Lychee Slicer Review - Updated Free and Pro Comparison

[@johnhinkey5336]

As a relatively new Lychee user this was an excellent overview that showed me things I'd love to use that I didn't know existed in Lychee. Thanks! Lychee should pay you to produce a how-to-use Lychee video series as I really like your style.

[@vogman]

Thanks John. Glad it was helpful! Can you please tell Lychee that as I could certainly use the money 🤣😂🤣👍👍👍

[@ThesiusProductions]

Thanks for the great videos. After 2 years of Lychee Pro use I clearly missed half of these quality-of-life updates. From minute 8 onwards I was pausing continuously to verify in app how I could have been so blind. I hope Lychee reaches out to you for more videos!

[@vogman]

Thanks very much. That's typical Lychee. They never sit still. Of all the make-life-easier updates, though, I'd urge you to look into suction cups. If you hollow items, they can so often fail when printed. Using this feature prevents all that, or at least helps you visualise why it's happening 😁

[@MrCai01]

Great video review. For me - I'm not willing to buy into a subscription model for a slicer. I can see the appeal in automated updates for those printing at large scale as a business, but as a infrequent home printing consumer, just give me a basic package that I can own.

[@vogman]

I understand completely. Monthly subscription makes me cringe a little too. BUT... I will say this. In my web designer days, I used to PURCHASE Dreamweaver probably every two years. I used to swear and curse about how incredibly expensive it was, especially as it was pretty obsolete in no time, meaning I had to PURCHASE another version. When Adobe took over and went monthly subscription, an incredible £50 per month, I went ape! Yet for that amount I got dozens of packages... some of which I use to make videos. So the subscription annoyed me because it's expensive, but I actually saved a fortune on "purchase" fees. So I hate it, but tolerate it. I gain more than I lose. But at least the Free version of Lychee is very capable and watching an ad whilst annoying, isn't too inconvenient. I wish Adobe did something like that 😁

[@Tom-ks9xl]

it is incredable how you beautifully explain everything. Thank you for sharing

[@HunterValleyDan]

Great video as always Geoff! It's a good overview of the upgrades, without getting too bogged down in the details. I have been using the free version, but when I get back into printing (and casting) I think it will be worth the expense. I agree, it's good to see a company not trying to fleece people for the professional versions of their app. It's a pretty reasonable price given the functionality of the program IMO.

[@vogman]

Great to hear from you Dan. Glad it was helpful. For me the Pro is an obvious cost, but 3D printing is a hobby. It's hard to find a hobby that doesn't cost money. But as you point out, these costs aren't a fortune. Plus Lychee are cheaper that CBox and Voxel. 😁😁😁

[@Luv2ripFPV]

Great video! You touched on some features that I did not know were available!

[@SDesigns3D]

Subscription for software = Automatic big NO for myself. That said, I would absolutely pay a decent one time payment. When I own software I feel good using it. When I subscribe to software I don't get that feeling of exclusivity and pride. Especially when subscription cost rise or features get moved around on purpose to manipulate it's users into using higher tier subscription options.

[@vogman]

I understand that completely. I used to be exactly the same. I've just bored some poor soul with my Dreamweaver "purchase" history. Now THAT was wasted money! Essentially every purchase meant I owned it... but then new featured rendered it useless and meant more purchases. Luckily slicers aren't websites and the changes are smaller... but if, for example, you'd purchased Lychee 12 months ago, right now you'd be kicking yourself (or rather, thinking of kicking them) because the suction cup feature answers all the problems you've had with failed hollowed prints! Obviously that's just an example and may not relate at all, but I guess I'm just saying I've purchased and I've subscription paid. I understand both perspectives. Only you can decide what's valid for you 😁

[@theVariedLife]

As a brand new person to resin printing, just got the Saturn 3 Ultra, I have been playing with Chitubox, which worked great and I was impressed so I subscribed to the pro version. However the program freezes = not good. Contacted Chitubox about it and there is a new bug and not my machine. So to help prove that I tried other slicers = not freezing problems. Then I tried the free Lychee and boy do I like it; so much better than Chitubox. Then I searched and found your video here - must be a sign. Thanks for the video, I am going to keep trying Lychee but will probably upgrade. Keep up the good work.

[@KaliKavala]

Thanks for sharing this. I have used Lychee and ChiTu but i do not print SLA in general, so this video is very useful. I just wanted to see your final thought fo both slicers VS . Pros and cons

[@netnoob77]

The splicing feature is nice but it would be much more useful if there's an option to add a corresponding peg and hole to the separated pieces. I still do my splicing on meshmixer because of this.

[@Jigsaw765]

I could never find an answer to this but there’s been several times where I’ve used lychee and my model ended up having Swiss cheese holes in it. Re-sliced with chitubox and the issue didn’t happen. It was the weirdest thing. Another thing that consistently happens is a pinhole appearing on the final layer when slicing with lychee, which can mess up faces on models. That and a handful of other oddities have made me trust chitubox more… I think maybe because it’s simpler there’s less stuff that can go wrong? I’m not sure, maybe I had bad luck.

[@gonzoribbons]

Great video, as always. Could you explain what premium adds over pro? Bit unclear on the site what the extra services are.

[@clutch2827]

I just seem to remember features being disabled in the free version.

[@vogman]

There are, yes. Those that you've seen me highlight as "pro" features exist in the free version, but don't work. I can see that by leaving these there, Lychee is tempting folks to try them. I can also see how having buttons to click that don't work is annoying as hell. Perhaps Lychee should include a "hide Pro features" option...

[@TheLonewolf53]

Does this slicer support tenlog pro 3d printers

[@thedourkin]

Like you I used Chitubox before I got into Lychee and now on the rare occasions I have to dip in to the former I often get frustrated with even the simplest of jobs. There is one thing about Lychee that leaves me staring askance whenever I use it and that's the auto arrange function. It's great if you've only filled half the build plate but if you're at a stage where some juggling may be required to fit everything in then it falls over and gives up. The default outcome appears to be resorting to either a lazy shift around and dumping what's left over off to the side of the plate, or cramming everything together so tightly that any print failures could become widespread disasters. Mango have also just added a profile for my (brand new) Elegoo Neptune 4 Plus which is going to save me manually creating once from scratch :-)

[@vogman]

Thanks for your input, and also for reminding me about auto-arrange, which I'd long ago given up on. You're absolutely right. That feature can do some bizarre things at times 😁😁😁

[@Kaylakaze]

If only they hadn't raised the price by 50%

[@goldkrs5683]

Hello 👋 can you tell me please which 3d printer is the best for small jewelry shop ?

[@vogman]

If small, precise, accurate and detailed is necessary, I haven't come across anything better than the Mars 4 Ultra. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5mqaqZ-j5dsq8U

[@goldkrs5683]

@vogman thank you for the answer. Wish you the best.🙏

[@o1ecypher]

when you slice the model it would be nice to generate a plug to know how to connect it back up

[@vogman]

Good point... you mean like a peg one side and a matching hole the other? I know they have a shapes library, so adding a peg would be easy... but the holes... not sure.

[@o1ecypher]

yes, if the application did it for the user it would be better more user friendly in their limited knowledge or time. 👍👍@@vogman

[@ClydapusGotwald]

Lychee free is still my goto resin slicer. Community resin profiles are so helpful when trying new resins. Using the free and the ads aren’t bad at all and for 20 seconds I can wait since I can’t afford monthly sub cause I infrequently print resin.

[@vogman]

Well said! Lychee are constantly updating their slicer and are always amongst the first to support new printers. This kind of work has to be supported as we all have bills to pay, so watching an ad isn't too much to ask. Thanks for your input 😁😁😁

[@eugenax9345]

I love the Magic -> Auto brace and support optimization features after manual supporting. The Pro Line Triangle and Grid rafts are also nice features on your learning curve :)

[@vogman]

If you aren't learning, you're standing still 😁😁😁👍👍👍

[@justinreinsma9772]

The inline supports make it worth it for me! Especially for printing more angular or mechanical parts.

[@vogman]

Shift and click! It's so fast and accurate. One of my favourite time savers too 👍👍👍

[@ep1kone]

I was scared you were going to bag it, but even as a casual user I love my lychee pro but need to use support projection and hollowing blocks it seems!

[@vogman]

Yes, the hollowing blocks and suction cup detectors are a game changer. Hollowed prints fails all too often without these beauties. 😁

[@cidercreekranch]

Excellent overview and given that I recently started using the free version, your video was very informative. I would be willing to pay a one-time fee for a perpetual license, but paying a yearly subscription fee is not in the cards for me.

[@vogman]

A lot of folks feel like that. I completely understand. However, there have been a lot of regular updates with Lychee, and a purchase would soon become out of date. I guess that's why they take this stance.

[@Protocol-X]

Nice comparison, and nice to see they added some more features into the free version. I use the paid version myself most times, but it still has some negative aspects. Auto supports are always awful. The algorithm was not designed well for models with a lot of flatness, but the newer feature where you can select faces and auto generate for that specific area helps a lot. You pretty much need a high-end gaming machine to work on any model in the slicer, especially if it requires a lot of supports. The fact i have slowness issues on a pc that can do large-scale models in Fusion 360 and solid works is very concerning. Auto arrange only works if the longest side of a model fits within the x/y plane, so if you ha e models that require being twisted diagonally to fit, it will fail to arrange. Reopening saved supported models often opens models with the positioning incorrect. Saved models do not save slicer resin settings. This is a big annoyance. If I wanted to reprint something from a long time ago, I don't always remember the printer, resin, height, ect, that I used in the past. In the past, you could import sliced files to get that info, but most sliced files can no longer. Be opened in Lychee anymore. They have wonderful features, but many performance issues and bugs that have been around far too long

[@vogman]

Thanks for your input. I never use the auto support either... it's getting better, but manual is the way to go for now. As for speed issues, it is a demanding software, but I still find it faster than ChiTuBox. Voxel Tango is impressing me in terms of performance. It seems to slice with ease those files CBox and Lychee hang up on. But its not the easiest software to navigate 😁

[@jasoncombs3232]

Antialiasing dosen't work in Lychee.

[@Protocol-X]

​@vogman oh by far, I've never used CB but I've used the Anycubic version and the only thing I li e about that is the generic auto support. And true manual supports are better, but until the last few versions of lychee, adding Manual supports on a huge print was nearly impossible. A lot of the prints I do are mechanical, so they tend to need a lot of symmetric supports which is not always easy. I prefer to auto gen and then edit those when I have a model that is huge. I never heard of that other slicer. I will check it out. I am by far no expert at Manual, I think that practice comes more with non mechanical territories like you do, jewlery, figures, ect where you need to support the overhangs and oddly shaped models. There is definitely a cross over though. In my opinion, (not fact) I feel you can be a little more forgiving on models that can use asymmetrical supports like figures, then mechanical models which tend to need the symmetrical in order to keep actuate dimensions and limit cleanup. But it also depends on resin too. I can use something like syryatech fast and asymmetrical supports work fine on a mechanical model 95% of the time, but if I use a more expensive resin, like a high temp or something with a special property that tends to have a higher cure time or a softer overall print cure then that is where it hurts most.

[@Protocol-X]

​@@jasoncombs3232it really depends on the printer mainly, but resin, model, angle, layer height all play a part. I know it doesn't work for most anycubic, but it works fine on my elegoo and my uniz3d

[@death2all79zx]

Will it work on a computer without an internet connection?

[@vogman]

No. Internet connection is necessary for Lychee I believe.

[@Protocol-X]

Do you have any tips on object aspects? One theng i noticed whech is a pain, is objects keep the exported orientation, unlike most slicer thrt impor an object aligned. It is very difficult sometimes to properly align an object. But once i do, the rotation orientation doesn't change. So even if i rotate something on the x axis using the mouse for example, the value for y actually changes , but if i type a number in x, then tho model moves in a completely unexpected angle. Basically if you reorient an object, the rotation mouse guide no longer is correlating to the orientation input felids. Hopefully what i am explaining makes sense.

[@Protocol-X]

What are your feelings on them adding ads to the paid version export now? Even if it's not blocking the export, I am rather annoyed the decided to force ads into the paid version.

[@vogman]

Yes, I've noticed that too in the latest update. I AM NOT A FAN. I think ads for the free version is one things, but the paid version should be ad free. I get increasing revenue is every companies goal, but an opt out version for paid members would seem only fair.

[@EvilMP5]

When I started resin printing, and I was looking at Chitubox I was like that is way to expensive. And then using it was awful and painful, it wasn't laid out in a way that made sense to me coming from some heavy weight 3D modeling programs. When I turned to Lychee it was a joy the descriptions made sense and the layout was very enjoyable to use. So I stuck with it and never looked back. Well I checked out Tango Dance and was confused and unimpressed.

[@jessehavok4181]

Wow. I'm sold!

[@oscardominguez6491]

Great video, thank you for sharing

[@vogman]

Thanks for watching!

[@cerberes]

I’m on Debian Linux and had trouble with ChituBox crashing so I gave Lychee a go. It runs great, so I upgraded to pro.

[@Emtbtoday]

Definitely not pointless I near gave up printing when my free trial ran out for pro as was so restricted! Pro once you know how to use it is a great tool it's like a cad in itself for parting and remaking models

[@vogman]

I'm glad you agree with me. It's my favourite slicer for a reason 😁

[@tonywharton5220]

I really like this software but found it difficult to navigate. I expect it's just a matter of getting used to it.

[@vogman]

Try Chitubox Pro some time. Completely different to free! I don't know what they were thinking! Really confusing. All software has to be learned, and you'll quickly get use to Lychee. It becomes comfortable 😁

[@tonywharton5220]

@@vogman I will give it another go 👍 I've always got plenty to print before Christmas. Thanks for the quick tutorial Mr V ✌️

[@vogman]

It's my go-to slicer... but I've got used to it.

[@olDirdey]

As nice as the software may be, monthly / yearly subscriptions are a no go. Either I own the software after paying or there is no money from me.

[@RoseKindred]

The best part I think of the "Pro" is editing other people's pre-supports. Each printer can be different and the ones the modeler tested on, if they did pre-print the model before, may not work the best for the resin/printer combo being used. Sometimes you can just see where the pre-supports won't work.

[@vogman]

That's true, though you are much kinder than me. Unfortunately I think a lot of models prepared for so-called pros have never been test printed. I've lost track of how many presupported models I’ve been given that failed, and when I quizzed the designers they admitted the model had been prepared by pros and hadn't been tested. Pointless! Annoying! I hate that. Wasted time and wasted resin. If you presupport a model and sell it, test it first!!! All my presupported models are printed on several printers first. I'm not claiming to be a saint - I'm just providing what people expect to receive. Laziness like this annoys me. Anyway... thanks for your comment and sorry for my soapbox moment 😁😁😁

[@RoseKindred]

@@vogman Ha, it is your channel but I bit my words for YT filters. I agree 100%. I've seen MASSIVE prints fail because the designer went to "professionals," and they never fully printed the model themselves. I mean, that is their job, to make sure it worked. Probably just pressed Auto and walked away. Okay, I think I am hogging the soapbox now.

[@vogman]

I'm just glad I'm not alone in this. 😁😁😁

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

$0 for the free version, $152/year for the version with all the bells and whistles (without the BF deal).

[@markoramljak9579]

I am now more interested in how much a cup of coffee costs where you live than in Lychee Pro version 😂 I mean, if my math is correct, it's 5.8 euros and I find that shocking... where I'm from, it's anywhere from 1 to 1.5 euros.. a cappuccino is 1.9 euros on average... so yeah... that's what I got from this video 😂 cheers! 😁

[@vogman]

Honestly, it's true. And average cuppa from a mobile vendor or local café is roughly the same as the monthly subscription. But I know people who regularly pay 10 times this for an blah blah blah blend, which I just couldn't do. But that's people for you.

[@markoramljak9579]

@@vogman I'm never moving to UK 😂 I couldn't live without having a cuppa at least once a week at my favourite cafe 😄 mind you, it's just your average local cafe, nothing fancy and they serve only generic coffee brands 😄 for better or worse, spending hours weekly if not even daily in cafes is part of our culture here in croatia... you can't imagine life without it 😄

[@IndraSunrise]

Yeah, no. The disadvantage to using the free version is NOT the ads. Its the MASSIVE number of features behind the paywall. The software is good. No way on gods earth am I going to pay a monthly fee for a piece of software I use to print a few models.

[@ramblingbadger]

Blimey. I've been using th epro version for years as I just hated the ads, wasn't aware it could do half of what you just showed...

[@vogman]

They are constantly updating, I have to give them that. But do check out those suction cup tools... they are a god send 😁

[@catnamestaken]

Cool

[@Seoz]

Just bought it today. Then saw miniature of your video. Nice Prank :p

[@vogman]

Not really a prank, but definitely a teasing question. Is the Pro version pointless? I think the free version is very capable, but for me the tools included in the Pro version make it worth having. However, the decision is for each individual to make on their own 😁

[@Seoz]

@@vogman I've used one month trial for that and even hollowing 3D was nice upgrade :D Just had to wait until black friday sale :D

[@DashMan-g7z]

Great video and it seems like Pro is worth owning. Too bad for Lychee, I don't print often enough to justify renting something I may or may not use for weeks so they'll never see my money.

[@Ryan-ik2mk]

Their support staff are rude too.

[@vogman]

Really? I'm sorry to hear that.

[@magnusrexus]

Lyches has great features but has terrible pricing models.

[@vogman]

Genuinely, they're not that bad. Cheaper than Chitubox I think, and waaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than Voxel Tango which really does want silly money... for a Pro version, they want roughly per month what Lychee want per year! But I'm not here to spend your money. I describe features and let people decide for themselves 😁😁😁

[@DisgruntledPigumon]

The way Lychee is spelled in English is causing all the problems. It’s spelled to be pronounced “Lie-Chee”. But the word’s origin is Chinese and they all say ”Lee Chee”. So… it’s just another one of those misspelled/mispronounced foreign word things… On the pro side…. You may have swayed me. The ability to create custom supports and fill whole planes with them.. hmm…

[@vogman]

Those fast-support tools are a blessing. They've saved me hundreds of hours 😁

[@marwiesi]

Auto Supports in Lychee is completely crap, Performance is also horrible, unfortunately had to go back to Chitu (which is a horrible piece of software, but well..)

[@vogman]

I don't like auto-supports much either. I prefer doing this manually. As for performance, I don't have issues until I do large and complex models, which is thankfully rare. But then every slicer gives me performance issues on large and complex models 🤣😂🤣 Thanks for your input.

[@marwiesi]

i am printing dozens of mostly different models every week, and cannot manually support each of them, so i have to rely on autosupports and manually add / remove / tweak them. which works perfectly with chitu. i wish i could use lychee for this, as the software and features, especially placing supports are so much better, but the auto supports are so far off from being usable, it makes no sense (unfortunately). and yes: not only lychee is having performance issues, and it also depends on the models. i am doing a lot of 1:8, 1:6, 1:4 and even bigger models and at this scale it´s getting really frustrating! (and no, my computer is not lacking performance 😏 )

[@rickmoreno6858]

Its the only slicer i use. It really is a good one!