cheapst place for simplify 3d

as the title suggests and is it worth it any reviews

Pretty sure you can only buy it from the developer and its going to cost $150.

I have seen few negative reviews on the software, though its biggest strength is its support generation. Its biggest drawback, besides the price, is the lack of a free trial or other form of demo for individuals to try out.

You are right, 150 bucks sonds like a lot, no trial is usually enough reason never to consider buying the software.
But in his case I can not fully agree, for these reasons:
a) It really produces very good prints with a near perfect surface, unlike Slicer or similar where you need to tweak settings for ages until all works out good enough.
b) The slicing is lightning fast. I have had a lot of models that took an hour or longe to be sliced, the same models are rady to print in less than 2 minutes in Simplify3D.
c) There are less options that you can / need to modify, most of the guesswrok is taken out by the program.
d) It might not be the fastest prints you ever made as the software changes speed according to the layer and it's complexitiy but in return you have no more messy prints or sagging parts.
e) The automatic repair functions make it possible to print models you downloaded without going to Netfabb for fixing them.
f) Rotatig, scaling and placing parts is a breeze.

IMHO the 150$ pay itself off in a matter of a few weeks if you print a lot.
Just the material I save because I have far less failed prints makes it worth buying.
The only real downside for me is the user interface.
You have the settings before the print and than the preview screen, plus the control panel if you activate it, but there is no way (that I found) to modify print parameters once you started printing.
So if you think for the next run there should a slight change somewhere you need to remember it and change it once the print has finnished.
If your printer is not directly supported you need to do te initial setup yourself, but the process does not requie anything more than other products, simply specify your build volume, how many extruder, heated bed and so on and job's done.
Took me less than one hour from installing to my first print and it was coming great with the basic settings the program suggested.

I for myself will not buy this software at a pricetag THAT high.

I need to say, that I live a fair long time in the Apple-Ecosystem and buy software on a regular basis and every now and then its like 50€ for one game or on REALLY worth it software. But in all cases there was a demo or trial.

Anyways, 130€ is a pricetag to let me recoil. Even 99€ is.

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Der 3D-Druck ist tot, lang lebe der 3D-Druck!

Schreibt mich nicht mehr an, ich hab das drucken an den Nagel gehängt.

I find almost comical that people will not pay for quality software.

I come from manufacturing, the people I work for drop $15,000.00 or $20,000.00 per seat for the software we use to get the job done. I am thinking Mastercam, Pro-e, or solid works to name a few. People who make things to make money understand that it takes money to make money. The files we generate are valuable, the software lets us do it.

When I got my printer and found Simplify3D was $140.00, I almost laughed at how cheap it was and bought it. The things it does are really stunning. Try writing a program yourself and post how many hours you have logged to get it done better.

The printing community wants it free, and those that won't pay starve developers and insure inferior products. It is counterproductive to demand quality but refuse to pay for it. if they give out free trial software, someone will hack it or turn the PC clock back and use it forever.

If you want to use it, get out your wallet, if you want free, try something else.

I am pleased that they allow me to have two copies, one on the printer and one on the desktop. Most other software would hit me for two $eats.

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trist077
as the title suggests and is it worth it any reviews

You only get it at one place and that's the price you pay. Search around the forums here and several of us have posted thoughts/reviews.

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kengineer
I come from manufacturing, the people I work for drop $15,000.00 or $20,000.00 per seat for the software we use to get the job done. I am thinking Mastercam, Pro-e, or solid works to name a few. People who make things to make money understand that it takes money to make money. The files we generate are valuable, the software lets us do it.

This community is made up almost entirely of DIY enthusiasts. There are some of us that either own small batch manufacturing businesses or work in manufacturing but the basis of Reprap is not built around a for profit model. A $150 CAM for a $300-500 machine is a pretty big ask, regardless of the quality of the software, There is a big difference between your boss paying for to use in a business (or the software I buy for mine) and a hobbyist using the software. I've used it for more than a year in a commercial setting though I use other tools for printing more often, specifically Octoprint and Cura. As a machine controller in a multi bot environment lack of networking can be a deal breaker. Spawning multiple instances over USB is a kludgy work around and not practical.

It does one thing that other slicer oir slicer/host combinations don't do and that's manual addition and editing of support structures. For me that alone is worth the cost. It's easier to stack processes to change during the part run or for two extruder prints. I thought I would use the factory files and processes more but I don't.

I don't think it's any better at slicing, repair or single machine control than other solutions out there. It does some things differently but I wouldn't necessarily say better. Or even worse in most cases, just different. It still has a difficult time slicing thin walls only with no infill. It's not quite as robust as Netfabb for repair but it's handy to do it in a single environment. The implementation of skirts and brims is still sub standard. They keep improving the software and haven't yet charged for upgrades. If you can afford it go ahead and get it. If not there really isn't a lot you will miss by using other tools.

If you boil it down to price or how muc you print you can argu but I often fail to undestand the complaints in regards to a trail option.
Last time I checked they offered a money back guarantee if you are not happy with the software but it have been discontinued because noone actually complains that bad..
If you buy a 200$ printer you might complain about the prince of Simplify3D but there is also a good chance your prints won't improve with it as the hardware is just crap.
However, on a 2000$ + printer and using a few kg of filamant every week you will soon see the benefit and just laugh about the 150$ price tag - even I do and I don't buy filament that often.
Freeware is goodbut you pay for the testing by getting frustrated if something does not work properly.
I can understand that people are reluctant to pay for a good slicer, but consider this:
1. Freeware slicers like Sli3r mean you spend a lot of time finding the right settings for the job at hand, usually wasting a lot of filament until you get it right.
2. You always try to get better prints but never reall feel satisfied as eiter the infill, perimeters or structural integrety suffer.
3. If you create your parts using Sketchup you know the dreaded problem of objects not being solid and the necessaty to repair your STL files with other software on cloud services - often with unwanted results.
4. If you complain long enough about the 150$ you will waste more filament through wasted prints than what the damn program costs

Since it seems there are too many people concrned about the price without being able to test it I will offer to slic a few test objects to try.
Point me to a model on Tingiverse or upload our one and I will slice a few for everyone to to try out.
As print bed size can differ widely and mine is quite huge I will try to place the object within a range suitable for all printers but please keep the size limited to avoid problems like the print being outside theprint bed.
Please specify the following if you request a slicing:
Nozzle diameter
Filament diameter - as precise as possible
Prefered extrusion temp and material (PLA should work for everyone) - if you don't specify this I will use the temps that work good for me without any regards of your hotend being able to tolerate it.
Max speeds in mm/sec that allow good results on your machine - if you do not specify I will go low on the speed for best quality.

My time is a bit limited so please allow one or two days for processing if I do not respond here.
I hope this might help other to decide if the price is right for a good slicer.

I dont laugh about the pricetag, because its to expensive. period.

Even with slic3r and his known bugs I never ever come into a pricerange of 5 full roles of filament for "trial and error". I dont even have "trial and error" because of common sense. If a print fails, it's because of one of the surroundings, bad bond to printplate, bad filament, etc pp. So for me, it's just about convenience. And 130€ is simply to much for saving 10 minutes every now and then... And if I read "hours to slice" I can only think: BUY A NEW PC! Seriously, I have a very-very-very-very-very-lowcost PC installed right in my printer, it's just some mobile processor at the lowest end possible to buy and even highly complex big models with several hundreds of MB Gcode only take at maximum 2 minutes to slice. So WTF?!

Please, tell me something that justifies the pricetag for me.

And one more thing: Stop about this PLA talking. PLA is easy. VERY easy. It looks like in every english (speak: US) forum 95% of the users are printing PLA on a Makerbot or Ultimaker or similar. This is easy, you just press play, put on the fans and it works. So even less problems to solve...

sorry for the rage, but not everyone is used to buy software for 15000 bucks or more...

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Der 3D-Druck ist tot, lang lebe der 3D-Druck!

Schreibt mich nicht mehr an, ich hab das drucken an den Nagel gehängt.

I would like to take you up on this offer.

Here is a dragon. I think there is supported and unsupported. Use the un supported so i can see how simplify3d creates support.

Go for .2mm layer and 50mm/s speed.

Im going to print it on 2 machines.

[www.thingiverse.com]

Thank you!

Simplify 3D's support is somewhat overrated, yes it's easy to remove, but that's because they leave a full layer between the support and the model, and as a result the surface quality over the support tends to be suspect.
Being able to manually place/edit support though is a huge win if you print a lot of models that need support.

I own it but I wouldn't recommend it for $150, I never liked 2.X, but the new V3.01is actually a very good slicer, better IMO than the current versions of Slic3r or Cura especially for multiple extruders. The process paradigm they use for multi material / multi part prints, is almost a good one, I just wish some of the settings could be set globally outside a process.

Slic3r, and Cura are good free alternatives, I personally still prefer KiSSlicer over both of those and if KiSSlicer had a better prime tower I'd use it for multi material prints over S3D.

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___________________________________________________________________________

My blog [3dprinterhell.blogspot.com]

@ Skimmy: I use a quad core that is quite fast and maybe you just got simple models that calculate fast?
Jokes aside I tried various versions of Slic3r and depending on te complexity the slicing timeis quite often longer than 15 minutes, using a 0.3mm nozzle and 0.25mm layers on a big model results in huge g-code files.
So yes, Slic3r can do it but if you used it often enough on big models you already know the memory issues and that you need to reduce the tasks in order to prevent crashing.
Correct if I am wrong or used the wrong versions for the job.
The above dragon slices in a few seconds in Simplify3D, after over 3 minutes of eating my memory and wasting my CPU cycles I aborted Slic3r.
Try a 50mb + STL file in 0.5mm layers and let me know how long your version of Slic3r needs, a 5mb STL is no problem on an old XP laptop....

@ Thetazzbot: You did not specify anything else, so I went for my 03mm nozzle, no fan, no heatbed and my standard PLA temps (2.85mm).
Do you want me to upload the file or just take sme screenshots showing the supports?

Sorry im using .4mm nozzle. Abs 1.75mm 90/240

Hmm 2 vert shells 3 horiz. top/bottom..

Dragon 0.4mm ABS
Settings used in case you want to change something:
Nozzle: 0.4mm ,Multiplier 0.9, 1.73mm for the filament.
Retraction 2.5mm @ 40mm/s, 3mm wipe.
0.2mm layer, 3 top, bottom and 2 shells, first layer @ 0.4mm.
6 Skirt outlines.
Rectilinear fillings @25% and 160% infill extrusion width, printed evey 2nd layer.
20% support, but no trees like other programs offer, just standard rectilinear.
T0 for the hotend, T1 for the heated bed.
Speed slow at 50mm/s as requested.
Build volume 280x265x180, object placed slightly below center on the y axis.

I hope this works for you.

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Downunder35m

However, on a 2000$ + printer and using a few kg of filamant every week you will soon see the benefit and just laugh about the 150$ price tag - even I do and I don't buy filament that often.

What are you printing on a single machine that uses "a few" kilos of material a week?

I did not say I use that much....
But there are companies offering prints and those who sell their prints on Ebay.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2015 02:56AM by Downunder35m.

Three kg a week for a single prosumer machine isn't realistic. We run four machines 12-14 hours a day 5-6 days a week most week and still are able to use about 15 kg of material a month.

I sliced that dragon at [www.thingiverse.com] 23.3 MB file size

Mac Os 10.9, 3.0 Ghz i5, 16 GB ram, writing to Samsung Pro 256 SSD

sliced for .4 nozzle, 195*, .3 layers, 40% infill, 70 mm/s

Slic3r 1.2.9

47 sec load
35 sec export
19.2 MB file size
no est print time

S3D 3.0
3 sec load
6 sec slice
instant write
16.7 MB file size
est print time 4 hrs 32 mins

Cura 15.04
15 sec load/slice
instant write
15.2 MB file size (gcode)
est print time 3 hrs 37 min

Kiss Pro 1.4.1.4 (more than a year old, should try newer version)
only slicer to use all four coresn at once
63 sec load/pre proc, proc
74 sec slice
9 sec export
19.7 MB file size
no est time

$150 USD currently = $205.71 AUD and it has draconian DRM protecting it. I will never buy it, ever. If they tossed out the DRM, maybe. I'm not paying $200 to be treated like a criminal with them constantly watching me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2015 07:07AM by ntoff.

Downunder3M, Please Sir...

3DBenchy
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:763622

PLA
.4 Nozzle
180 Temp (These are actually easy to adjust by editing the Gcode manually)
60 Bed Temp
Settings used in case you want to change something:
Nozzle: 0.4mm , No Multiplier, 1.75mm for the filament.
Retraction 2.5mm @ 40mm/s, 3mm wipe.
0.2mm layer, 3 top, bottom and 2 shells, first layer @ 0.4mm.
6 Skirt outlines.
Rectilinear fillings @25% and 160% infill extrusion width, printed evey 2nd layer.
20% support, but no trees like other programs offer, just standard rectilinear.
T0 for the hotend, T1 for the heated bed.
Speed slow at 50mm/s as requested.
Build volume 150x150x150, object placed slightly below center on the y axis.

I almost suggested for someone to slice some test objects to share. I was thinking some of the more common test objects like Aria the Dragon or Benchy the Tugboat, but wasn't sure how feasible it would be. Thanks for volunteering DownUnder35M.

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Kurzaa
I almost suggested for someone to slice some test objects to share. I was thinking some of the more common test objects like Aria the Dragon or Benchy the Tugboat, but wasn't sure how feasible it would be. Thanks for volunteering DownUnder35M.

Indeed, Benchy is a more realistic/real world application. The dragon, while cool, is going to take a well tuned printer finish (and 3-4 hours). Here's a basic Benchy sliced for an i3 Rework [drive.google.com]

.4 nozzle, 190*/60*, .2 layers

@ntof
Unfortunately DRM is a reality on most small batch software. The DRM on S3D is pretty unobtrusive and except for the registration it's not noticable. In this case there are plenty of open source options to do the job well for those that either can't afford it or don't like to use commercial software.

My first thought was Aria the Dragon but since it does not require support it really wouldnt showcase the one feature that basically supposedly separates Simplify3d feom the rest. Im willing to give 3 to 4 hours toward the test.

Wasn't it like RepRap did put emphasis on being Open Source? Does this simplify thing come with sources?

Wasn't it like I had yet another flamewar targeted against me last week, just because I use to put a non-commercial tag on my hardware work? Still open source and freely copyable, of course.

No source => not usable. That simple.

If just one of you guys would spend these $150 for a bounty connected to slic3r, I'd be sure slic3r would improve. But that's a big no-go for you guys, right? Spending money on those who work hard every day but don't put a price tag on that work. You insist on closed source, where you depend on the mercy of a particular company.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

OK, I will try to get the last file for the boat, assuming you guys are not asking for all the model files to be sliced.
Will get to it in the afternoon and upload when done.

Sometimes fail why people are getting so upset about software that costs money.
It is up to the person if he or she wants to pay money for it or not.
You could also complain about music CD's bacause you can listen to the same songs on the radio fo free.
A lot of good software that started free or even as open source ended up to be a (at least partially) paid version.
Same for services like the Nearmap airial images for AU, free for many years and run through the donations of users and companies. Now you can't even afford an image of your backyard let alone bigger areas.
Take Steam as another example, mods that used to be free have been developed and gained good interest, now more and more are only available if you pay for them.
Or if you like it on a local level: All shops used to supply plastics bags for free for your shopping, now (at least in countries that care for the enviroment) most charge you for them, but funny enough people still go shopping...
For a lot of programs you get a time or function limited version to try it out, some can bebought cheaper if you are a student but that does not mean every company has to do it this way.
Copyright protection is a big concern and "calling home" is a common thing for programs of all kinds - even Windows does it to give you the latest updates.

In the end the user has to decide if he is willing to pay for a software or not - simple as.
In the case of S3D some printer manufacturers now ship with it by default

Here the little boat:
3D Benchy 0.4mm PLA 1.75mm 50mm/s

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2015 12:48AM by Downunder35m.

To my taste you put way too much emphasis on money. Closed source software is like a prison and people even pay for it. For my part I prefer to pay for freedom. My currencies are bug reports, patches, code. Others may prefer paying money -- hopefully not for prisons, but for free software.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

I do understand where you coming from and partially agree.
Without freeware and open source we would be quite lost these days.

What I understand the least is, why people prefer a piece of software just because there's a price tag on it. You can pay for free software, so please do so if you think it makes it better.

Well, maybe I should put a price tag on Teacup firmware, too. Just to satisfy those who view the quality of software (or hardware) by their cost.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Quote
Traumflug
Well, maybe I should put a price tag on Teacup firmware, too. Just to satisfy those who view the quality of software (or hardware) by their cost.

Call it "Teacup Firmware Enterprise Package" and you could get away with prices the likes of which would astound you.

For instance:

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kengineer
I come from manufacturing, the people I work for drop $15,000.00 or $20,000.00 per seat for the software we use to get the job done. I am thinking Mastercam, Pro-e, or solid works to name a few. People who make things to make money understand that it takes money to make money. The files we generate are valuable, the software lets us do it.

I also worked at a company that used Solid Works, and one that used ProE, One is out of business and the other laid me off to increase diversity to qualify for a bailout.

Now I work at a place that uses GeoMagic for $909 per seat, and it is 99.9% as powerful.

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Feign

Now I work at a place that uses GeoMagic for $909 per seat, and it is 99.9% as powerful.

Alibre is good, I have an older copy of PE. Depending on the industry it may not come close to offering enough features. With 3DS buying Alibre a few years ago and rebranding to Geomagic there has been a big push toward 3D printing and for most it's well feature packed for that app. Overkill for most here, the rebadged PE version now called Cubify Design is plenty enough for most here.

However, if one needs advanced assembly, simulations, predictions and CAM Geomagic isn't going to cut it. While GeoMagic might do 99.9% or even 100% of what many users need, SW or even Inventor are much deeper packages with more options and features for advanced operation. With prices to match, of course.

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Traumflug
If just one of you guys would spend these $150 for a bounty connected to slic3r, I'd be sure slic3r would improve. But that's a big no-go for you guys, right? Spending money on those who work hard every day but don't put a price tag on that work. You insist on closed source, where you depend on the mercy of a particular company.

Actually, in thinking about the topics brought up in this thread, I have been planning on donating to Slic3r recently. I think it is a great software package and the few issues I have encountered with it have all been my fault (relying on a netbook, poorly generated models, etc...).

Hi all,
I am in the software business as project manager, so I know a lot about software and developing :-)
This software is brilliant and it is woking the way I expect software to run.
Yes there might be some bugs, but that is normal and I do not mind hunting them.
150EUR ich not that much for a almost perfekt software.
I am new to 3D printing and I got all the freeware coming with my K8400.
But that was a more or less try an error thing.
After 1h I bought this software and I am using it ever since.

If you got a problem, the support is acting fast and gives you any help they can provide (checked that because of my Dual Head Extruder)

For me, it is worth the 150EUR....
If you need a one-stop software, go 4 it

Best
Frank