3D Print Directly to Slic3R?

[Anonymous]

I really like the integration of Fusion with Cura and Meshmixer with the 3D print facility, so sending it to either of those programs opens them up with the STL file automatically imported. However is that same thing is possible with Slic3r? Fusion will open Slic3r as a custom program but doesn't send the file to it like it does with either of the above.

I'd just like to confirm that's the case and if so, if a request could be made to make that facility available in slic3r? At the moment I am saving the model as an STL file and manually importing to Slic3r.

Thanks

[gautham_kattethota]

Hi,

Unfortunately, Fusion does not support Slic3r at the moment, when run as a custom application from the 3dPrint command.  We are always looking to support more print utilities from Fusion based on user needs.  We will definitely look into this request.

Thanks

Gautham

[schneik-adsk]

Are you on mac or windows machines?

[Anonymous]

Thanks.

I'm on Macs

[MoonshineSG]

any updates on this ? or is there a workaround ? Slic3r accepts command line file opening... maybe a plugin ? 

[Anonymous]

Interestingly I've now moved on from Slic3r to Simplify3D so I will add that one to the wish list 😉

[MoonshineSG]

A bit off topic, but why did you make the switch ? Did you notice improved results (worth the cost) ?  

[Anonymous]

I'm no expert on 3D printing but tried many of the well known slicers available. The latest version of Slic3r was very good, but dreadfully unstable and it crashed constantly. Not something us Mac users are used to! Simplify3D came highly recommended from those where 3D printing is a serious interest for them, so I decided to give it a go. There are few things I don't like about it, and some things were not very intuitive at all. Other things I still don't know how to do with it. Nevertheless the slicing it does is very good and it is now the slicing engine I use.

Interestingly I see the latest build of Fusion comes with a "Make" button on it. That's an interesting move by the team, and simply cements in my mind the target market they're going after. I think they're doing a great job with it, and while it still has a long way to go, and I've suggested a few things, it's coming along nicely.

[MoonshineSG]

Yes, the Make button sends the STL to either the file system (it's basically a "Save as STL") OR sends it to another application, they call "Print Utility". The choices are Print Studio (obviously), Meshmixer and Other - which allows to select any app from your machine (mac in my case) Unfortunatly, it doesnt work with SLic3r. It would start it, but not pass the stl file. I tried to select other apps (a text editor for example) and it work fine. It's most likely smth to do with Slic3r but maybe there is a way for Fusion fo fix as well... Another way would be to have a "proxy" app... I tried a shell script, a Apple Script but neither works... 

[Anonymous]

No problem, I'm not too fussed about that option and only mentioned it as I noticed they were supporting some external slicers but not others. From what I've seen I think Cura, Slic3r and Simplify3D would be the main slicers people are using, and what I'd be supporting if anything. I just save as an STL file, so it's no real biggie. Exporting directly into the slicer would however just make it that much more seamless. I understand Win10 has a 3D print driver for their own printer, so it seems to be the way things are going.

I'd much rather the team focus on things like gear generators, better thread refinement, etc on the mechanical side, as that's exactly the type of things I need to model and print, and if it means waiting just that bit longer for a more seamless export to another app I'm certainly happy with that.

[MoonshineSG]

Workflow is as important as functionality. Lets hope the team is big enough to handle all the requests. It's Autodesk we're talking about!!! 

In any case, being a relatively new to 3D design (force by my own choice to buy a printer 😛 ) , it's quite an impessive piece of software... 

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

with a little tinkering i found a way to start slic3r directly from fusion 360 with loading the object into the gui - ON WINDOWS 😉

Disclaimer: you need to have some knowledge of bat files.

I made a start-slic3r.bat file on the desktop for testing but you can store it where ever you want.

@echo off
cd "c:\Program Files\Prusa3D\Slic3r"
@start C:\"Program Files"\Prusa3D\Slic3r\wperl.exe  slic3r.pl --gui %1 --DataDir "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Prusa3D\Slic3r settings MK2"
exit

Maybe you need to adjust the path to your computer - as I have slicer installed with the prusa software package for me it is like the example above.

Little explanation (i try):

@Anonymous off --> will not show anything in the little command line window which will open

cd "c:\path to slicer" --> changes into the slicer dir

@Anonymous --> executes a program as new thread (I´m guessing this - otherwise you wouldn´t be able to close the cmd window)

the line after @start is taken from the settings of the desktop icon --> it runs wperl.exe and starts slic3r.pl with the --datadir to my prusa printer (i dont think you need this).

the matchwinners here were the "--gui" without this slic3r would just create the gcode directly and the "%1" which contains the path to the temp folder where fusion 360 is storing the model for this export function.

exit --> closes the cmd window (not slic3r)

I´ll post another code here which should be more universal then my special prusa something config:

@echo off
cd PATH_TO_SLICER_DIR
   
   //when using slic3r with a perl interpreter:
   @start PATH_TO_WPERL\wperl.exe  slic3r.pl --gui %1

//OR:

   //when using the slic3r.exe from the precomplied download (haven´t tested this - but it should work in this fashion):
   @start PATH_TO_SLICER/slic3r.exe --gui %1

exit

This start-slic3r.bat file can´t be selected in the user defined 3d print program menu cause its not an .exe - but go to the folder (in my case its "desktop") and type the file name of the bat file you created into the filename - field. for me it did even autocomplete it after the first few letters. hit enter and test it.

I hope this helps you out a bit.

I´d guess that this could be translated to mac in a similar fashion.

If you have any troubles with this - i´ll try to help - you can even test this by hand when using the part after @start on the cmd directly (you need to cd into the correct directory first and need to provide a real stl-file instead of %1) - to figure out the correct paths you need. Keep in mind that path_names with spaces need to be within "".

have fun and feel free to ask if you have any trouble.

Regards,

Richard

[etfrench]

Here's some c# code to turn the batch file into an exe:

namespace Slic360r
{
    using System.Diagnostics;
    class Slic3rCmdLine
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Path to Slic3r.
            ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("C:\\Slic3r\\slic3r.exe");

            // Path to stl file
            string stlFileArg = "--gui " + args[0];

            // Path to Slic3r ini file
            string iniFileArg = " --load c:\\Slic3r_Configs\\Auto\\abs_041216.ini";

            // Slic3r args
            startInfo.Arguments = stlFileArg + iniFileArg;

            // Execute Slic3r 
            Process.Start(startInfo);
        }
    }
}

You'll need to change the paths to match your Slic3r installation.  I used Visual Studio 2015 to compile it.

@Anonymous Thanks for posting the batch file

[stonet9]

The batch file worked perfectly!  Thanks for posting this elegant solution to a problem that shouldn't be this hard to solve.

[Anonymous]

If you want to use the Prusa pre-defined profiles your batch file should look like this.

@Anonymous C:\Programme\Prusa3D\Slic3rPE\slic3r.exe --DataDir "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Prusa3D\Slic3r settings MK2" --gui %1

Path needs to be adapted.

[Anonymous]

So I found a workaround how to start Slic3r on a mac from Fusion as it was also complaining about missing permissions.

1. Open Automator.app
2. Menu -> File -> New... -> Application
3. Search for action 'Run Shell Script' and drag it into the workflow pane
4. Change 'Pass inputs' to 'as arguments'
5. use the following body of the script:
   
   

   # Need to fix up the path, Fusion 360 seems to bork the path
   PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin:/bin
   
   # this is the command line to start Slic3r from the terminal
   # tweak this to match your slicer
   /Applications/prusa3d_mac_2_0_0/Slic3r.app/Contents/MacOS/Slic3r --gui "$@"

6. Save the file into the applications folder as for example SlicerLauncher
7. Point Fusion at SlicerLauncher

[Anonymous]

Works for me:

path is :-

/Applications/Slic3r.app/Contents/MacOS/Slic3r --gui "$@"

I then send directly to the printer using Octoprint from Slic3r.

The only hassle is the inherited filename which is:-

"great-long-hex-number-filename.stl"

It really should be the Component or Body name, but heh!, this is a great improvement in the workflow for us Prusa 3D printer owners.

Many thanks.

Scott

[Anonymous]

Please add Prussia Control to the list. Thanks very much.

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I really like the integration of Fusion with Cura and Meshmixer with the 3D print facility, so sending it to either of those programs opens them up with the STL file automatically imported. However is that same thing is possible with Slic3r? Fusion will open Slic3r as a custom program but doesn't send the file to it like it does with either of the above.

I'd just like to confirm that's the case and if so, if a request could be made to make that facility available in slic3r? At the moment I am saving the model as an STL file and manually importing to Slic3r.

Thanks

---

[Anonymous]

Took me a few minutes to figure it out - PrusacControl has no documented command line paramters - and simply adding the filename after the exe didn´t work.

/f to the rescue

@echo off
cd "c:\Program Files\Prusa3D\PrusaControl"
@start C:\"Program Files"\Prusa3D\PrusaControl\PrusaControl.exe /f %1
exit

save the code above (assuming that the path is the same on your computer) to a batch file like in my post about starting slic3r. the only difference is the batch file.

If you ran into issues (not loading, crashing ...) there´s a way to do some testing:

1. start prusacontrol with a file from the cmd:

navigate inside a cmd to the folder on your c: drive where prusacontrol is located (should be somewhere around here: "c:\Program Files\Prusa3D\PrusaControl") - please note that i found an older version at c:\program files\prusacontrol - but you should notice that folder is quite old.

start the program solo through typing PrusaControl.exe (since windows offers autocompletion it might just take a few letters and than a tab.) hit enter to start- if this works close it down and get back into the cmd:

type the exe name once again but add [space] /f [space] "STL-file including full path" [space] is the space bar.

If this work then test the bat file.

2. just double click on the bat-file - prusacontrol should start without any issues and no file preloaded

If this works open a cmd navigate to the folder where the bat file is and type in the name of that file: add a [space] and "stl-file including full path" to that line and hit enter. this should open up the prusacontrol and load the file right away.

If those test work you should be fine and it should work from inside fusion 360.

Fusion360 simply will call the executeable file and hand over the filename which is currently in view and activated (it´s located somewhere in the depths of the appdata folder) - so the bat files reason is just to change into the right directory and the add the "/f" to tell prusacontrol that this file should be loaded. %1 is the placeholder for the first command line parameter.

Hope that helps.

Richard

[Anonymous]

Hi Richard,

I am not into batch files etc. All I can say is that I am going to forward
your email to Prusa in Prag and ask them to correct Prusa Control.
(PrusacControl has no documented command line paramters). I presume they can
correct this and it will work as other slicers do. It will help all their
users and save a lot of people messing about with batch files. Is this
nonsense or can Prusa correct their program? J



Thanks for your kind help. I really love fusion 360.





Regards,



Paul