I’m thinking of jumping ship from simplify3d. I’ve used it since it was a baby, but they just don’t keep up with latest innovations anymore. I’d like the ability to do object tagging for klipper and tree supports.
Who’s using what now and why? I have a v4 printer and another older printer.
I think you are going to get an overwhelming “OrcaSlicer” response.
For me, PrusaSlicer is still better.
I find OrcaSlicer to be very laggy and have performance problems.
PrusaSlicer lags behind on some of the new stuff, but just feels more polished and more intuitive to use to me.
I do have both set up for my V5 and use both of them.
This is with the disclaimer that I haven’t upgraded either in a few months… so I don’t know if OrcaSlicer has gotten better or not, performance-wise.
Orca or prusa, either way you can’t lose. I just switched from S3d not that long ago. Took a few things to get my bearings but after that. So much easier than s3d.
The biggest difference is how different materials and quility settings are “defined” for slicer settings. Once you wrap your head around that it is not all that different other than everything is far better.
I like the orca built In calibration towers and the initial setting generally seem to just work.
I was all-in on Simplify3D back in the day. I told friends it was worth the money whenever a new one got into 3d printing. But, they didn’t release a new version for many years. I ended up switching to Cura because of a few bleeding edge features they had–particularly the adaptive line widths (arachne). I was astonished at how much better everything was. It was just miles above S3D. I almost bought the new version of S3D when it came out 1-2 years ago, almost out of curiosity, but I just can’t justify it with so many free ones doing everything I need.
Cura is still my favorite for single-extruder printers. I don’t have a lot of concrete/explainable reasons for it. I was recently forced to switch to PrusaSlicer for a dual-extruder printer that isn’t compatible with Cura for soem reason. But after using PrusaSlicer for a while, I still prefer Cura for my single extruder printers.
Prusaslicer for me as well. Also agreed that s3d was worth it once and I did buy a copy. But that time is long gone.
I use it for a taz, creality, e3d and of course Prusa printers and I can’t think of a feature that’s missing that I need.
I had two seats of Sinplify3D up through the version 4 . My opinion it’s stagnant and junk at this point.
I use either OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer.
I have used Cura, and IdeaMaker and occasionally play with them - but prefer Orca and Prusa.
I also use FlashPrint for the small farm of FlashForge Creator Pro Dual- mostly because they are odd ducks and FlashForge offer FlashPrint for Mac, Linux, and Windows. I would never use that slicer except for the FFCPs.
If you have a Prusa printer I would strongly recommend PrusaSlicer. If you have a working and well tuned PrusaSlucer config (I have one for my modded Taz5) then again I recommend PrusaSlicer.
Otherwise I’d probably stick to Orca. Real Orca, not one of the forks.
PrusaSlicer here. Never cared for S3D enough to pay for it, and Cura never gave me very good results and I found it frustrating to dial in to where it gave me as accurate of prints as slic3r back in the day. Once PrusaSlicer forked from slic3r I switched over and haven’t looked back.
Tried Orca when it first forked but it didn’t blow me away. Keep thinking about giving it another try but it’s association with Bambu bugs me enough to keep me from making it a high priority. Might be my loss…but prusaslicer does what I need and I’m past the point of seeking out new and different for the sake of being new and different and enjoy having a setup that is reliable at this point.
I used Simplify3D for years and it was great, but they pulled that stunt a few years back where they charged for an update(which they rarely do). Now I’m on the Orcaslicer bandwagon too!
I’m a sucker. I even paid for the upgrade. I originally used S3D because one of the printhouses I was buying designs from provided factory files for it.
It’s been very reliable for me as far as quality of prints that I’ve gotten out of it.
I will say my S3D V4 stuff remains usable. For example, It does decent with TAZ 5. Both PrusaSlicer and OrcaSlicer both give me better results on that machine today, though.
I’m currently testing out OrcaSlicer. Took a bit to get my settings moved over from S3D to Orca.
I still have not gotten over orca eating my profile i just dialed in!!! But i still use it.
Two successful prints. Comparing estimated print time to s3d both showed the same time.
I did get stringing when printing multiple parts. Need to double check retraction settings.
Now I just have to transfer over my abs, petg, Asa, and tpu values. And then do all this again for the MP3DPv4.
I printed some parts for the kayak for removing the footpegs.
Day 2… I got exclude_objects working. I also finally enabled sonar in Klipper. No more hung UI/reconnects during print jobs.
I mostly use Cura. Lots of options, and I do a lot of vase mode prints which come out seamless with Cura.
I been using Superslicer probably for the last five years it works well with my printer VzBot, I use cura for my ender 3 max.
SuperSlicer is now being worked on again and has a lot of improvements.
I use Prusaslicer a fair amount but I have to agree with @mrehorst, Cura is a good slicer!
If we’re being honest though, I feel like it’s one of those ‘What’s the best car to get back and forth to work with?’ kind of questions. A new Porsche will get you to work, but so will a '89 Toyota Pickup. (Absolutely no offense intended @niget2002).
I’ve achieved good prints with Prusaslicer, Cura and hell, even Kiri:Moto in a pinch! (I’ve also created some real turds with all 3 at times!)
But Cura is definitely a good piece of software that everyone seems to sleep on…
None taken. This post was really more of a ‘push’ to help get me past the ‘OMG SWITCHING IS GOING TO SUCK’ phase.
I was also one of the early adopters of Simplify3D and promoted it to my friends getting into 3D printing as well. I paid for the update as well back in 2023.
I haven’t used S3D since I got my Bambu printer back in January of 2024 as I just use Bambu’s. If I had to use a slicer for my older printers I’d probably use OrcaSlicer.
