Skeinforge has been my go to open-source slicer since the beginning. It has a rather intimidating interface, but with a little work, it can become quite easy to navigate.
What is important to realize is that most of the craft tools (image above shows Dimension selected), can be left alone once a profile has been made for your machine. And the profile is easily setup by using a profile called Durbie - Normal. Though this slicer hasn't been updated in about 5 years, it still creates a slice that's been dependable.... why change something that works?
I'm running Windows 10 and starting off with Repetier-Host version 2.1.3.
Once the programs are installed, it's now time to set up Repetier-Host. Select the Slicer tab and then Manager. A popup window appears as below:
Type Skeinforge in the Name box and then click Add Slicer. Skeinforge will be added to the Slicer Manager list. The window will now display a configuration setup for Skeinforge.
Here the paths for each file will need to be specified. Starting with:
What is important to realize is that most of the craft tools (image above shows Dimension selected), can be left alone once a profile has been made for your machine. And the profile is easily setup by using a profile called Durbie - Normal. Though this slicer hasn't been updated in about 5 years, it still creates a slice that's been dependable.... why change something that works?
I'm running Windows 10 and starting off with Repetier-Host version 2.1.3.
You'll need 5 programs for the install:
- Skeinforge slicer
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86)
- Python 3.7.2
- PyPy 3.5.3
- Durbie Profiles
Each of the above programs should be installed in order. Skeinforge and PyPy are simply unpacked into a folder and put into Program Files (x86) directory. Each of the files above are linked to the download page. If the link is broken, a Google of the following files will locate their depository:
- Skeinforge50plus-master.zip
- vcredist_x86.exe
- python-2.7.amd64.msi
- pypy2-v6.0.0-win32.zip
- master.zip
Once the programs are installed, it's now time to set up Repetier-Host. Select the Slicer tab and then Manager. A popup window appears as below:
Type Skeinforge in the Name box and then click Add Slicer. Skeinforge will be added to the Slicer Manager list. The window will now display a configuration setup for Skeinforge.
Here the paths for each file will need to be specified. Starting with:
- Skeinforge Application: C:\Program Files (x86)\Skeinforge50plus-master\skeinforge_application\skeinforge.py
- Skeinforge Craft: C:\Program Files (x86)\Skeinforge50plus-master\skeinforge_application\skeinforge_plugins\craft.py
- Working Directory: C:\PC:\Program Files (x86)\Skeinforge50plus-master\skeinforge_application\profiles
- Profiles Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Skeinforge50plus-master\skeinforge_application\profiles
- Python Interpreter: C:\Python27\python.exe
- PyPy: C:\Program Files (x86)\pypy2-v6.0.0-win32\pypy.exe
Then select Apply and close the window.
Skeinforge will now have several errors when running:
The worst can be solved by simply turning off the Analyze tools in Skeinforge. Do this by selecting the Analyze tab and scrolling down the menu and selecting each of the tools:
- Interpret...
- Skeinsio...
- Skeinlayer...
Each new pop up window will have an Activate box that can be deslected. The following shows the Interpret Settings window.
Save the results. The only tool that does not have a save option is Skeiniso. This can be saved by selecting Save All at the bottom right of the main Skeinforge interface.
The last error has not been solved... at least not by me. It shows as follows:
Skeinforge does slice the object, but where is it? When Skeinforge is run as a stand alone program (do this by double clicking on skeinforge.py in the Application folder), the gcode is saved in the same directory as the object file. This is not the case when Skeinforge is run inside the Repetier-Host.
The gcode is actually found in the Repetier-Host working directory. In my case, its at C:\Users\richa\AppData\Local\RepetierHost and always labeled as composition.gcode. For some reason Repetier-Host cannot find it.
To use the gcode, simply load the composition.gcode manually in Repetier-Host.
Why go through the trouble of setting up Repetier-Host to run Skeinforge if the gcode still needs to be manually loaded? Running Skeinforge on its own will not allow the option to orient the object you are building on the build platform or add additional objects for simultaneous printing. These options and more are available on Repetier-Host, adding better functionality when using Skeinforge.
No comments:
Post a Comment