Config Locations and dropbox?

Just thought it would be a cool idea to put a feature in slic3r were you can state the configs location.

You could then set it to a folder on a dropbox (others as well) then what ever computers you are on you have access to your settings?

i say this beacuse i switch between my desk pc , work pc and laptop.

when altering a settings its a pain to then have to alter settings on every PC.

also your prescious settings would be backed up.

what do people think?

I had this same idea/issue.

I just asked Sound about this in IRC and he said you can start it with the following argument to specify where the config files should be loaded and stored: " --datadir /path/to/your/directory". So for example you put that argument in the shortcut to the exe and specify the location as your dropbox folder.

The issue with that is that if you try to save your config, it just writes it to the normal configuration path. If you want to save to an alternate location, you need to export your settings and navigate to that directory and then say yes to the overwrite prompt. Then when you exit the program, it still thinks you haven't saved your changes, so it prompts you to make sure you want to exit - so you need to say yes here too.

It's a workable solution, but not quite ideal

@jbernardis

It appears to be working fine for me. Slic3r is reading from and writing to the directory I specify.

No, latest windows version doesn't work.

There are the following files in my "D:\Slic3rCfgs" folder:

D:\Slic3rCfgs\filament\filament.ini
D:\Slic3rCfgs\print\print.ini
D:\Slic3rCfgs\printer\printer.ini
D:\Slic3rCfgs\slic3r.ini

File "D:\Slic3rCfgs\slic3r.ini" contains:

---

# generated by Slic3r 0.9.8 on Sat Jan 19 17:45:37 2013

[presets]
filament = filament.ini
print = print.ini
printer = printer.ini

[recent]
config_directory = D:\Slic3rCfgs
skein_directory = D:\Prints

---

1. I tried slicing "D:\Prints\composition.stl" into "D:\Prints\composition.gcode" with the configuration in "D:\Slic3rCfgs".

D:\Slic3r\slic3r-console.exe --datadir "D:\Slic3rCfgs" --print-center 91,116 -o D:\Prints\composition.gcode D:\Prints\composition.stl

It created "D:\Prints\composition.gcode" file with comments containing default values (not my values set in the configuration files in "D:\Slic3rCfgs" folder, so this method apparently doesn't work.

2. I tried the same but with "--load" param:

D:\Slic3r\slic3r-console.exe --load "D:\Slic3rCfgs\Slic3r.ini" --print-center 91,116 -o D:\Prints\composition.gcode D:\Prints\composition.stl

...and got the same result. The gcode was generated from the default settings without loading preset *.ini files.

3. I tried changing "D:\Slic3r\slic3r-console.exe" for "D:\Slic3r\slic3r.exe". The same result.

4. Loading composed configuration works only for displaying in GUI.
The following command...:

D:\Slic3r\slic3r.exe --datadir "D:\Slic3rCfgs"

...loads configuration right in "D:\Slic3rCfgs" folder and all preset combos are populated with presets in "D:\Slic3rCfgs\slic3r.ini".

5. Loading composed configuration for slicing must be done with --load parameter for every *.ini file:

D:\slic3r-console.exe --load "D:\Slic3rCfgs\filament\filament.ini" --load "D:\Slic3rCfgs\print\print.ini" --load "D:\Slic3rCfgs\printer\printer.ini" --print-center 91,116 -o D:\Prints\composition.gcode D:\Prints\composition.stl

Repetier or Printerface don't have support for it, so you need to create batch/script file.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2013 02:01PM by printman.

I'm using 64 bit windows version of 0.9.8, and the 32 bit version of the same on my other machine. My shortcut to the executable has the following string in the "Target" field and it IS working fine. I've done multiple tests, sliced multiple objects on both machines and everything works exactly as you would expect.

Quote

"C:\Users[username]\Documents\RepRap\Slic3r 0.9.8\slic3r.exe" --datadir "C:\Users[username]\Documents\Dropbox\slic3r_configs"

@crispy1: because you are slicing in GUI, not through the console.

@printman

Oh, now it makes sense :-)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2013 11:37PM by crispy1.

The issue is that most people slice through pronterface or some similar host program, and the advertised way of working with those programs is to construct a command line that uses the --load option to provide an ini file. This is a monolithic ini file. The newer versions of slic3r support 2 methods of storing configuration files - the monolithic files, and the newer preset mechanism that breaks the configuration into up to 3 files each stored in separate directories.

If you use --load to load in a monolithic file, the ONLY way to re-write that file after making changes is to export it. If you try to use the save buttons on each tab, it only saves the preset options that come from that tab, and it saves it into the appropriate subdirectory - it doesn't change the original monolithic ini file. So when you go back to pronterface and try to slice something, it again uses --load, but that file was not changed so you don't get the proper settings.

It took a while to figure this out, and I ended up changing my host program to actually read the slic3r.ini file to figure out which profile is in effect, and then to actually write the slic3r.ini file when I change profile. This way, I can change profiles from within my host program. Without this, the ONLY way to change profile is to bring up the slic3r GUI, change to a different set of presets, exit slic3r back to the host, and then slice. I have yet to see how to choose a preset from the command line.

I also just discovered, as printman says above, that if you try to slice a file by saying:

slic3r --datadir /yoursettingsdirectory filename.stl -o filename.gcode

that it totally ignores the datadir option and slices your file with default settings. The only way I could get it to work was to use the --load option three times, each one specifying a different subdirectory for the preset files (print, printer, and filament). There is no (documented) option for telling slicer which preset to use, and it does NOT use the preset settings specified in the slic3r.ini file in the datadir directory. I tried to use --load with the slic3r.ini file in the datadir directory, bot with and without the datadir option, and none of them worked.

Apparently there are still some issues with the settings implementation, at least if you are still trying to use slic3r from within the host program.

I use Repetier 0.82b and would really appreciate being able to store files in a single folder, independent of the machine for exactly the reason Enlightx stated. I can do this with skeinforge but not slic3r which is a bit of a pain.

I'll try to clarify things a bit! Things are complex because they are a compromise between what everybody asked for But there's enough flexibility for any purpose out there.

The GUI works with presets (print/filament/printer). --datadir is the place where presets are stored. If you start without specifying --datadir (as most of people do), Slic3r will locate a datadir in a sytem default path.

Command line doesn't work with presets at all (for a number of reasons), so --datadir is totally uneffective when running from command line.
For running from command line you need to export your configuration to a single file (using the Export Config item in the File menu) and then load it using slic3r-console.exe --load /path/to/your/exported_config.ini

Regarding Dropbox, I use it myself to sync presets among my computers. I basically made a symlink from my system (default) Slic3r datadir to the Dropbox directory. I'm not sure how to do a symlink in Windows, though. In that case, launching slic3r.exe with --datadir followed by a path under your Dropbox folder would work too.

i think i must be the only person who just put slicer into there dropbox folder, all problems solved for me. lol

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]