Why I love KISSlicer: Reason #1

Well, here we are at my top reason for loving KISSlicer. By way of background, I want to go on record by saying I'm at expert at slicing - and not just with KISS. My g-code background goes back 17 years on CNC milling machines. I learned how to write g-code by hand and to manually modify g-code produced by CAM applications (the machining equivalent to a slicer) to get better results.

So when I made the move (~10 years ago) to 3D printing and slicers, I was comfortable. More importantly, I had already learned how to analyze g-code in order to see what's "good" and what's "so-so". These skills carry over to slicer generated g-code. And there is a difference between good paths and not-so-good paths even though the end result (print) might look nearly the same.

I've spent 1000s of hours studying slicers and their g-code. I'm expert with all the major players: Slic3r (and Prusa Edition), Cura, MatterSlice, Skeinforge, Craftware and Simplify3D to name few. I've also developed slicing utilities to generate code that current slicers can't - like a 3D printed fishing fly, an SVG file to g-code utility and programs to combine layers from multiple g-code files to get exactly the results I want.

The one thing I can say is that, without a doubt, for those willing to truly understand the slicing process and the resulting g-code, KISSlicer is by far the most predictable. And that, dear readers, is my Why I love KISSlicer: reason #1 - Predictability. When I slice a part in KISS, I know what I'm going to get. When I tweak a parameter, KISS doesn't do weird/inexplicable/stupid things, it does what I expect it to do, predictably. I'm not going to go through a litany of stupid slicer tricks here but I have models and configuration examples for every slicer in the list above that result in g-code that simply defies explanation - and not just slicer crashes but legitimate, head-scratching, whydeydodat? examples. Thank you KISSlicer, I'm really looking forward to the next great thing!

Followers