So I saw the warning on the LR4 about cura slicer doing weird things, so with all of the slicer threads being too old I thought I would ask the question for an ender 3 if not cura then what slicer.
and for whatever slicer that is can I move profiles around
I am quite happy with prusa slicer. I preferred slic3r, but it stagnated. Prusa has added a ton of work to it.
I haven’t given orca alicer a good shake. But I don’t think they should have forked an already great piece of software that was well maintained (they forked prusaslicer).
+1 to Prusaslicer with my Prusa and Enders before I sold them
I have been trying to use Orca Slicer for everything. Recently though, I had it wipe all my profiles (which were not many) but it was in the middle of my LR build, so I was p.o.'ed. I am over it now.
I have been trying to save Projects now, so I can try to recover from them if I need to. I really need to remember to backup my app data though!
But the only problem I have had recently is I need to tune Supports, as they did not remove the last stuff I printed.
I’ve had no problems using Cura 
I used SuperSlicer until very recently with my old printer. It has had some visible improvement lately, and does a good job, but some of the newest innovations take a while to show up. The developer did post that he would be allowed to spend more time on it, but I found the updates were still pretty infrequent. Note - I needed to use it because it was set up for my tool changer, and Orcaslicer did not support multiple tools at the time. Also, SuperSlicer and PrusaSlicer are pretty closely related in the philosophy of how the controls are structured/organized. I could move over to Prusaslicer for most things that SuperSlicer hadn’t incorporated.
I got a new printer, and there was an option to adopt a profile from the manufacturer in OrcaSlicer, so I’ve been using it pretty regularly for several months. The good is that it’s pretty reliable and repeatable. Once I set up a project and tune the print with a couple of smaller pieces, I can usually load up the plate and print the rest with similar performance.
But there are a few philosophical differences that I still struggle with. The support options include tree supports, but I don’t feel like the settings are quite as granular. I’m still learning (and I try to avoid supports) so it may just be a lack of experience with it on my part. I find it easy to miss settings that are hidden off in the Filament Profile and the Printer Profile, but I do eventually find most things I need. Lastly, I think the way the slicer presents the option to save changes when switching projects is confusing. I still hesitate when I’m worried that it will over-write defaults with settings I had really intended specifically (and only) for a particular project.
In the end, I think there are several good options in 2024. I’ll stick with Orcaslicer for a while, but PrusaSlicer would be my second choice.
I used prusaslicer until late July/early August when I needed to tune and orcaslicer had the tuning built in. Iterated with the v5 over a few temperature and pressure advance and retraction tests and it was off to the races. Haven’t used anything else since. Haven’t had a blob since then, though I still forget the filament lever sometimes.
I run OrcaSlicer on my old v1 Ender 3. Prints amazingly well with the built-in Ender 3 defaults, on a smooth PEI sheet.
I switched from Cura to OrcaSlicer when I got the new Flashforge Adventurer 5M printers, and I really, really like it. I truly liked Cura before switching, so I’m not anti-Cura, but OrcaSlicer is awesome. Like it better than Cura.
What specifically do you like about it?
I have been using Cura since I bought my Ender 3, and it seems to do the job, but I don’t know enough about other slicers to know what is good or bad about it.
It does claim to be the “world’s most popular 3D printing software”, but that may just be because they bundle it (or a branded version of it) with Creality products.
100% Rate Orca 
There are so many things. Some little, some big. Too many to even think of all of them or list them. Multiple print beds in a single file, easy for laying out sets that take several parts on several plates. Love how when you save, it by default saves a .3mf project file with the name of the first model part dropped on the bed, in the same file folder location where the model is located. I like how it is laid out. I like how well it supports Klipper and remote transmission of files. I like how all the arrays of printers, arrays of print profiles / nozzles / default layer thicknesses, etc, etc are. I like the “tree” organizer thing for all the project’s print beds, parts on those print beds, etc, and how easy it is to select multiple parts for moving, grouping, changes to infill or whatever. I could go on and on.
I need to learn how to use more of that. I just liked the fact that it didn’t do weird bridging and made that calibration super easy
I love this feature. For those that haven’t used OrcaSlicer, here’s my layout of the LR4 part. Each part can be selected and assigned override parameters. So for instance, the infill on the wheel parts override the global setting of 30%. Similar with the core. But if I decide I want to change the global print or bed temp, it affects the whole project (even if I don’t want to change it in the filament profile.)
Just select “slice plate” to get the gcode for each batch.
This is an awesome feature, likely old news for the Bambu users.
I like bambu studio at the moment.
Bambu and Orca are very similar.
I used to use cura and I still do sometimes for my older printers, however, bambu studio has a nice feel to it.
That really seems like a neat feature. And how huge is your build plate?
I got a 400 x 400mm bed so I can have room to use a second extruder (IDEX) for mirror or copy operations. A bit of a splurge but loving it so far. I can load up so many Gridfinity bins!
I use prusa slicer. The colour painting for MMU, creating pins for connecting split parts and the filament profiles are all things I use all the time.
That said I haven’t used orca, I’ll try and see if I’m missing out
