Best free software for Ormerod 2 Printer

I know htere is a software section on the forum but it is broken down by the different versions of software and there is not a general section.
I'm going to be putting an Ormerod 2 printer and at first printing stuff off of Thingiverse but them later making my own stuff. I do not want to buy expensive software for that so can someone let me know what I should look at?
Also what should I be looking for?
What do the different softwares do?

Thank you
Brandon

Of the free ones I tried (slic3r and Cura), I found slic3r the best. Unfortunately the latest versions crash repeatedly when I try to use them, and a few other users have the same experience. So I can no longer recommend it. I reluctantly bought Simplify3D.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

You would get much better results using the commercial software Simplify3D. Mattercontrol and Cura may also be some alternatives for Slic3r. Okay Slic3r may crash sometimes, but I had no problem with that. Let it crash I could restart it. Maybe it is not crashing that often if you are using Linux like me. Mattercontrol is also a good idea to use if it should really be free software, but I only can strongly recommend Simplify3D as you can get much better results wants you have finetuned the settings to your printer and filament.

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Slicer: Simplify3D 4.0; sometimes CraftWare 1.14 or Cura 2.7
Delta with Duet-WiFi, FW: 1.20.1RC2; mini-sensor board by dc42 for auto-leveling
Ormerod common modifications: Mini-sensor board by dc42, aluminum X-arm, 0.4 mm nozzle E3D like, 2nd fan, Z stepper nut M5 x 15, Herringbone gears, Z-axis bearing at top, spring loaded extruder with pneumatic fitting, Y belt axis tensioner
Ormerod 2: FW: 1.19-dc42 on Duet-WiFi. own build, modifications: GT2-belts, silicone heat-bed, different motors and so on. Printed parts: bed support, (PSU holder) and Y-feet.
Ormerod 1: FW: 1.15c-dc42 on 1k Duet-Board. Modifications: Aluminium bed-support, (nearly) all parts reprinted in PLA/ ABS, and so on.

Ok I will try a couple of the free ones but I will also take a good look at Simplify3D.

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brlowe
Ok I will try a couple of the free ones but I will also take a good look at Simplify3D.

Repetier-Host is also very good and has the Slicrs integrated into it (Ie it installs them and then integrates them as command line access you just work within the Repetier GUI)

Doug

repetier is basicly slic3r ,i stoped using it when slic3r got ability to reposition the object but havent used it since i got simplify3D. If you ment designing software good free version is Sketuchup.

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Darathy
repetier is basicly slic3r ,i stoped using it when slic3r got ability to reposition the object but havent used it since i got simplify3D. If you ment designing software good free version is Sketuchup.

Darathy

Repetier-Host IS NOT BASICALY SLIC3R it is much more that that

Now it installs and integrates Slic3r, Cura and as an option Skeinforge .so you can pick and configure whichever slicr you prefer my option was always to use CURA

It also has full control of a printer via the USB Interface which Slic3r does not (At least to the best of my knowledge) but like you I haven't really used it since I got S3D which is IMHO the best thing since sliced Bread.

For design work I use FreeCad which is a very powerful package but can be daunting to a first time Cad user

Doug

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2015 03:06AM by dougal1957.

I also use FreeCAD to design parts. It may be instable so it is a good idea to often store the part and to make copies of your file. I sometimes got the case where a draft got permanently damaged.
If you are on Linux FreeCAD is the best option.
It may look complicated, but I learned Inventor and this software is very similiar. There are some tutorials out there especially very good ones in German. FreeCAD is very easy to learn if you can understand the English or German language. I think there are also French tutorials available, but I am not very good in French so I cannot say anything about the quality.

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Slicer: Simplify3D 4.0; sometimes CraftWare 1.14 or Cura 2.7
Delta with Duet-WiFi, FW: 1.20.1RC2; mini-sensor board by dc42 for auto-leveling
Ormerod common modifications: Mini-sensor board by dc42, aluminum X-arm, 0.4 mm nozzle E3D like, 2nd fan, Z stepper nut M5 x 15, Herringbone gears, Z-axis bearing at top, spring loaded extruder with pneumatic fitting, Y belt axis tensioner
Ormerod 2: FW: 1.19-dc42 on Duet-WiFi. own build, modifications: GT2-belts, silicone heat-bed, different motors and so on. Printed parts: bed support, (PSU holder) and Y-feet.
Ormerod 1: FW: 1.15c-dc42 on 1k Duet-Board. Modifications: Aluminium bed-support, (nearly) all parts reprinted in PLA/ ABS, and so on.

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Treito
I also use FreeCAD to design parts. It may be instable so it is a good idea to often store the part and to make copies of your file. I sometimes got the case where a draft got permanently damaged.
If you are on Linux FreeCAD is the best option.
It may look complicated, but I learned Inventor and this software is very similiar. There are some tutorials out there especially very good ones in German. FreeCAD is very easy to learn if you can understand the English or German language. I think there are also French tutorials available, but I am not very good in French so I cannot say anything about the quality.

Treito

I agree although I find the Windows Version to be very stable (I guess it gets more work done on it)

Doug

Doug,

Nothing against Linux. I guess the main development takes part using Linux.
I often read about issues, but I cannot confirm them, so I thought the problems mostly occur with Windows.

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Slicer: Simplify3D 4.0; sometimes CraftWare 1.14 or Cura 2.7
Delta with Duet-WiFi, FW: 1.20.1RC2; mini-sensor board by dc42 for auto-leveling
Ormerod common modifications: Mini-sensor board by dc42, aluminum X-arm, 0.4 mm nozzle E3D like, 2nd fan, Z stepper nut M5 x 15, Herringbone gears, Z-axis bearing at top, spring loaded extruder with pneumatic fitting, Y belt axis tensioner
Ormerod 2: FW: 1.19-dc42 on Duet-WiFi. own build, modifications: GT2-belts, silicone heat-bed, different motors and so on. Printed parts: bed support, (PSU holder) and Y-feet.
Ormerod 1: FW: 1.15c-dc42 on 1k Duet-Board. Modifications: Aluminium bed-support, (nearly) all parts reprinted in PLA/ ABS, and so on.

Quote
Treito
Doug,

Nothing against Linux. I guess the main development takes part using Linux.
I often read about issues, but I cannot confirm them, so I thought the problems mostly occur with Windows.

Eh wish I could get to grips with Linux it's hard after 30 years in the MS Domain could be I was wrong about the build model and maybe it is the MAC version that is lagging behind!!!

Doug

Linux Mint with Cinammon or Mate are not that bad for a Windows refugee (recent convert myself).

KDE is normally also a good choice, but I could have never thought it, but Linux Mint Cinnamon beats KDE for me. Both Cinnamon and KDE are more or less similar in the usage like Windows. And for the very hard cases there are also theme packs out there to let them look like Windows 7, 8 or even 10. Not perfect, but more or less and in some cases this includes the satrt menu. The only biggest change is the file handling as you do not have drives. If you have somebody who can help you with the installing this person can fake this in extreme cases. I did this once at work. For me it was terrible but the colleagues were able to use it. Besides I have a dark theme for Cinnamon in use which is nearly similar to the dark theme of the Web-interface. Especially this circumstance makes me really happy. BTW Android is also Linux based.

Most Opensource software nowadays are developed and tested independently of the OS. However this depends of course from the beginning of the software. Software like Firefox or FreeCAD are written mainly to support Linux. For Windows the most needed tools for the used languages are also available. This means the compiler and the libraries for the GUI so porting to Windows is no problem nowadays. Maybe there are some developers who uses these Linux tools directly with Windows who knows, but the roots are coming from Linux or to be more precise from UNIX.
I cannot tell very much about Apple as I am no fan of Apple and I will never be. However I do not blame any person who likes Apple products but I will never ever understand the hype which is done regarding this brand. Apple and Linux have the same roots. Both are UNIX systems. Linux has only small changes especially the kernel (the OS including hardware drivers) so everything should be comaptible. Apple did the most changed so you can see that this was long ago an UNIX system but it is not fully compatible anymore. For example one user had trouble with the network connection. The command getting the IP-address differs regarding Windows and Linux. Apple still uses the same command for this, but you get a totally different output.

I think this rumor about crashing is a fragment left from 2013. FreeCAD 0.13 was indeed very instable. I started this year with this version as my packet source for FreeCAD was not actual so I had to find another source.

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Slicer: Simplify3D 4.0; sometimes CraftWare 1.14 or Cura 2.7
Delta with Duet-WiFi, FW: 1.20.1RC2; mini-sensor board by dc42 for auto-leveling
Ormerod common modifications: Mini-sensor board by dc42, aluminum X-arm, 0.4 mm nozzle E3D like, 2nd fan, Z stepper nut M5 x 15, Herringbone gears, Z-axis bearing at top, spring loaded extruder with pneumatic fitting, Y belt axis tensioner
Ormerod 2: FW: 1.19-dc42 on Duet-WiFi. own build, modifications: GT2-belts, silicone heat-bed, different motors and so on. Printed parts: bed support, (PSU holder) and Y-feet.
Ormerod 1: FW: 1.15c-dc42 on 1k Duet-Board. Modifications: Aluminium bed-support, (nearly) all parts reprinted in PLA/ ABS, and so on.