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.
Most slicer software is cross platform, free and open source. The biggest ones are PrusaSlicer, Cura and OrcaSlicer. You can use all of these with lots of different brands of printers. Creality’s own slicer used to just be a slightly modified version of Cura (Not sure if their new “Creality Print” software is, but it doesn’t matter, you’re rarely tied to any specific software, at least with FDM printers). Bambu Lab Studio is not available for Linux, but OrcaSlicer is, and as far as I know it’s just an open source community edition of Studio.
In other words, you’ll have plenty of options on Linux.
Get whatever printer fits your budget and needs. You don’t have to have a prusa printer to use prusa slicer, and even if you don’t want to use prusa slicer; Cura, super slicer, and orca slicer all work on Linux natively as well. You shouldn’t have a problem with slicing software at all.
Also, as a tip, whatever printer you buy probably comes with an installer for a proprietary fork of (an old version of) one of the main slicers. Skip it. Go download Cura or prusa slicer and there will likely be profiles available during initial setup for your exact printer. Definitely if you stick to the bigger, well-known brands.
The printer is more or less separate from your PC. As several others have pointed out, you need the slicer software to create, using your PC, the file that you feed into your printer. What software your printer is running makes no difference.
Bambu labs all the way. Unless you want your hobby to become printer maintenance.
Also unless you want to work in multiple colours and not have a giant pile of printer poop waste.
The amount of filament Bambu wastes is ridiculous.
