Slicer that does a true spiral cut of an stl
All of the slicers that I've been able to find do vase/spiral mode by doing layer cuts then transitioning between those layers in a big x,y jump. This leaves an artifact on vase
mode prints when the line width or layer difference is great enough.
I wrote (horribly) a slicer that uses a helix in the middle of an stl object to produce rays whose intersection with the walls of the stl to produce a true spiral slice. It's got a load of cases it won't work for. It also only works for the walls. I've come up with a workflow when usin prusa slicer that lets you use PS to do the base and then transition to the spiral. It's a pain in the arse, but it does appear to work.
- Get your STL, solid stl like you'd normally use for a vase.
- Load into Prusa slicer.
- Set the position of the stl to x,y 0,0 exactly in prusa slicer.
- Export the object again as stl.
- Reload the newly export stl again. This resets the stl's origin to what prusa slicer thinks it should be, and it should be in the middle of the object now.
- Type in x,y move that puts the object where you'd like it.
- Slice as you normally would. In this example vase mode, 1.8mm line width and .2mm layer height.
- In the gcode preview choose at which layer you'd like to switch to spiral. For this example 1mm layer.
- Open the generated gcode and find the layer switch to 1.2mm, delete all gcode after that point. Replace it with
{{replaceme}} - Use this utility with the following settings.
helixcoordinates.exe
-o <outputfile>
-w 1.85 -t <gcode with {{replaceme}}>
-f
-m <path to model you saved out PS>
-x <number you moved model in x in PS>
-y <number you moved model in y in PS>
-l .2
-s 1
-r
- You should now have an output file with the spiralized gcode. Currently the top will be all messed up and you'll need to cut out that gcode. I recommend looking at it in PS gcode viewer to figure out which line you need to cut it off at.
-o, --OutputPath Required. Path to file output should be saved in
-l, --LayerHeight Required. Layer height vase will be printed at
-s, --StartOffset Amount of object that will be skipped starting at 0
-g, --segments (Default: 500) How many line segments should be used
-v, --verbose Set output to verbose messages.
-p, --speed (Default: 1900) Speed in mm per min
-w, --linewidth (Default: 0.42) Width of the extrsion
-t, --template Path to file that has {{replaceme}} where the generated gcode should be placed
-f, --FirstLayer (Default: true) Print the first layer flat, varing the layer height
-x, --xtransform How many mm to transform the object on the x axis after slicing
-y, --ytransform How many mm to transform the object on the y axis after slicing
-m, --modelpath Required. Path to model to slice.
-r, --relative-extrusion Should extrusion lengths be relative