SynDaver Symple Slicer

Symple Slicer is a simple-to-use, web-based slicer for 3D printers, built on the robust and dependable CuraEngine.

Symple Slicer was developed at the Loveland, Colorado division of SynDaver Labs, Inc. for use with SynDaver 3D printers. Symple Slicer is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License Version 3.

To run the online version of Symple Slicer, use the following links:

Release	Live URL
Stable	https://syndaverco.github.io/slicer
Development	https://syndaverco.github.io/slicer-beta

The current web version has experimental support for Web Serial API when "Experimental Web Platform features" is enabled in Chrome and "?enableSerial=1" is appended to the URL.

An Electron based desktop version of Symple Slicer which can print to USB attached printers and flash printer firmware is also available. For developers familiar with Electron, there are build instructions in the 'docs' directory.

Issues and Feature Requests

If you have issues or feature requests for Symple Slicer, please reach out to "[email protected]"

Adding User Profiles

User made profiles are not supported by SynDaver. Use this functionality at your own risk

If you have created profiles for your own printers or materials, you can add them to Symple Slicer. To add profiles to Symple Slicer, host your customized profiles on GitHub Pages and then add the network URL of the "profile_list.toml" file to the "Data Sources" box under "Advanced Options":

For an example profile and documentation, look in the src-app/config/profiles directory.

Easy to use, easy to print

For end-users, Symple Slicer brings the following advantages:

• Easy-to-use interface, with a step-by-step wizard
• Runs on many platforms, requiring only a compatible web browswer
  • Installable as an app on Chromebooks
  • After being run once, it will be cached and can be used off-line
  • Automatic updates when connected to the web
• Uses the CuraEngine for slicing

Easy for developers as well

For developers and contributors, Symple Slicer brings the following advantages:

• Open-source and build using THREE.js and WebGL
• Written in modern JavaScript (ES6)
• Fast development turn-around times
  • Web UI can be executed-in-place with no compilation
  • Updates can be pushed to users in minutes
• No server-side code for straight-forward deployment
• Clean, human-readable profile configuration files (TOML)
• CuraEngine is far easier to compile than for Cura:
  • Uses a simple command-line build of CuraEngine
  • No dependencies on libarcus or protobuff
  • CuraEngine can be compiled into WebAssembly in minutes
• Compatibility with Cura's JSON files (fdmprinter and fdmextruder):
  • Simplifies upgrades to the CuraEngine
  • Allows automatic computation of related values
  • Implements Python to JavaScript translation for formulas

Scope and limitations

Symple Slicer is not meant as a replacement for Cura for advanced users. Slicing is currently limited to a single extruder and the GUI allows access to a subset of all Cura settings (although exporting, editing and importing a TOML configuration file allows advanced users to access to all Cura command-line slicer options).

History

Symple Slicer is a spin off from earlier work done by the author in 2016 on a native JavaScript slicing engine and web GUI. There are still references to a JSSlicer engine in the code. Such code isn't necessarily useful or functional in Symple Slicer, but is being kept around for posterity and/or future work.

Re-Building CuraEngine from source

This repo contains pre-built WebAssembly binaries for CuraEngine. If needed, these may be re-generated from the CuraEngine C++ submodule (in src-cura/) using the build-cura-engine.sh shell script. Rebuilding the CuraEngine requires the EMSCRIPTEN toolchain. Refer to the documentation in config/README.md for information on upgrading the slicing engine and associated configuration files.