Hello all, I am considering on getting a 3D printer. I want to print some stuff for a project. I am relatively new to this. I need the slicer software to be compatible (preferably open source) with linux since that’s what I am using. I have only found the stuff from Prusa to be compatible but they are expensive. I have heard of ender 3 but it is the only os printer by creality and saw the repo is 3yo without updates.
Can I get some suggestions?
Your OS doesn’t matter. Printers are dumb and only understand Gcode, which is basically a series of steps to follow for printing your part (move the head this amount in that direction while extruding that much etc.). Producing that code is the slicer’s job. What you want is a slicer that works perfectly on Linux. And good news, all open-source slicers work perfectly on Linux. What you need tho is a slicer that includes your printer’s profile.
Try Cura or Prusaslicer (available as Flatpaks) or Orcaslicer (Appimage for now but will move to Flatpak eventually).
You don’t even need a Slicer that offers a profile for the printer. I have an obscure one and had to make a custom profile, but it works fine.
I personally would recommend Cura over Prusa. They both do the same and copy each other all the time, but Cura is simpler by default imo.
I switches from Cura to PrusaSlicer a couple years back, and immediately got noticeably better prints. Both with pretty much default settings.
Bambu Lab makes some affordable printers that work practically right out of the box - great for beginners, but not at the expense of being able to dig down and tweak everything should you so wish. Its slicer is available for Linux.
To 3d print something you need to convert a model (.stl or something else) to gcode. A slicer will do this for you. I use Cura (it’s open source) and works great on Linux. Then you have to send that gcode to the printer. You can do that with micro SD card which is what I noramlly do or you can connect to the printer using USB cable and send the gcode using a slicer.
Personally using an Elegoo Mars 2 with Chitubox and I had no issues with it so far
