should i keep with cura or change host and slicer software

Ive scratch built a prusa mendel i2 and its all working.
To get off the ground and printing i was recomended that cura was easy to use.
Ive been using it but i think im not getting the best out of the printer or getting it tuned in as well as i could with cura.
Ive had steady improvements. But still having problems with adhesion between layers with pla that makes the things im printing brittle and eady to break horizontally. Ive been told its trickier to tune a printer with the 0.3mm nozzle j-head anyway.

Ive been reading lots of posts and and articles on tuning the printer and they generally refer to skienforge or slic3er.
Is it time i switched to pronterface and either slic3er or skienforge and will i get better results?

I had tried to install slic3er in my early attempts to get a tool chain running under linux, but ran into the later perl version problems.
I should be able to run an earlier version of perl to get it going.

But is it going to be worth it.
Will i have better control over the print quality and find it easier to get the final bits of tuning done if i switch?

Thanks

Gordon

CURA seems to be the way to go, have you thought about changing wall heights and feedstock settings to reflect actual size. for example 3mm is usually undersized slightly.

you could try your luck with slic3r, kisslicer, skienforge has a lot of setting and is difficult for a new user to master.
dare i include it as another option replicatorg but it is makerbot specific

Slic3r has more drawbacks than things going for it, namely in speed; both in slicing and printing. I have found it to always lack in quality as well. Slower, lower quality, why even try?

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Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

Im asking because I get the impresion that cura hides a lot from you.
I didnt know if there are more things you can tweak in sic3er or skienforge to get really good results with print quality.
Unless of course cura is only exposing you to what you really need and the others expose stuff thats not neccesary.
I realise the other slicers also cover cnc and other gcode uses.

I do like the simplicity of cura.
Its very easy to import the parts on to the bed, spin them about and look at the different views of the parts.
And either send them to disk, sd card or directly to the printer.

But if theres enough scope to tune the print to get a good quality print ill stick with it.

Gordon

I haven't read anything into Cura, so I'm completely guessing here- but it seems that Cura is working towards what I think the 3D printing world should be moving towards: doing the little things for you so you can get on with your life and do things in 3D printing that matter. I don't have to spend all day fixing my computer because it's built to do a lot of the stuff for me. I just buy the components, making sure slots match up, and plug it all in so I can get on with better projects that haven't yet been simplified. Cura does a lot of background guessing for you. Things like KISSlicer give you complete control. I don't want to break ground in tuning 3D printers to the very smallest detail, I want to get it running well and start printing things and break ground at the point. So Cura is for me. I put in some numbers and it poops out magic that works. Simplify3D is that way as well, to a lesser extent. It calculates to a larger depth, but not as much. Just my two cents.
I await the day when I can buy printer parts liken to computer parts and just plug it all up, tune it, and start printing away. I've been keeping things like that in mind while building my current printer. Wondering how to start making that possible.
Rant done.

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Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

Im wondering then how that ethos fits in with my printer as i built from scratch generally following the reprap instructions.
I havnt built from a kit of parts where the software can make guesses on settings.
I like to make things interesting for myself so didnt go for a kit.
In the process ive learnt a lot more about the components and the what, why and how they fit into the printing process.

So i may not have the parts and setup that cura's generalisation and guessing fit.

I think ill give it a bit more time with cura and tuning my prints but in the near future ill look at the other options and dig deeper.
I think at some point ill be looking at building something a bit bigger as well as im finding the hight on my prusa mendel i2 a bit short.
There are some tweaks to the hardware to make some room but not much.

Thanks for the comments.
Gordon

I'm designing and building my own printer myself. Not even following a design or instructions. I'm a mechanics guy, so I like it when the software is done for me. I've been heavily thinking about it all day, and I just might make a push for standardized parts, if not design my own.

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Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

I too built my printer, an I3 varint of my own design. I use both Cura and Slic3r. They both have there merits. I do use Cura for most things because it is easy, and I don't do too many complex models. but there are times that things need to be tweaked beyond what Cura can do. Also I think you learn more about what your printer can do with Slic3r, because you have so many more options and you can see their effects.

If you like to play and adjust and not worried about how much waste you are creating, then I would start with some of the calibration objects and see what you can do.

Like many other people said, Slic3r has drawbacks, and I found it was especially with toolpaths, calculation time too long because of bugs, and slicing algorithm for some shapes.
In order to have an idea of their particularities, may I suggest you to read the slicer article of the first RepRap magazine?