Whats this all about? Well I had someone chime in after my last rant about slicers and was told my post was rubbish and i needed to expand on it. So I set out to try prints on different slicers and different versions and see how they stack up. I tried my best to keep the speed infill and perimeters as close between the slicers as i could. However that being said you may find yourself getting better results if you try one of these slicers as you may fine tune it better or be using a different material that happens to work better with it. I am judging these on print quality alone not UI or Features but printed results.

Setup Notes:
Slic3r i used settings provided from MTW for the MM3
Cura I used settings i have used for awhile
S3D I used a built in mm2 setting set that i had modified
KISSlicer i used settings Flint from MTW had given me
MatterControI put together some fast settings
Craftware I put together some fast settings
Voxelizer I put together some fast settings they did not work


If i have missed a slicers you like let me now with the contact form if you have some Vox settings or have a mm3 config that you think will work better for the slicers i tossed a config together for please let me know
Note: All of the blue boxes are click-able and will pop open a slide show or text

 


2/24/15
Added Change Log
Added Cura 15.01
Added Simplify 3D 2.2.2
Updated Top 5

 

 

 

The attempt when setting up prints was to print everything at the same temperature with 2 perimeters and 4 solid top and bottom layers at 30% infill at 60mm/s with cooling enabled. Some slicers made this a bit convoluted so i tried to make them as close as possible. As you will see some of these did not finish printing. This is due to jambing right at the end caused by improper retraction settings in the slicer, that end bit needs a lot of retraction.

 

I used the same STLs with each slicer

 

Cube.stl Download

 

Marvin_Advanced_V01.6.stl Download

 

 
1.2.5 Marvin

Slic3r 1.2.5 kept crashing when slicing the marvin seems like a bug in bleeding edge software

 

 

 

 

 

 
1.1.0

Unfortunately i was unable to get this to print. it output abnormal looking gcode and then just sent the head across the bed and tried to dump filament as fast as it could. if you have a working config please email me using the contact form
1.1.1

Unfortunately im not going to test this until i get a working config

 

 

My take away from this testing is that some slicers will produce a really nice print with little effort, and some even with a bunch of effort and time and help you wont get it to print anything super stunning. Even if you found the best slicer you cant always expect that slicer to work 100% each time or even give you the same result after updating it. After i did this testing i tried to slice a larger print with Slic3r 1.1.7 and it crashed every time. I had to give up and use a different slicer. The most stunning thing is how much print quality changes for slicers between just a couple versions.

 

 

 

This is my pick of Top 5. Remember I have based this off of print quality alone. I left UI and Features out of this just to be able to see who slices the best.

 

 

1. Slic3r 1.1.7

 

2. KISSlicer 1.5 Beta 1

 

3. Slic3r 1.1.6

 

4. KISSlicer 1.1.0

 

5. Simplify 3D 2.2.2