Orca Slicer getting started guide: A slicer for all of your 3D printers

Orca slicer is rapidly growing in popularity so today a guide on why you might use it and where to find the best features if your migrating from another [Music] [Music] slicer this is actually my second video on Orca slicer but when I made the first I was still pretty new to it however since then it has become my slicer of choice my Patron Derek was migrating from prucha slicer and was having trouble finding the items he was used to understanding some new features and not knowing how to handle Security Options he requested a guide and here we are let's start with the obvious by answering what is ulas slicer oras slicer is a piece of software that converts a 3D model into G-Code for our 3D printers to understand one great aspect is that oraser is completely free and open source and this is despite it looking like an incredibly similar teal version of bamboo Studio the slicer used by bamboo lab who don't make open- Source 3D printers so how do we explain this here's a diagram of the most popular 3D printer slices used today and all of the ones on the left are related at the top is slicer or slick 3r it's been around for a long time and you might notice that it has some similarities in the interface to prusia slicer and that's because prusia slicer is based on slick 3r in fact it was originally called slick 3r prer Edition prer have done a tremendous job bringing new features to their slicer and best of yet it's still open source meaning that we have Community folks like super slicer which I consider to be like a prusia slicer Plus for a time and had everything that prusia slicer had plus a few extra settings on top and that brings us to Bamboo Studio which is also an open- Source Fork of prusia slicer underneath the hood the actual slicing engine is prusia slicer but with changes to the interface to suit their own machines and this included a bunch of pre-made profiles there was also a device tab added so you could monitor your print in real time and directly control the printer and AMS and that brings us to Orca slicer a fork of bamboo Studio but here's the thing not only do we get the new improvements from bamboo Studio but we also get some of the added features from Super slicer for instance the built-in calibration tests were originally based on those added to Super slicer but we also get features from pra slicer that will left out of bamboo studio for instance multimaterial support for non- bamboo printers such as pria's mmu the enraged rabbit project and others so now we know Ora slice's Origins but why would we choose it over the other options reason one is available features and since it's drawing on so many other open source slices I see Ora slicer as having the best bits of everything reason to is compatibility I'm running printers from bamboo lab whereas some of my other printers are open source and run Clipper firmware and I've still got others running Marlin and OCTA print for a while I was using super slicer for all of the Clipper and Marlin printers enjoying the fact I could upload to those printers directly over Wi-Fi and then using bamboo Studio separately for all the bamboo lab printers but the beauty of orcas lcer is I can now run all of my machines from a single piece of software and perhaps most conveniently it doesn't matter which of those printers I'm slicing for I can still wirelessly send the G-Code to them not only that but when I click to the device tab I'll be shown the web interface that I would normally get in my browser including fluid main sale and octoprint and I know that if my prusia XL ever comes I'll be able to connect directly to that as well bamboo Studio already supports printers from other manufacturers but AUST ler takes this a step further we have generic Clipper and Marin profiles if you need to start from scratch and then compared to Bamboo Studio we've got extra printers and even whole new manufacturers many of these are thanks to community contributions and it increases the chances of your printers being supported without any additional effort let's now move on to downloading and then setting everything up and we'll cover whether or not you want the network plugin and whether you should make an account and sign in we're going to download Orca slicer from the GitHub and to find the link we're going to scroll down from the main page and click on releases currently version 1.7.0 is the latest release and we scroll down until we get to the asset section if you're on Windows you have two options we have an executable installer that's automated and then we have a portable version which is what I've done in the past simply click to download whichever version you need if you download the executable it's like any other program we just click through the dialogue until the slicer is installed if you've downloaded the zip file for the portable version you simply make a folder in a location of your choice I've done so in program files and you extract all of the files into that folder done down the track if you're updating you'll simply run the new exe file again and if you're updating the portable version download the new zip and drag all of its contents into the Oka slicer folder overriding when prompted with everything installed we can now run Ora slicer for the first time there's a couple of prompts that may be confusing and the first of those is the bamboo Network plug-in for a bamboo lab printer if you want to do anything over your network you're going to need this and that's true if you're using full Cloud capabilities and even if you're using Lan only mode however if you're using Orca slicer for only Marin and Clipper printers you won't need this plug-in installed to use them over your local network without the plugin if you have a bamboo lab printer selected clicking the device tab will do nothing apart from creating a prompt giving you another chance to install it however if it's a Marin or Clipper printer even without the plug-in clicking the device tab will load the web interface for this machine the next thing you might be unsure about is whether to create an account and log in and whether you're using Orca slicer or bamboo studio in either case we're talking about a bamboo lab account if you're planning to run your bamboo lab printer in landan only mode you do not need to log in or make an account we can see on this particular computer that I'm not logged in but on the device tab I can select a printer in Landon mode and after a couple of seconds I'll be able to control it you will need to log in if you want to send prints and control your printers from anywhere in the world with internet over the cloud logging in adds this convenience as well as that of using the bamboo handy mobile app another benefit of logging in is that if you have Ora slicer installed on multiple computers all of your printer and slicer profiles will be automatically synced between them here's all the profiles are created on my main work computer running Ora slicer and since I'm logged in on this laptop all of them are transported over without me doing any manual setup the next thing you'll see on first run is the printer selection box and you will need to click at least one printer if you're just having a play Click one of the generic ones at the top for now now from the drop down all of the printers that you ticked will be listed if you want to add or remove a printer in future you can get back to this at any time by clicking the gear icon to the right of the word printer if you're adding a generic printer or customizing one of those already supported we can tweak the printer profile by clicking on the edit preset icon here we can change what firmware that it's using the print volume putting custom start and NG code tell Ora slicer if it's multimaterial capable and also set up things like BAS retra action settings and if you're not seeing everything you're looking for make sure to toggle Advanced after adding a non- bamboo printer you probably want to click this button to the right to set up networking we click the firmware that we're using enter an IP address and then click test and if that's successful you can update the machine name and click okay the local address will be stored for in future and clicking the device tab will load the web interface the next dialogue you'll be presented with is ful filament selection filter with these check boxes up the top and then go through and click all of the filaments you want to use for that printer clicking on this drop down will then show you all of the available filaments we can get back to this filament section by clicking the gear icon to the right of the word filament how about a typical project where we slice and print where do we find the most important settings now that we're set up let's run our way through a basic slicing job if you're coming from pra slicer everything is divided into print settings filament settings and printer settings so let's find those on Ora slicer the printer settings we've already seen by clicking on the edit preset button next to the printer's name for filament settings we have the same type of Icon next to the listed filament and this is where you can change your flow ratio also known as Extrusion multiplier temperatures for the nozzle and build plate set max volumetric speed and there's also a tab to control all of the part cooling if you're looking for something more advanced check through the other tabs if you've made a change to the defaults you can save that as a new preset you can say I've added TT to the end of the name now all of the defaults will show up as well as any other ones I've previously saved all of the print settings are found in the remaining part of this left hand box we have quality for things like layer height line width seams ironing and whether you're using AR Rak or classic strength will cover thickness of perimeters infill patterns and density speed covers exactly that support material which we'll look at later and in the others tab we've got things like skirts and brims and this is also where you'll find features like Spiral vas mode or fuzzy skin again after we've made changes we can click the save button and then give our preset a new name now all of the defaults will show up as well as any custom ones that I've previously saved to import geometry we have a few options we can drag a model directly onto the screen we can click the plus button along the Top Hand menu or you can use the inbuilt models so let's right click add a primitive and select the Ora Cube and this will be loaded onto the build plate once you click on a Model all of your manipulation tools will be across the top like move rotate scale and lay on face keyboard shortcut F if you want to click on a surface to rotate it instantly I'm going to keep everything on the default click slice plate like other slices we have our preview with everything colorcoded but we have the benefit of being able to untick objects to see what's making up the print we also have a number of ways that we can preview the print such as this one that shows the speed throughout when we're happy we can either print or export a g code file if we're using SD cards and assuming your printer is Network connected you'll be able to upload directly to it or upload and start the print immediately and as far as the first print goes in oras slicer this built-in cube is a pretty good one now let's move on to some things you might not be familiar with such as projects and plates let's dig a little deeper and one thing you might have noticed are projects and really all these are are a fancy term for a 3mf file a project or 3mf file is a convenient way to save print objects and settings for later access for instance here I have a disc and then I've imported as a modifier this second triangular mesh STL pattern I've then positioned it so it overlaps the top couple of layers switch to the objects Tab and then set the Triangular pattern to have a different top surface once we slice we can see that we have a concentric pattern everywhere the triangles overlapped and that gives a really nice aesthetic when the print is done check out my full video on this to learn more by Saving this as a project we can access it later on and everything should be in position let's open one of these other projects to show how it works for this file a multi-part model has been restored in the correct orientation as well as the correct colors being applied to each segment a project or 3mf means I don't need to import the original sdl and set all of this up again other times you might make changes to the slicing settings but don't want to save them in a new profile for instance here a giant Beni with organic tree supports I'm going to come to home new project to wipe everything discarding my changes and and then I'll come back to home and load in that same project file we can see that the print settings have been retained so a project file or 3mf is just a convenient way to store any geometry as well as print settings and other things like filament allocations and even if you're not interested in them coming to home and then new project is a great way to wipe everything clean and get back to your safe settings another feature you might be unfamiliar with are plates and we can click the plus button up the top to add multiples of these let's say you got a project with many parts to print to men to print and fit in one go adding multiple plates gives you a way to efficiently plan your printing for instance one plate will be one of these frame pieces and I'll print that twice this foot I'll print three different times this dial I want in a different color so I'm keeping that separate and then all of the little remaining parts I'll print together now's a good time to point out the difference between Auto arrange up here versus the icon available for each plate clicking Auto arrange for that plate will only affect the objects within it its boundaries however clicking Auto arrange up the top will prompt a dialogue box and when we click arrange the slicer will try and fit everything in as little plates as possible if you click this one by accident you can always do undo with contrl zed you'll notice that you can click and make any of these plates active and up the top instead of just slice we now have options for slice plate or slice all slice plate will slice only the one that is selected but we can quickly slice the others by clicking on the thumbnail and of course from up the top or by clicking this top icon we can slice every plate one after each other once we're in the preview tab we can click between these to see the G-Code for each plate so what normally happens for me is I'll pick a machine send the print and then perhaps start printing on a separate machine clicking that plate and then changing the printer as you can see that will quite often mix up the positions but I'll get it roughly in place and then click Auto arrange once more I'll then slice that plate and send it off to a different printer and that means this multiplate interface helps me make complicated projects on multiple printers at once one last thing if you want to delete a plate just zoom in and click the X to finish where to find some more important features and an extra security tip let's quickly cover a few extra features and the first being paint on supports this job has one section underneath that I want to be supported but the default support instead is going to add it in these side holes where it's not needed so I can click on the model and then come up to this icon here which is support painting keyboard shortcut L this will let me paint all of the areas where I want support and there's even a handy fill option so I can click this whole surface and get it done in one go now under support type I need to change it from normal Auto to one of the two manual options and now when I slice it's only applied to the section that I painted the interface for modifiers is also a little different to Pria slicer we can right click and we'll have options for support blockers and enforcers as well as generic modifiers I'm going to select a cube and you'll notice that the left hand panel has switched from Global to objects this will allow us to select this Cube we can now control it independently allowing us to move rotate and scale until it's where we want if instead we want to move the base part and the modifier we simply click on its name on the left hand panel and we'll be working on the whole lot let's say that I want higher infill for strength where this cube overlaps with the objects panel open I can now click on it and make whatever print changes I want below so let's make that change and up the infield density when I slice everything looks the same but looking inside we can see that we're a lot denser in this area just like we wanted up along the top we have a calibration menu and there's a range of tests that we can access from this for instance this retraction test generally we would have zero as our minimum and the maximum for direct drive will be something like two for a b and Tube maybe as high as 10 we pick the steps in between click okay the STL will be imported and all settings applied aut automatically we can slice print look at what height is best and then update our slicing profiles for best results finally a word on privacy and security and the first thing I've done is link this page below from bamboo lab that explains exactly what settings are required to access what as well as how to run a printer in landan only mode and for those who are conscious of privacy coming to preferences will reveal a specific option called stealth mode as previous release notes explained this will further server connections to the B lab Hardware management system Cloud so for those that want to go a little bit further it's nice that the option is there I was going to include a section in this video on multicolor printing because orcas slicer has a great interface for painting ordinary stls to make them multicolored but currently a big limitation is that only supports machines with a single nozzle and a system like an AMS feeding in various filaments and I'm really hoping that idex and Tool changing machines are covered fully in the future as I always say the right option is the one that works best for you you and for me it was a no-brainer using a single slicer for all of my various machines there's plenty more in this software but hopefully this is enough to get you started thank you Derek for requesting the video thank you for watching the hway to the end until next time happy slicing and 3D printing good day it's Michael again if you like the video then please click like if you want to see more content like this in future click subscribe and make sure you click on the Bell to receive every notification if you really want to support the channel and see exclusive content become a patron visit my patreon page see you next time

Channel: Teaching Tech

Views: 120,505

Keywords: 3d printing, 3d printer, 3d print, 3d printed, orca slicer, orcaslicer, prusaslicer, prusa slicer, guide, tutorial, step by step, beginner, free, open source, comparison, slicer, slicing, multi colour, multi color, multi material, support, filament, profiles, preset, creality, bambu lab, bambu studio, bamby handy, x1, x1c, x1 carbon, pip, pis, a1 mini, ams, ender 3, prusa, project, plate, 3mf

Id: cquTCpz1V74

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023