Short overview of how good the nesting capabilities of various 3D slicer are.
The task is simple: placing as many of these shapes on a 200x300mm printed as possible. Manual (quick and dirty for reference): 6 pcs.
Ranking:
- Ultimaker Cura: 7 pcs.
- human (me): 6 pcs.
- Orca slicer: 5 pcs.
- PrusaSlicer & BCN3D stratos: 4 pcs. By switching (for this particular part) from the worst (Prusa) to the best (Cura) slicer the nesting performance improved by a whopping 75%!
Ultimaker Cura:
Prusa:
BCN3D Stratos (forked from an old version of Cura):
OrcaSlicer:
Keep in mind that if you slice multiple parts to be printed at a time, then a failure on one part means the whole batch is potentially compromised.
I have the most experience with PrusaSlicer, and have used the multiple part one at a time option to print multiple parts at once. You have to tell it the dimensions of your extruded head, so it doesn’t crash the part , and if you have a bed slinger, you have to be careful of your x axis bar (ie, order it so it starts at the front if the bed and works it way to the back)
With mainsail and klipper, you can cancel one failed part mid print and keep going on the rest of the parts.
Woah woah woah, I’m gonna need you to tell me what that’s called because that’s brilliant
https://help.prusa3d.com/article/sequential-printing_124589 <-- explains how to set up the sequential printing in Prusa.
https://www.klipper3d.org/Exclude_Object.html <-- Explains the exclude object function in Klipper/Mainsail
https://docs.mainsail.xyz/overview/slicer/prusaslicer#enable-exclude-object <-- how to configure Prusa to label objects so mainsail/klipper can individually select and skip them.
Like I mentioned, I have the most experience with Prusa + my Ender3 ( w/ a RPi3/Kilpper & mainsail; and a crtouch sensor) . I’d wager that other slicers could do this too, but I"m not sure of their setup.
Thank you so much for this! I installed Klipper a month or two ago and haven’t had the opportunity to dig into all of the cool stuff you can do.
You can also cancel individual objects on Prusa MK4 and Mini by default.
You can do that on the Prusa. The firmware let you cancel a part mid print but continue the rest.
There is an addon for Duet (RRF) but I can’t get it working. Anyway, once it is time for a batch print the first testprint has been completed successfully and build plate adhesion is a non-issue on this printer.
I only use this option if I need the part before the entire batch is finished and don’t want to start multiple prints. Which isn’t frequent.
I think it’s not widely front-and-center because it’s kinda fiddly, especially with folks with customized printers and there are caveats that can damage the machine or ruin the print if you are not careful. Sadly, I think that some of the more ‘closed’ slicer/printer systems could support it more reliably because the dimensions of the head + arm are much better known and the tool path can be planned much more precisely.