After struggling to generate suitable code with desktop printer software, Vertico launched a hackathon in January 2019 to create a free open-source slicer for large-scale printing.
The Dutch company is the third to open a facility for construction 3D printing in Eindhoven. This type of large format 3D printing often raises a constraint for experts: the availability of suitable slicing software hence the hackathon.
Amid the participants to this challenge, two main contributors have brought some capabilities that lead to the development of a free-cloud based slicer: researcher Iman Hadzhivelcheva from Saxion Hogeschool in Enschede (The Netherlands), and Packhunt.io., a company that develops a technology to increase sales, design and production efficiency.
The challenge the slicer is addressing
When using desktop slicers, too many coordinates are often generated. When larger machines attempt these paths, they become very jittery, ruining the print. Furthermore, the transition between layers in large scale printing is much more important because at this scale the socalled seam is much more notable.
New approach to slicing
With the slicerXL both issues can be addressed through the adjustment of your seam position and transition distance.
This new approach to slicing also involves the use of a type of software that is based on the use of the Grasshopper plugin for visual coding in the CAD program Rhinoceros 3D.
Many large-scale 3D printing companies have developed their software on this basis. For a long time, this type of computing power was reserved for offline programming making it less accessible.
Packhunt.io.’s proprietary cloud-based computing platform enables to calculate from the cloud, making the software available to anyone from his or her internet browser. Saxion contributed by creating a slicer suited for the cloud.
“Our technology allows for 3D models to be edited and adjusted online. SlicerXL is a great example of what our platform has to offer. It showcases the power of cloudbased parametric software”, states Jeroen Coenders, founder of Packhunt.io.
SlicerXL is and will remain free as long as it lasts, and makers are invited to send in the projects that were created using slicerXL. The use of the platform is based on a Creative Commons 4.0 license, so the project partners only ask that you reference slixerXL.com when publishing projects in order to spread the word.
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