slicer

34 Articles

Open Source 5-Axis Printer Has Its Own Slicer

August 4, 2025 by 21 Comments

Three-axis 3D printing has been with us long enough that everybody knows the limitations, but so far, adding extra axes has been very much a niche endeavor. [Daniel] at Fractal Robotics wants to change that, with the Fractal 5 Pro 5-axis printer, and its corresponding Fractal Cortex slicer.

The printer looks like an extra-beefy Voron from a distance, which is no surprise as [Daniel] admits to taking heavy inspiration from the Voron Trident. The Fractal 5 shares a core-XY geometry with the Voron, using beefy 30 mm x 30 mm extrusions. Also like the Voron, it runs Klipper on a Raspberry Pi hiding in the base. Under a standard-looking printhead using a BondTech extruder and E3D volcano hotend, we find the extra two axes hiding under the circular build plate. The B axis is a gantry that can pivot the build plate assembly a full 90 degrees; the A axis spins the plate without limit thanks to the slip rings built into the design.

The extruder may look fairly normal, but it has actually been designed very carefully to allow the nozzle to get as close as possible to the build plate when the B-axis is at 90 degrees. It looks like the E3D hotend is actually the limiting factor there, which gives plenty of design freedom when planning prints in the accompanying Fractal Cortex slicer.

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3D Printed Brick Layers For Everyone

March 17, 2025 by 18 Comments

Some slicers have introduced brick layers, and more slicers plan to add them. Until that happens, you can use this new script from [Geek Detour] to get brick layer goodness on Prusa, Orca, and Bambu slicers. Check out the video below for more details.

The idea behind brick layers is that outer walls can be stronger if they are staggered vertically so each layer interlocks with the layer below it. The pattern resembles a series of interlocking bricks and can drastically increase strength. Apparently, using the script breaks the canceling object functionality in some printers, but that’s a small price to pay. Multi-material isn’t an option either, but — typically — you’ll want to use the technique on functional parts, which you probably aren’t printing in colors. Also, the Arachne algorithm option only works reliably on Prusa slicer, so far.

The video covers a lot of detail on how hard it was to do this in an external script, and we are impressed. It should be easier to write inside the slicer since it already has to figure out much of the geometry that this script has to figure out by observation.

If you want more information, we’ve covered brick layers (and the controversy around them) back in November. Of course, scripts that add functions to slicers, tend to get outdated once the slicers catch up.

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Could Non-Planar Infill Improve The Strength Of Your 3D Prints?

February 1, 2025 by 24 Comments

When you’re spitting out G-Code for a 3D print, you can pick all kinds of infill settings. You can choose the pattern, and the percentage… but the vast majority of slicers all have one thing in common. They all print layer by layer, infill and all. What if there was another way?

There’s been a lot of chatter in the 3D printing world about the potential of non-planar prints. Following this theme, [TenTech] has developed a system for non-planar infill. This is where the infill design is modulated with sinusoidal waves in the Z axis, such that it forms a somewhat continuous bond between what would otherwise be totally seperate layers of the print. This is intended to create a part that is stronger in the Z direction—historically a weakness of layer-by-layer FDM parts.

Files are on Github for the curious, and currently, it only works with Prusaslicer. Ultimately, it’s interesting work, and we can’t wait to see where it goes next. What we really need is a comprehensive and scientific test regime on the tensile strength of parts printed using this technique. We’ve featured some other neat work in this space before, too. Video after the break.

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Brick Layer Post-Processor, Promising Stronger 3D Prints, Now Available

January 23, 2025 by 45 Comments

Back in November we first brought you word of a slicing technique by which the final strength of 3D printed parts could be considerably improved by adjusting the first layer height of each wall so that subsequent layers would interlock like bricks. It was relatively easy to implement, didn’t require anything special on the printer to accomplish, and testing showed it was effective enough to pursue further. Unfortunately, there was some patent concerns, and it seemed like nobody wanted to be the first to step up and actually implement the feature.

Well, as of today, [Roman Tenger] has decided to answer the call. As explained in the announcement video below, the company that currently holds the US patent for this tech hasn’t filed a European counterpart, so he feels he’s in a fairly safe spot compared to other creators in the community. We salute his bravery, and wish him nothing but the best of luck should any lawyer come knocking.

So how does it work? Right now the script supports PrusaSlicer and OrcaSlicer, and the installation is the same in both cases — just download the Python file, and go into your slicer’s settings under “Post-Processing Scripts” and enter in its path. As of right now you’ll have to provide the target layer height as an option to the script, but we’re willing to bet that’s going to be one of the first things that gets improved as the community starts sending in pull requests for the GPL v3 licensed script.

There was a lot of interest in this technique when we covered it last, and we’re very excited to see an open source implementation break cover. Now that it’s out in the wild, we’d love to hear about it in the comments if you try it out.

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Non-Planar Fuzzy Skin Textures Improved, Plus A Paint-On Interface

December 6, 2024 by 4 Comments

If you’ve wanted to get in on the “fuzzy skin” action with 3D printing but held off because you didn’t want to fiddle with slicer post-processing, you need to check out the paint-on fuzzy skin generator detailed in the video below.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure, fuzzy skin is a texture that can be applied to the outer layers of a 3D print to add a little visual interest and make layer lines a little less obvious. Most slicers have it as an option, but limit the wiggling action of the print head needed to achieve it to the XY plane. Recently, [TenTech] released post-processing scripts for three popular slicers that enable non-planar fuzzy skin by wiggling the print head in the Z-axis, allowing you to texture upward-facing surfaces.

The first half of the video below goes through [TenTech]’s updates to that work that resulted in a single script that can be used with any of the slicers. That’s a pretty neat trick by itself, but not content to rest on his laurels, he decided to make applying a fuzzy skin texture to any aspect of a print easier through a WYSIWYG tool. All you have to do is open the slicer’s multi-material view and paint the areas of the print you want fuzzed. The demo print in the video is a hand grip with fuzzy skin applied to the surfaces that the fingers and palm will touch, along with a little bit on the top for good measure. The print looks fantastic with the texture, and we can see all sorts of possibilities for something like this.

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Unique 3D Printer Has A Print Head With A Twist

December 2, 2024 by 27 Comments

If you’re used to thinking about 3D printing in Cartesian terms, prepare your brain for a bit of a twist with [Joshua Bird]’s 4-axis 3D printer that’s not quite like anything we’ve ever seen before.

The printer uses a rotary platform as a build plate, and has a linear rail and lead screw just outside the rim of the platform that serves as the Z axis. Where things get really interesting is the assembly that rides on the Z-axis, which [Joshua] calls a “Core R-Theta” mechanism. It’s an apt description, since as in a CoreXY motion system, it uses a pair of stepper motors and a continuous timing belt to achieve two axes of movement. However, rather than two linear axes, the motors can team up to move the whole print arm in and out along the radius of the build platform while also rotating the print head through almost 90 degrees.

The kinematic possibilities with this setup are really interesting. With the print head rotated perpendicular to the bed, it acts like a simple polar printer. But tilting the head allows you to print steep overhangs with no supports. [Joshua] printed a simple propeller as a demo, with the hub printed more or less traditionally while the blades are added with the head at steeper and steeper angles. As you can imagine, slicing is a bit of a mind-bender, and there are some practical problems such as print cooling, which [Joshua] addresses by piping in compressed air. You’ll want to see this in action, so check out the video below.

This is a fantastic bit of work, and hats off to [Joshua] for working through all the complexities to bring us the first really new thing we’ve seen in 3D printing is a long time.

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Fuzzy Skin Finish For 3D Prints, Now On Top Layers

November 8, 2024 by 9 Comments

[TenTech]’s Fuzzyficator brings fuzzy skin — a textured finish normally limited to sides of 3D prints — to the top layer with the help of some non-planar printing, no hardware modifications required. You can watch it in action in the video below, which also includes details on how to integrate this functionality into your favorite slicer software.

Little z-axis hops while laying down the top layer creates a fuzzy skin texture.

Fuzzyficator essentially works by moving the print nozzle up and down while laying down a top layer, resulting in a textured finish that does a decent job of matching the fuzzy skin texture one can put on sides of a print. Instead of making small lateral movements while printing outside perimeters, the nozzle does little z-axis hops while printing the top.

Handily, Fuzzyficator works by being called as a post-processing script by the slicer (at this writing, PrusaSlicer, Orca Slicer, and Bambu Studio are tested) which also very conveniently reads the current slicer settings for fuzzy skin, in order to match them.

Non-planar 3D printing opens new doors but we haven’t seen it work like this before. There are a variety of ways to experiment with non-planar printing for those who like to tinker with their printers. But there’s work to be done that doesn’t involve hardware, too. Non-planar printing also requires new ways of thinking about slicing.

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