I have a Davinci 1.0. When I attempt a print, (click the print icon) there is excessive lag time prior to the “object slicing” box appearing. Once it does, object slicing takes forever. I actually went to sleep, woke up the next day and it was still slicing.
So, I have a few questions,
Has anyone else had this issue?
Would you suspect the software, hardware, or merely my lack of 3D printing knowledge?
Is there better software on the market that will work with the Davinci, or am I stuck with whatever XYZ has to offer? As we all know, after purchase, all XYZ wants to know from you is, Would you like to buy more of our over priced filament?
Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
That is the problem with XYZ Ware. We have a Da Vinci Junior 1.0 and XYZ Ware is the worst. After figuring this out we bought Simplify 3D. Simplify 3D is really worth it and can save you lots of time. We sliced a part in 7 seconds that took XYZ Ware 5.3 minutes.
The xyz ware is garbage. Simplify 3d apparently works well with the DaVinci. I swapped mine over to repetier and use slicr or cura. I can actually go into the firmware with repetier and dial in the printer even more. The DaVinci is a great little machine just run by poor software.
I got a recent update to the xyzware for my 1.0 and the slicing seemed to be amazingly fast - have not checked it against other models I have used but am going to do that to see if my first experience was real or just a happy accident…
However, I do use Simply3D with my DaVincis and there is no need to bust the firmware to be able to tweak settings with that program.
In order of when I bought them, I have a 1.0 with an E3Dv6 (repetier), 2.0 (repetier), 1.0 (repetier), 1.0A (stock) and two Prusa’s (marlin). I’ve kept the 1.0A stock because I see no need yet. The biggest downside to the stock firmware (aside from the software slicing/support material limitations) is the noise. The motors run loud and hot, which is annoying, but works fine. I do like that my 1.0 (non “A”) have plug in stepper drivers, so I’ve replaced the X and Y drivers with TMC2100 drivers which are SILENT.
You can flash repetier on just about any model besides the JR and that will give you much more functionality, but it is definitely not necessary unless you want to use different filaments. I find the filament resetter cumbersome, if you want to use different filaments, just flash repetier. On a side note, if you dont have the 1.0A, you probably wont be able to do PLA because the extruder is not built for it. It’s probably still finicky on the 1.0A, but I know the 1.0 wont do it. I haven;t tried since my only 1.0A still has the stock firmware.
As far as flashing you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT need Simplify 3D unless you HAVE to have specialized support material (if you need to remove specific portions of support material from an object) although it’s the only software that I know of that’s able to do that. That’s the only advantage of Simplify3D ($140) over slic3r ($0, FREE, nada, zilch). S3D may have a profile that you can select to get a better starting point, but Slic3r is easier to configure but S3D is an absolute waste IMO. My only bias in this is that I use 6 slightly different machines (mostly davinci’s, all cartesian) and slic3r makes it easy to select one printer vs the other and use the same printing and filament settings.
A new profile in S3D encompasses most of those settings, to you need more profiles to get the same configurabilty.
I have printed hundreds of different parts on my DaVinci 1.0A and 100%of them with the stock firmware and XYZWare. The machine is central to rapid prototyping efforts for my home business. That’s the good part - machine is reliable and I actually like the simplified “no mess no fuss” approach to printing. The bad is XYZWare. I have experienced ridiculous slicing times. There four ways around this, three are free.
1. Simplify the STL file. If your STL file is a couple of MBytes, forget about XYZWare ever finishing. It will slice until doomsday. My Default CAD was Cubify design. The STL files it produced are horrendous and XYZWare battles. Switching to Onshape resulted in significantly smaller STL files which XYZWare has no problem slicing in real-time. If you need to simplify existing STL files, try this tutorial http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/polygon\_reduction\_with\_meshlab
Since changing to Onshape, the stock firmware and XYZWare do most things well enough.
2. Use Slic3r to slice the STL file. This requires far more knowledge of printer settings and effects on the final print result, but once you get used to it, you will have learnt a lot more about the printer and the effects of the various parameters on printer output quality. Once you have the slic3r gcode output file, there is a manual conversion step you need to convert the gcode file to the .3w file XYZWare uses. This is easy to do and you can the print your part using the standard firmware and XYZWare.
3. Flash your firmware and use repetier. This gives you more control but I rarely find that this is something I need.
4. Pay for Simplify 3D
I churn out 3D prototype parts with boring regularity. I designed and printed 3 parts yesterday and another 3 today. It never stops. I’m not into 3D printing in that I care about the type of extruder, the merits of auto leveling, debates about glass vs aluminum, exotic materials etc. I treat my 3D printer like a paper printer. I just need it to print parts. And it does that. Very well! If XYZWare was capable of dealing with complex STL files, allow you to drag parts around with a mouse, this would be a great package. Customer feedback on the quality of prints is always 5 star.
