On the left is a 1″ priest figure I’m developing sliced in MakerWare. On the right is the same model sliced in Simplify3D. Potato camera can’t capture the detail but just look at the edges. See how much smoother they are on the right? The one on the left is CRAP. The one on the right is beautiful. And yet the only difference is the slicer. S3D slices models for Makerbot better than Makerbot.
Generally.
As I said there are a few things that MakerWare does better. The UI in MW is better. That’s not critical but I hope over time S3D adopts a more object based layout and includes some keyboard shortcuts. Also it would be nice if S3D worked better at lower resolutions because when I’m doing slicing by remoting into my computer on my tablet some buttons fall off the bottom. But again, that’s not critical. And I’ve noticed problems with S3D doing the thin walls of soap stamps making me getting MW back up and running very important.
What is critical is that Simplify3D is crap for dual extrusion printing and I need spurs. Spurs are something MakerWare does where it identifies areas that are too thin to get a perimeter line in and out of and instead fills that area with a single line thick wall. I used this accidentally when I printed some jumping game pegs and the result was amazing. I also use this when making soap stamps a lot. Most people who don’t have access to spurs tend to sour grape them but they are critical to many things I do. And the strange thing is I’ve seen S3D in preview mode doing something suspiciously spur like when doing a fill layer.
I find it ironic that Simplify3D can get a better print out of my Makerbot printer than Makerbot can. I guess I’m grateful to Makerbot for doing such a bad job at what they do that they forced me to discover this.
