Printing directly from Slicer without Pronterface  

RE:

"The average person asking for help on these forums is not. "

They don't need to be. A normal user, on a machine built in the last few years, can typically print to an Ender 3 via Cura with no problem of lag causing an interrupted print. That is a myth.

In fact, I'm not printing to this Ender 3v2 from the powerful desktop machine I built myself, but from a two year old Nitro 5 gaming laptop, running Windows 10, which I've barely modified or reconfigured at all. 

Nobody is attacking you personally. 

I am responding forcefully not for myself, but for all the less-informed users who are duped by such myths into going through more trouble than they need to, in order to print. And taking to task people who clearly are speaking of things that they do not know, which in the case of Windows/USB printing seems the norm. They sagely pronounce as fact things that are just hearsay.

Printing via USB, on a Windows machine with Cura sending the print, will work fine even for Joe Average. The time, effort, and money required to set up a Raspberry Pi machine is greater than they're likely to face in simply getting their normal machine to do the job. The worst they're likely to face is that it may not show up on Cura the first time they hook it up. But that's less trouble to fix than building an SBC. 

I'm not dissing Raspberry Pi, BTW. I'm just saying it's not necessary. I'm going to set one up here just for fun, mainly to see the difference between it and more common forms of Linux. Hopefully it's better than how they've castrated Linux in Android. But there's no need for a normal user to bother, just to print to some common machine like an Ender. 

Hell, why not just suggest Octoprint for Windows to them to print via USB, instead of the rube goldberg scenario of setting up a whole SBC just to act as a print server?

Posted by: @bobstro

Posted by: @kaz

[...] . I'm a professional computer consultant, and actually know what I'm talking about.

The average person asking for help on these forums is not. Rather than taking any of this as a personal affront, perhaps acknowledge that the average user does not have your depth of experience and may well experience issues with things like automated updates and machine sleep. There's a host of reasons you consider yourself an expert after all.

The average user is likely to encounter issues printing over USB on a desktop OS for a range of issues regardless of their desktop OS. Many are not aware of straightforward solutions like OctoPrint that handle not only printing, but issues with physical printer location. Solutions that are fully integrated into modern slicers. Nobody is attacking you personally. 

RE:

Posted by: @kaz

[...] And taking to task people who clearly are speaking of things that they do not know, which in the case of Windows/USB printing seems the norm. They sagely pronounce as fact things that are just hearsay.

By all means, if you:

• Are running relatively current hardware.
• Are running a relatively current desktop OS.
• Intend to disable sleep or other power saving features on your desktop.
• Don't mind the heat or noise of running a desktop continuously.
• Don't plan on any heavy computer usage during the print.
• Are OK being tethered to a sometimes noisy, sometimes smelly device, and extremely pet tempting device within USB cable distance.
• Only intend to print to a single printer from a single machine.

Print away! Meanwhile, OctoPrint and a lower power server are well worth checking out if any one of those factors don't apply to a particular user. It's a straightforward way to add wireless -- one of the most sought after features on 3D printers -- to a device that doesn't otherwise have it, along with a host of quality-of-life and video features.

[...] But that's less trouble to fix than building an SBC. [...] I'm going to set one up here just for fun, mainly to see the difference between it and more common forms of Linux. 

Erm... So you have you actually tried using OctoPrint on a RPi or any other SBC? I mean, if not, that does sound a bit like "sagely pronouncing as fact things that are just hearsay". Setup takes literally a few minutes. Raspberry Pi OS is essentially Debian. If you're familiar with Debian linux or any derivatives, it's essentially the same.

Nobody's saying you can't print from you desktop, but a number of common print issues can be caused by desktop setups.

RE: Printing directly from Slicer without Pronterface

To answer the original question: No, PrusaSlicer can not act as a print server, it just can send complete gcode files to printers/servers.

RE: Printing directly from Slicer without Pronterface

To quote Diem, touchy. I have no idea how many installs there are of Octoprint and similar but do you really think all these people are stupid?

Given the relatively small cost in both time and money to install Octoprint, is it really worth an aborted 12 hour print 11 hour in relying on Windows and the buffer in the printer?

RE: Printing directly from Slicer without Pronterface

Posted by: @towlerg

[...] Given the relatively small cost in both time and money to install Octoprint, is it really worth an aborted 12 hour print 11 hour in relying on Windows and the buffer in the printer?

You bring up a key point. I have no idea why someone would necro a 3 year old post to crow about their prowess with Windows or using a 2 year old gaming laptop still selling at over $700 as "typical", but you can slap a $5,000 gaming PC on a Mk3 and it's not going to change the printer hardware. Like many other 3D printers of its time (2017), the Mk3 uses an 8 bit board with very limited capabilities. Little hiccups that might not be a big deal with more modern controllers can cause a complete print failure. Prusa's primary stated reason for dropping USB printing way back in 2019 was the age and cruft of the Slic3r code and their desire to press on with more popular features, but Prusa themselves -- not some anti-Windows cabal -- are responsible for deprecating USB printing from PrusaSlicer. It may just be possible that the company that actually fields support calls has some data on the frequency of USB print failures and is making recommendations accordingly: Don't print from a desktop OS using USB. That same firm has since added features to support printing via OctoPrint.

SD card is the primary supported means of printing. It allows power recovery and all the advertised features of the printer. Failing that, a rock steady server is needed. While you can always use a 2 year old $1,500 gaming laptop if you've got some laying around, it just makes sense to use relatively inexpensive hardware dedicated to nothing but providing a steady USB stream. OctoPrint also optimizes gcode through removal of comments and the ArcWelder plugin can greatly reduce the size of gcode sent to the printer. These are all done transparently to the user once configured. Anybody who wants to compare USB printing really should try it before critiquing it.

It's unfortunate that RPis are being hoarded right now, but the supply should ease up eventually. There are other SBCs that work well if needed. You certainly don't need to use a gaming machine to serve gcode to a Mk3. If you want to, by all means do so, but don't expect a slow clap from the crowd.

RE: Printing directly from Slicer without Pronterface

Bobstro, I think that the OP is using an Ender 3v2 which I believe has a 32 bit main board, which I suspect means that there will be enough spare RAM to use as a decent size buffer.

I know I should just let this go but KAZ is giving potentially bad advice, at least if followed his notion will not cause any damage, just a few broken prints.

RE: Printing directly from Slicer without Pronterface

Posted by: @towlerg

Bobstro, I think that the OP is using an Ender 3v2 which I believe has a 32 bit main board, which I suspect means that there will be enough spare RAM to use as a decent size buffer.

The original message is in the Mk3 group discussing PrusaSlicer, so I'm commenting on that scenario. If KAZ is responding 3 years later about using non-Prusa printer introduced 2+ years later printing with a non-Prusa slicer, I really have to wonder what the point is since it barely relates to the original discussion!