So i have a 3D printer, and i have linux on a laptop but im struggling to find good 3D print-related software to use on linux or maybe i havent looked hard enough? Im pretty much a beginner to both linux And 3d printing, also using Ubuntu Mate if that matters on a old thinkpad.
So i need a 3d print slicer/way to print to my printer, i also need a simple 3d modeling software (ive tried blender but found it too hard and heavy for me and my laptop). It would help if all suggested software were open source or something like that.
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IMHO the best slicer is orcaslicer, which works fine on Ubuntu as an appimage. On other distros i used distrobox to create an ubuntu box and then start the appimage.
Orcaslicer is also available as a Flatpak, which has worked in most distros I’ve tried it with.
Yes, i tried the flatpak too, but it doesn’t do well with hardware accerlation and nvidia gpu. Also i think there was an issue with localization to german.
What do you like about orcaslicer? I’ve mostly just used Cura because it was the first one I picked up and it seemed to work fine.
Cura was also the first one i used, but it was a creality branded shitshow of a program. So i found orca slightly after that and now use it ever since. I love the inbuilt filament calibration tools and especially, that i can control my printer directly from the slicer, to e. G. stop a job i sent too hastily or something.
Did you forget Octoprint?
Most slicers work natively on Linux. I’ve used orca slicer and lychee in just past 24h.
As for modeling software freecad, blender obviously; onshape is browser based, so it should work; fusion360 is hard to get running, but from what I’ve heard it’s doable;
SOLIDWORKS can run in wine, but just barely - I’ve found it easier and more pleasant to run it in a windows vm
Prusa slicer, orcaslicer, I’ve used both on Linux, runs native.
Prusa slicer was in the repos, orca slicer I had to download the app image.
Also openscad, freecad, also work for 3d modeling and should be in your distro’s repositories.
I was new to 3d around 4years ago, and even newer to Linux.
Fusion is often mentioned but I prefer Onshape. Fusion isn’t just a simple download and install (even on windows its a pain), but Onshape runs in the browser so I can use it on ANY PC, ans its never struggled.
The tools in both are pretty much the same, sometimes with different names. Theres plenty of onshape tutorials online, and the help pages are good.
For the free version of Onshape you can have unlimited files, but they are technically available publically. Other onshape users can search and use them, but unless your planing on selling them or use it for work who cares.
Fusion brought in a limit a while ago for free accounts to have like 10 “active” documents.
You can also start with Tinkercad online, but once you learn Fusion/Onshape and parametric design its much better.
If your into writing code you can use scad on linux. Its an interesting way to design but I can see its benefits.
For a slicer Orca has been fine on linux. Not sure if it works with printers outside Bambu.
Orcaslicer hands down.
For 3d modelling software, they all suck or have an unreasonable cost for what they offer. Openscad is something at least.
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Lychee slicer runs on Linux as does bambu studio, but the latter isn’t much use if you don’t have a bambu printer. Also FreeCAD for design
I’m running a flatpak version of Orca Slicer on Kubuntu 24.04. Personally, just prefer Orca after trying out a couple others. Found that it worked under Mint, and the 24.04 versions of Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Newer distros using Wayland instead of X11 seemed to have issues (which some people running Cura or Prusa slicers saw as well). Not everyone, but plenty of folks had software lock up at startup, or the build plate preview would just be a blank page. Might be a video driver problem, possibly depending upon if you use nvidia or AMD. I couldn’t find any real answers.
If there’s a slicer you prefer, you may have to find a Linux distro that it works under. Or if you are running a distro you’re sticking with, try slicers until you get one that runs. It seems to be hit or miss for people without any good reason for what does and doesn’t work.
Orca has an appimage I’ve been using that prints well over wifi. I’ve picked up FreeCAD to start learning, but I’m told the learning curve is ridiculous compared to F360 and other non-CAD modeling programs.
It’s been a while since I needed to do this, but Blender had some viewport quality settings I tweaked on an old laptop years ago to smooth things out (if you haven’t already tried). It might have been the anti-aliasing settings…
OpenSCAD works. I’ve played with it but not actually printed anything (no printer).
I use cura as slicer and onshape for modeling. Onshape is browser-based and I found f360 to be a bit more intuitive, but it’s fully featured and works well.
I recently discovered Dune3D for simple cad. Very fun to use, and easy to learn.
For creating models: Blender is tops, openSCAD and Open CAD are good but a lot more technical.
For basic stuff, most slicers have objects and negative connects that you can sculpt I’ve something functional. I made a basic model last week for a thing I needed only in the slicer.
For slicer software: sometimes 3d printer brands customize a more common software to tune it to the specific machine. I’m a fan of Orca, but Cura and PrusaSlicer are also really good.
All of these are available as FOSS on Linux.
I keep looking for something better, and yes it has some limitations, but the free online version of SketchUp is the easiest and most intuitive 3d design program I have ever used and I keep coming back to it.
You need to set up a free Trimble account to use it, don’t let that stop you from giving it a try
