Something that will generate G code to run on a 3D printer
So I dont have to save STL, load another app like Cura, to generate Gcode to put on a card and put that in my printer.
I don't want to drive the printer directly as that is not reliable enough given the long print times.
If there is nothing coming its a bit odd, considering ther is a CNC sort of of thing already. Pretty soon surely everyone with $4000 design software will have use of a $400 dollar 3D printer.
I cant believe how useful our little printer has been.
3DXpert for SOLIDWORKS
This does not support the common FDM filament printers and does not generate G code to drive them.
How much does it cost for a Pro version? I always assume ridiculously expensive when a company does not put the price of the software on their website.
Now that is an absolute truth. Usually I just scroll on past anything that doesn't let me easily get to some sort of pricing information. I'm sure I'm not alone there. The only people who are not up front about costs are people who know their costs are off-putting!
What I'm talking about here is a plug in of some type that allows you to open a solidworks file in Cura or Simplify 3D (for example).
There is a macro based one that someone wrote, it basically fired up solidworks with a macro running that then saved an STL and loaded it into simplify3D. It doesnt seem to actually work for me though...and whoever wrote it just got a load of grief from people who didnt understand that it used solidworks, and just expected it to load solidworks files into the slicer without access to solidworks.
What I'm saying is if Solidworks helped out Ultimaker or simplify 3D with a bit of code for that enabled their slicers to load solidworks files directly (as dumb solid) then that would add value for Solidworks users and it would be a win/win.
Or even a plug in that gave me a open my file in simplify3D/Cura (maybe a macro could be written to do that that just used the stl export invisibly?).
Because I have to keep track of STL versions of files as well as solidworks files for all our printed stuff.
The solidworks users would gain a lot of convenience, and the slicer program that agreed to it would gain some kudos.
By the way, as long as your printer runs Gcode, I don't see even the low cost of simplify 3D being justified vs Cura which I'm finding very nearly as good.
Those companies can sign up to be SolidWorks partners and get access to the API's to write their own add-ins. SolidWorks will not likely reach out to them.
Cura being open source, the open source community will need to write their own add-in. Will likely only work for certain flavors of Cura.
Put in an enhancement request to Simplify 3D to add that feature. Maybe if they get enough requests they will do that.
I have never used Cura. But I really, really like Simplify3D. Have you used Simplify3D? I'm curious how the two compare.
When I looked at the website I didn't see that Cura would simulate the print job. Did I miss that? Does Cura let you manually manage the support materials?
I've only been using cura with a single nozzle printer. At work I have simplify 3D and a twin nozzle printer but havent really got into running different materials at the same time. The issue I had with trying to use soluble supports was that the pva degraded in the nozzle while the abs or whatever was being run in the first nozzle. All that was needed was a way to just print a little tower of the PVA somewhere every few minutes, but I couldn't find a way to do that in simplify 3D.
My twin nozzle printer runs 3gs rather than gcode (flashforge) and I haven't yet found a way to get cura to write that file format successfully.
Cura is simple and quick, but has fewer infill patterns and support options for sure. It depends what you are printing.
Like SolidWorks?
One can have that opinion...
That was a little bit of sarcasm. Once software gets into the $1k range, generally the price isn't listed.
I am fairly certain there is no plugin to actually slice within Solidworks. With so many different printers out there most use separate software. I have a couple different 3D printers and they both use separate programs to run and slice etc.. I have Stratasys Printers and GrabCAD Print looks promising to solve the multiple program issue but I have not had much time to test it out.
Post the type of 3D Printer you are using and someone who uses the same type could chime in and give you a solution possibly.
Cheers,
Derek
Especially when slicers are going for free or extremely low cost there is no real incentive for developers to spend time and money adding a slicer native inside their CAD system.
Yes, Simplify 3D is cheap software no matter the whinging one hears out in 3D print land.
FWIW....