Trying out the latest Prusa Slicer Organic Support

[WobblyHand]

So, I just downloaded PrusaSlicer and am running it from the downloads folder by doubleclicking the .exe file.


When you say "build it", im assuming you mean that there is some kind of actual install process or the files. the 2.5 version I had was installed with an installer program, but i didn't see anything like than in the github download for 2.6

How do you build, or install it? It seems to run fine just by doubleclicking the .exe file, but i'm guessing this is NOT the correct way to do it?

I run Linux. I compiled it from the source files, which are freely available on github, using free compilers that come with Linux.

Actually one can't run an exe under Linux, unless one uses a Windows emulator. For what it is worth, under Linux, file extensions are not needed to be an executable file. Having the source, I could modify it anyway I want to add or subtract features, if I understood where to make the changes. In full disclosure, at least for now, that is not my intent!

Exe's are fine for those that use Windows.

 

[Ken226]

The organic supports seem to be working well so far.

I hate the banana yellow, but since these parts will be painted anyway.

 

[WobblyHand]

I was able to use the alpha4 version once on Linux. Sliced something simple, like a right angle cable holder for my Prusa i3 MK3+. Didn't get to use any advanced features. Printed ok.

For some unknown reason, my distribution of linux got messed up shortly thereafter. After two days, I got that sorted out. But now 2.6.0alpha4 no longer runs. Oh well. I need my computer to work far more than I need the alpha4 version to run.

Well this is interesting. On a whim, I tried prusa-slicer alpha4 this morning, after a reboot. It came up! It also said it had crashed earlier, and recommended a change to avoid crashing. I set that option! Well, I will try again to slice something a little more challenging. Nothing like Ken's stuff, but something that hopefully will get the little trees going.

Edit: Turned something on it's side just to get the organic stuff to activate. Kind of cool looking. Not printing it, because other orientations are obviously faster to print. Nice to have this option. Hopefully I can continue to use this version.

 

[Ken226]

Very cool.

If I could get an Linux version of my CAD software, I'd be running Debian on my desktop.

Something i figured out this morning when I pulled that MG131 mount off the printer. Gonna need a couple dental type tools for these supports. there are lots and lots of them, and they are a challenge to remove from the tiny little spaces between parts.

 

[WobblyHand]

Just as an FYI for anyone silly enough, or stupid enough to build this alpha code on Linux. The build process uses a tool Cmake. Ordinarily this works fine. In my case, it fooled cmake into thinking that the source for OCCT (a graphics rendering program) was inside of the PrusaSlicer folder. This is ok for the PrusaSlicer build. Prusa did this to make private sandboxed libraries.

However, cmake retained this sandboxed information about the location of OCCT. As it turns out, FreeCAD uses OCCT. So when I tried to update and build FreeCAD, cmake instructed the build process to grab stuff from inside the alpha code. This resulted in cmake failure. Not good. It took me a while to get this fixed. So Prusa's intent was good, but the cmake tool remembered the last location. Even deleting the cache file in FreeCAD did not work. I had to install (via my package manager) another OCCT library, in my case is was occt-misc, which comes with cmake files. And finally I had to tell cmake to use this particular cmake file when it was looking of OCCT. Pretty much cost me 3 hours to get through this mess.