Alternate slicer options?

[nitehawk]

Has anyone been able to get Prusa Slicer to work with the Mars?   I'm assuming it would need an alternate firmware to make this happen, however, it would greatly simplify my process to be able to work in a single slicing platform.

[Geekdad_3D]

I have heard of people using PrusaSlicer to create supports and then exporting the whole thing as an stl and placing it in ChiTuBox but I haven't tried it myself.

[djpsyc]

I have tried using PrusaSlicer today for slicing and it works if you tell it that your printer is their SL1, however the exported .sl1-files that prusaslicer creates are proprietary and the Mars doesn't know how to handle them.
The workaround of using Prusaslicer to create support structure and then exporting the models with support as an .stl-file works fine. Just keep in mind that you will still have to use chitubox to slice those.
From what i could gather the automated support algorithms seen to be tuned better in terms of resin efficiency by default than what chitubox offers by default.
I have tried them myself today and at least for small parts with small cross-sections like c-clips it worked like a charm for me while using less support than with my currently working chitubox settings.

Last but not least i found a project on github that tries to convert prusaslicers .sl-files into a readable type for the Anycubic Photon:

https://github.com/fookatchu/SL1toPhoton

since this is for the Photon and not the Photon S it might also work for the Mars as well.
I have not tried this conversion yet though and according to the documentation it does not yet support the conversion of anti-aliasing information unlike chitubox.

So for now i would assume we get the best of both worlds by preprocessing the .stl-files in prusaslicer for support and then actually slice them in chitox.

I might try the converter version at some point.

If anyone finds out more or alternative slicers that are free i would be happy to try those as well!

[Jroze88]

Does anyone know if the source code for the firmware is out anywhere? I could see about trying to write a compatibility module for simpler slicers

Chitubox is..... really bad.

[Van Valen]

Has anyone tried out Lychee slicer? It’s not free but it’s only a couple bucks a month as a subscription service. Look it up on YouTube. It appears quite impressive.

[JasonsBigBox]

I use PrusaSlicer. If you also install UVTools it adds configs to PrusaSlicer for Mars printers.

If you save the .SL1 file, UVTools can be used to open, view, check for and fix issues. You can then export to other formats including those used by the Elegoo printers.

I’d recommend giving it a try.

J

[plate-of-shrimp]

I started using Lychee about 1 day after getting a Mars 2 Pro.
I use the free version, but at this rate i'll send these guys money.
It knows the settings for this printer out of the box.
I don't know when it does slicing, but there isn't a discrete slicing step.
I have been able to print a few things, see my thread in the Getting Started section.
I have had no startup failures since using Lychee. And I have never used this app before.

[sn4k3]

To use PrusaSlicer and simplify the workflow see here: https://github.com/sn4k3/UVtools/wiki/Setup-PrusaSlicer

[Two Wheeler]

I just downloaded Lychee last night. So far, so very good. I had to find an alternative to Catbox because my Mac HATED it. I thought my Luminar 4 photo editing software was the most unstable software I'd ever used, until now.

The only thing I can't figure out is how to zoom!

[cliffyk]

I just downloaded Lychee last night. So far, so very good. I had to find an alternative to Catbox because my Mac HATED it. I thought my Luminar 4 photo editing software was the most unstable software I'd ever used, until now.

The only thing I can't figure out is how to zoom!

I downloaded the free version a couple days ago, it fire up and told med my video care (a 1 GB GeForce GTX 250) did not support WebGL2 (I checked with NVidia and sure enough it doesn't). So, as no other software i use has complained of this shortcoming I do not intend to buy a new video card to run some freeware.

Linux Mint 20.1
AMD FX-8350 octal core
16 GB RAM