This documentation/commentary is very out-of-date. sorry!*
gsSlicer
In-Progress Slicer for 3D printing, and other toolpath-type things, perhaps.
C#, MIT License (but see notes below!). Copyright 2017 ryan schmidt / gradientspace
questions? get in touch on twitter: @rms80 or @gradientspace, or email [email protected].
Gradientspace no longer offers consulting services. If you are interested in using gsSlicer and would like to hire someone to provide advice, help with the code, or develop things for you, get in touch with Sutro Machine (http://sutromachine.com), they have extensive experience with gsSlicer.
What is this?
gsSlicer is an in-development open-source library for things like slicing 3D triangle meshes into planar polygons, filling those polygons with contour & raster fill paths, figuring out how much material to extrude along the paths, and then outputting GCode. The included SliceViewer project is also a GCode viewer/utility.
The goal with this project is to create a well-structured slicing engine that is designed from the ground up to be extensible. Although the initial focus will be on FDM/FFF-style printers, many of the parts of the system will be applicable to other processes like SLA, etc. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. At least, we'll definitely solve the meshes-to-slices problem for you.
Current Status
Under Active Development. Generated GCode has been used for non-trivial prints, however the output has not been extensively tested.
Shells, solid and sparse infill, roof and floors, have been implemented. Support volumes calculated but not yet filled. ThreeAxisPrintGenerator is top-level driver for FDM printing.
Experimental support for SLS contours & hatching is available in GenericSLSPrintGenerator.
Supported Printers: At this time, only Makerbot Replicator 2 has been significantly tested. Also has been tested with Monoprice Select Mini (and hence should work with any generic RepRap) and Printrbot Metal Plus.
Usage
This project is a source code library, not usable directly. GUI and command-line front ends are under development but very basic at this point, in the gsSlicerApps project.
For an example of how to convert a mesh into GCode, see GenerateGCodeForMeshes() in gsSlicerApps/sliceViewGTK/SliceViewerMain.cs
Dependencies
The slicing & path planning library gsSlicer depends on:
- geometry3Sharp Boost license, git submodule
- gsGCode MIT license, git submodule
- Clipper by Angus Johnson, Boost license, embedded in /gsSlicer/thirdparty/clipper_library
No GPL/LGPL involved. All the code you would need to make an .exe that slices a mesh is available for unrestricted commercial use.