not.

Try fiddling with retraction and print temperature, and comparing the settings in your Cura profile with the one that works in Slic3r.

Re: Stringing with Cura

This is pretty interesting, my story matches exactly. I used Cura on my old printer and just built my MK3, so I imported the Prusa profiles for Cura and downloaded the same 3D Printer test by Marian and saw a bunch of stringing, so I searched the forum and found this thread.

I'm wondering if I should just use the Prusa Slic3r instead of Cura, or perhaps try Simplify3D, I've heard a lot of good things about that. Are there any major features missing in Slic3r vs the latest version of Cura or S3D?

Re: Stringing with Cura

I'm wondering if I should just use the Prusa Slic3r instead of Cura, or perhaps try Simplify3D, I've heard a lot of good things about that. Are there any major features missing in Slic3r vs the latest version of Cura or S3D?

I would definitely invest the time to learn Slic3r. No one slicer does everything best, so it's always good to have both tools available.

Cura does a much better job on supports and includes ironing. Slic3r has some extra options for infill, supports volumetric speed limits, and the "modifier mesh" feature is incredibly powerful and underappreciated. Overall I think Slic3r does a better job most of the time, but for your run of the mill project either slicer will be fine.

Re: Stringing with Cura

[...] I'm wondering if I should just use the Prusa Slic3r instead of Cura, or perhaps try Simplify3D, I've heard a lot of good things about that. Are there any major features missing in Slic3r vs the latest version of Cura or S3D?
Both Cura and Slic3rPE are good software, with very active development. Cura provides a lot of options for finish and detail that may be important for anybody doing fine detail work such as miniatures. However, I would recommend getting familiar with Slic3rPE for several reasons:

In short, I'd recommend getting to know Slic3r. Once you get things working in Slic3r, it's relatively easy to transfer the basic settings over into another slicer. Cura is great for finish, particularly things like layer seam hiding, ironing and very granular feature control. Cura's adaptive layers are also very interesting. Both are under active development and both offer interesting features.

Simplify 3D rocks the customizable support feature. Having paid the $150 for it, I have to say I've been really disappointed at the clunky interface. Speed settings are particularly horrid and tedious to work with. Cura and Slic3r aren't as easy to control supports with, but they can still produce very good results. The actual slicer under the hood is very good and fast, and they recently posted an "I'm not dead yet" update indicating they are still doing development work, so perhaps it will move into the top player list. For now, I would not recommend the investment.

Re: Stringing with Cura

[...] I'm wondering if I should just use the Prusa Slic3r instead of Cura, or perhaps try Simplify3D, I've heard a lot of good things about that. Are there any major features missing in Slic3r vs the latest version of Cura or S3D?
Both Cura and Slic3rPE are good software, with very active development. Cura provides a lot of options for finish and detail that may be important for anybody doing fine detail work such as miniatures. However, I would recommend getting familiar with Slic3rPE for several reasons:

In short, I'd recommend getting to know Slic3r. Once you get things working in Slic3r, it's relatively easy to transfer the basic settings over into another slicer. Cura is great for finish, particularly things like layer seam hiding, ironing and very granular feature control. Cura's adaptive layers are also very interesting. Both are under active development and both offer interesting features.

Simplify 3D rocks the customizable support feature. Having paid the $150 for it, I have to say I've been really disappointed at the clunky interface. Speed settings are particularly horrid and tedious to work with. Cura and Slic3r aren't as easy to control supports with, but they can still produce very good results. The actual slicer under the hood is very good and fast, and they recently posted an "I'm not dead yet" update indicating they are still doing development work, so perhaps it will move into the top player list. For now, I would not recommend the investment.

Thanks so much for the reply, this is a ton of really great info. I did end up trying to reprint that same mini test model this morning using the latest non-beta Slic3r and the results were night and day. While I definitely prefer the UI of Cura more with the previews and such, I can't argue with the output.

Re: Stringing with Cura

Simplify 3D rocks the customizable support feature. Having paid the $150 for it, I have to say I've been really disappointed at the clunky interface. Speed settings are particularly horrid and tedious to work with. Cura and Slic3r aren't as easy to control supports with, but they can still produce very good results. The actual slicer under the hood is very good and fast, and they recently posted an "I'm not dead yet" update indicating they are still doing development work, so perhaps it will move into the top player list. For now, I would not recommend the investment.

Re support: i agree both cura and slic3r are not great at supports. I started using meshmixer to add elegant breakaway supports and I rarely use supports in the software unless i cannot avoid doing so. As far as S3D a lot of people swear by it but, honestly the features from it will appear in the others in time. $150 vs free is a pretty high bar.

I'm wondering if I should just use the Prusa Slic3r instead of Cura, or perhaps try Simplify3D, I've heard a lot of good things about that. Are there any major features missing in Slic3r vs the latest version of Cura or S3D?

I too used to use cura with my wanhao, and slic3r of a few years ago was pretty crude. But Slic3r has gained some pretty cool features in the last few, and had variable layers long before cura. The new preview even allows you to see how fast the printer will print sections.

When 1.41 comes i am betting it will surpass cura entirely.

as far as the profiles, they were created for 3.1 cura and have not been iterated as far as i am aware.

Re: Stringing with Cura

[...] As far as S3D a lot of people swear by it but, honestly the features from it will appear in the others in time. $150 vs free is a pretty high bar. If you just need custom supports, but otherwise basic features, IdeaMaker provides basic support placement. Not the most impressive slicer, but it seems to do the basics.

I just wish they could export an STL with the support added so I could do further refinement in another slicer.

Re: Stringing with Cura

[...] As far as S3D a lot of people swear by it but, honestly the features from it will appear in the others in time. $150 vs free is a pretty high bar. If you just need custom supports, but otherwise basic features, IdeaMaker provides basic support placement. Not the most impressive slicer, but it seems to do the basics.

I just wish they could export an STL with the support added so I could do further refinement in another slicer.

meshmixer does this