A few weeks ago I installed the latest stable release of slic3r (1.2.9) After some tuning I’m obtaining better results than with the stock cura slicer.
negative:
- there’s a bug with the ‘gapfilling’, it extrudes too much. So you need to disable it and manually set the perimeter widths(sum of extrusion widths *1.05) so there are no gaps in thin walls. This is a known bug and should be resolved in the next stable release
positive:
- in general a lot more configuration options to match(or screw up) the characteristics of the object you’re trying to print
- nice to have: seperate print speed for ‘small perimeters’ - for object details that wouldn’t come out nice at normal print speed
- variable layer height: sections with a lot of detail can be set at low layer height like 0.1, and others can be set higher to reduce printing time
TRULY AWSOME!!
- ‘Autospeed function’: In general the mechanical accuracy of the vertex is really good; what limits the printing speed is generally the (0.35mm)nozzle extrusion capability, especially if you’re printing a lot in layer height 0.2mm. With a lot of different track widths(innner/outer perimeter, infill, solid infill, top/bottom infill; either you have o lot of calculations to do, or a lot of (sub-optimum) trial and error printing. Basically with the autospeed you set the extruder constantly at near maximum extrusion rate and slic3r calculates the matching speed based on the actual track width. Consequently you have the benefit of constant nozzle pressure so printed objects have more consistent appearance (nice prints with semi-transparent PETG, no need for surface finishing).
It’s a joy to see my Vertex perform flawlessly near maximum capability, it’s like my gcode was reviewed by NASA! 