Simplify3D V5 FIRST LOOK!

[@elementdw]

I bought Simplify3d in version 4.1. At the time they swore up and down that version 5 would be out within a year and would be a free upgrade for those that purchased 4.1. Now it's a $59 upgrade because it took longer than 12 months. I feel like they promised late adopters of the previous version something, and then went back on the deal because it took them 2 years to copy/paste some features from free slicers. I don't see 2 years worth of work here, and certainly not something I would be willing to pay money for.

[@funjon]

this. I was happy with it at first, but reneging on the promise of a free upgrade for 4.1 purchasers is a deal killer.

[@goramiir]

exactly they don't even have feature parity with the free slicers, what a joke.

[@grantdeisig1360]

I still use S3D with my Flashforge Dreamer and I like it better than Flashprint. But at that time back in 2016, I could swear S3D promised lifetime upgrades for purchasers. I could be wrong, but it's what my brain remembers. I will not be upgrading however. Other (free) slicers work so much better and have so much more to offer. I'll still continue to use S3D for the Dreamer but they aren't getting anymore money out of me.

[@EFLO3D]

Yup, I bought 3.0 (maybe 2.0) and they did the same thing. "free upgrades for life" they claimed, i said, eh for $150 for a cutting edge (at the time) program i can use for years to come thats worth it. Well here we are.

[@woodwaker1]

@@VertexDigitalArts We all gave up on it when CURA and Prusa added Arachne

[@Vez3D]

too little too late. I think they lost most customers with not innovating and releasing new features over the years. Now they are trying to catch up, but they are so late compared to other slicers. If you like the look and feel of S3D, then diving into Ideamaker will feel very familiar as it looks a lot alike. But it has many more nice features

[@MakerBees333]

Do you have a discord? I wanted to pick your brain on something and Discord seems to be a good place to do it 😄.

[@SDesigns2023]

[@phantomsmithy]

I literally uttered the words "too little, too late" then scrolled down to see that same thought at the top of the comments.

[@marcusone1]

way, way, too little! maybe lots of the features available in Cura/Prusa/SS etc are buried in S3D5, but why would I go back and have to learn the menus all over again... re-tune my printers, etc... all for the privliage of paying $70 USD (well i think $60 atm), Yeah, Nah! not going to happen.

[@jeffreyepiscopo]

@@MakerBees333 yes they do. Linked in their videos

[@ozcanison]

Not only is it years too late, if they expect me to pay another $150US to update from V4, they're dreaming.

[@MrMadeinthe80s]

Its $49 currently to upgrade.

[@nicholasclark4329]

Lol it’s $60 to upgrade from v4-v5

[@Vandel212]

It's $70, I checked my license. Still not worth it in my opinion though.

[@emilymarriott5927]

Looking at the website, it's actually $200 for a new license. In my account, it looks like it's $70 for an upgrade, but currently discounted $10, probably to coax people back.

[@willierants5880]

@@MrMadeinthe80s I don't give a crap if it's $10 to upgrade. Too little too late. Burned once not twice.

[@RegularOldDan]

Being a developer myself, I can understand, to a degree, why it took so long to release this and I sympathize with the developers who likely had some unrealistic expectations foisted on them. A complete rewrite is one thing, but to be asked to re-implement features from open-source offerings (without using said open-source code) is a big ask. I'm guessing it started out as "Let's just do a rewrite and we'll add new features after release" and ended up as "Oh, no. During our rewrite all these new features have been released in the competition. We better add them before release." It's a difficult line to walk and the timing was poor. They have an uphill battle when it comes to regaining customer confidence after the issue with the profile limits and lack of response during the rewrite. However, the fast response to fixing your bug is a good first step to showing they might be able to be responsive to requests. They will have to now set themselves apart by justifying the cost with stellar support and regular feature updates if they are going to gain ground. However, I certainly don't see them winning back the hobbyist market; they will likely need to set their sights on companies looking for a slicer backed by a service agreement.

[@russ-techindustries]

Spot on!

[@SamFerlauto]

Hit the nail right on the head. If they looked after their previous customers they might have stood a chance. Now they have lost most by charging and muddied the waters for new customers that see.these reviews by influencers that also agree that they basically shot themselves in the foot!

[@FUKYFILM]

I think that on the whole 3DP market we are missing independent software developpers. Those people who develop Slicers, are definetily not independent, they are employees of 3D Printer manufacturers. And business interest of those is to vendor lock Slicer. Thanks to open source they Can’t do it but I am afraid that one day they will. And then we will have unusable proprietary slicing software, which will be sad

[@tmbocheeko]

Too little, too late, way too expensive. I own Simplify3D already, but have been debating just switching over to the free heavily supported slicers for a while now and this is the push for me to do that.

[@SkeeterPondRC]

You should. I switched from S3D to SuperSlicer and never looking back.

[@mattmarino6272]

wanting to charge existing users $60 is just greed, it was out fees that paid for the dev on V5

[@evilgremlin]

S3D was inferior to opensource slicers 3 years ago, it is inferior still.

[@Spirited282]

Check out Lychee Slicer, it has been for resin printers only but they now have for FDM. I regret ever purchasing Simplify since rarely used it.

[@BuddyChuck]

Not sure if the $60 upgrade fee is worth it. Loved Simplify3D when I first got into 3D printing but now so many other options out there.

[@schwaningerr]

I paid the $59. Only then realized that I lost a license seat. No cool. Options quoted were to buy another license at $200, or a floating license at an Even higher price. Again, not cool. This really ruins my work flow. I like S3D, but will stick with v4 for a while. If they don’t address the licensing issue soon, I’m out and will look for an alternative.

[@TheAtomicSoul]

Adaptive Layer Height has been in Cura for YEARS. The ONLY reason I used S3D before it was due to Custom Layer height where i could specify layer height in measures ranges, which I'm SHOCKED ISNT IN CURA yet. Variable infill is available in Cura as well, but I admit it does need a little update to improve how it lays the infill. (As in ensure infill connects to past infill and doesn't "float" in open spaces.) Custom support and holes are available as plugins. I'm not seeing anything new tha would make it worth paying for .

[@fexyem5798]

you may wanna look into superslicer (maybe prusaslicer also has the same options, not sure about "supporting dense layer"). It has basically everything you said cura is lacking. Regarding variable infill you either can choose the "support cubic" or your standard infill with the option "supporting dense layer" activated, which similiar to the new s3d, prints a layer with 50% density below top surfaces. Its only one layer high, but basically has its own perimeter so it dowsn't float. The Custom paint-on supports are fantastic, variable layer height and holes are no problem as well. Basically the only thing i'm missing that Super-/Prusaslicer don't have and cura does is tree support, which will soon be a problem of the past since it will be implemented (and upgraded into organic supports) in the next PrusaSlicer-Version and therefore with a little delay as well in Superslicer

[@crussty3d]

I think MUCH too little MUCH too late. Excepting a few of the infill patterns, I think nearly all of the features you highlighted have been in other slicers for a long time now- maybe under a different name, but they are there. And they are free. And they are continuously updated. Just for example- Prusa Slicer 2.4 was released in Dec of 2021 (a year ago). We've had several x.x.y incremental updates in the past year, and 2.6 is now in alpha testing and will be released soon with a whole HOST of new features. Cura has also kept a pretty bust release schedule. As have others... If it were me, I would put the money from an update on S3D towards an E3D Revo or something else where you can actually see the benefit. Just my 2 cents...

[@girder123]

Used Simplify3D for years, and it - in my opinion - was the best slicer for a long time, the only outstanding thing about it nowadays is the slicing speed, which is pretty great. Other than that, I don't really see any big advantages vs. Cura or PrusaSlicer, and new "first" features (like the soon to come organic supports, adaptive layer height, variable extrusion width etc.) don't seem to happen first in Simplify3D anymore.

[@JonS]

Looks like two little too late to me. I might use it occasionally, but there are so many missing features that have appeared in recent years in other slicers. No Arachne-type variable extrusion width; no ironing; no organic supports; and no fuzzy skin (not that I use that option, but it's a nice option). It also doesn't appear to have features I'd like to see that don't yet exist, like direction control to allow the color produced by dual-color filaments to be adjusted based on layer height; or constant outer perimeter speed to make sheen consistent (esp. with TPU).

[@nightlurker]

Yep, same here. Too many slicers have turned up and improved over the years since S3D was last updated, and this is not enough to get me back to using it. I have just started playing with the new Lychee for FDM, and I'm impressed with that. Prusaslicer (organic supports soon, where are they in S3D?) and Lychee for FDM are enough for me, I really don't need this.

[@I_enjoy_some_things]

Yeah, not a chance I'm even thinking about this.

[@nicholasclark4329]

I got suckered into trying it and I am very disappointed. While I’m happy acceleration control and shit like that are in there, they should’ve been in there for 4.1. It doesn’t support different filament specific settings other than basic temp and shit from what I can see. It doesn’t support sending to klipper and it doesn’t like my klipper gcode macros. It fucks it up. Printer wouldn’t even open the file. There are no open source preconfigured printers which isn’t a huge deal more than just simply annoying.

[@bjtster]

Agreed too little too late I broght it years ago and now from the upgrade from v4 to v5 - I see that they expect me to pay another $60USD for it as aone time fee - Wow with all the free alternatives thet really me be living in a dream world

[@rods87175]

I purchased Simplify 3D when it was the best option for prints requiring supports. Now the other slicers have caught up and passed S3D in just about every area. If it was a free upgrade, I would try it but I have little interest in paying for it when there are so many very good no-cost slicers available now. So IMO, too little, too late and too expensive!!!

[@MrBthrower]

Same. This vid is the straw I needed to pack my stuff and move.

[@willierants5880]

I can't argue that. The key word being "if". But it's not so I'll simply watch S3D's progress from afar and not really care. I saw nothing here that isn't done better in other open/free slicers.

[@sergeb7945]

5:40 click the "Show Retractions" checkbox (left side of the print preview window to show the seams

[@3DPrintingNerd]

THANK YOU DOT GIF

[@EarthlyF0rg0ten]

@@3DPrintingNerd I was sitting here like "it's right there!" 😂 Insert Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme.

[@KeithOlson]

Personally, I want *intelligent* adaptive layers, where the surface is--for example--printed with 3 layers of 0.1mm and THEN the rest is filled in with 0.3mm. That would be the best balance of precision and speed, in my book.

[@hightde13]

This is a little rough. I hope for them they roll out more features. Most of what you showed looks to me to be open source slicing features integrated in to their same old software. I would have expect by now to hear something more along the lines of 'look at our new print maths that cut printing time by 20%" or some such. Not 'look, we do what free slicers do now" which is how it feels. Sorry if that seems unfair but even the supports feature isn't far off from paint on supports. From what has been shown I'm more excited about the new FDM option in lychee to be honest.

[@MyBrothersMario]

Worse even, it's "We finally added features seen in free slicers, pay us $60 because it took us 2 years to do."

[@johnnyartillery]

@@MyBrothersMario ive been using for 3+ years without an update, i read someone say its been 5 years since he's seen one.

[@MyBrothersMario]

@@johnnyartillery oh wow, to be honest I may be a little biased as I never liked Simplify as I never really saw enough value to justify what they were asking. That long without updating for a relatively expensive piece of software is ridiculous and they deserve to fail.

[@johnnyartillery]

@@MyBrothersMario yea big time! I had to use it for work since that's what they provided for 2 years, got too used to it and got my own once I left. Gonna try and switch back to Cura like before or maybe SuperSlicer

[@jclosed2516]

I think they where not ready for release by a big shot, but started panicking and just pushed out what they had and painted "5.0" over it. Today's economy is in a increasingly rough shape, and people have less and less money to spend. I think they saw their sales plummeting and now hope they will get it up by a pushing "brand new" version out of the door as soon as possible. Sadly I predict it won't help, because of the increased price to $200. People are no fools. If they start to compare the price to the features they suppose to gain from free slicers, I think it will not turn out to be that attractive...

[@Nisse977]

I used Simplify3D a couple of years ago, I loved it, but then they stopped updating their software, nothing happened for years and I went over to Prusa Slicer (Slic3r) and it feels so much more modern and better. Simplify3D is WAY to late, that is what I think anyway :) Maybe V6 will bring it back to the top :)

[@oaklandservers]

Well it will be another 5 years till V6 and $150 to buy. Dream on S3D. Its pretty obvious that the original developer flew the coup.

[@willierants5880]

Joel, I appreciate your dive into this. Your first look was thorough and honest. For me this is all too little too late. I saw nothing here that isn't already provided in other slicers or done far better. What I did notice was a swath of features still not present that other open and free slicers are already providing. S3D's ship has sailed for me and pretty much everyone I know. Since moving to Prusa Slicer pretty much all of my slicing issues have disappeared. Yes, slicing issues, abortions caused by S3D 4. Gone. My prints look better and print faster with Prusa Slicer. And now for the elephant in the room that wasn't discussed. Cost. Unless S3D has changed their tune this is a paid upgrade. Dear S3D see how my middle finger is slowly rising with a quick lock and thrust at the end for emphasis. Never again, your horrible customer support, non-existent development cycle, no loyalty to existing customer's, no communication and so much more as pretty much put S3D on a path to extinction for me. Time will tell, but I'll just be watching from the side lines while using freely available and far more capable slicers. You may ask, why the pointed response Willie? When I first entered into 3D printing back in 2017 I purchased S3D because at the time is was the most highly recommended, but it was expensive even with the educators discount. At that time it was descent and yet there it sat with just one or two meager maintenance updates from then to now. So what did I really get for my investment other than getting caged? Since I paid so much for S3D I felt obligated to use it rather than branching out and trying other slicers and just settling for the slicing adorations and living with them. Well when I finally did try other slicers (sadly just within this year) I saw the light and vowed never to go back. I'm not getting burned twice.

[@MrDonXX]

What did you wind up using if you don't mind me asking

[@_Piers_]

@@MrDonXX "Since moving to Prusa Slicer" :p

[@kkuenzel56]

When I first got started 3D printing I got frustrated using Cura ( the version that came with my Creality CR-10 mini) I was about to give up when I took the plunge and did the Try before you buy that Simplify 3d offered and that was a game changer for me. This was my daily driver slicer. But when they went ghostware and free slicers like Cura were getting better and better, I stopped using S3D. I got tired like everyone else waiting for 5.0 to drop. I would love to try it again now but I'll be damned if I will pay another dime for it.

[@klschofield71]

Not only has the ship sailed, but it mysteriously sank and then was forgotten about long enough to fade into a myth, only to be briefly mentioned in various second-hand historical Reddit texts. Leaving behind a cloud of mystery that would one day ignite the spark of imagination in a young Nicholas Cage who would one day grow up to venture off to far away lands in search of clues that would lead him to the unknown location of the forgotten and shipwrecked frigate known as Simplify3D.

[@nemisis7577]

With the amount of time waited I would have expect to see some major updates.

[@markuskoarmani1364]

I use S3d and I love it and had no need to change.

[@thedragonshellfire]

I'm excited to see what there is now. I still mostly use S3D so I won't be going back since I never left lol. The only time I used different programs was when I needed functionality that it doesn't have.

[@HarryDoldersum]

Just completed the upgrade & have my 1st test print running now. For both my 2 printers, I originally started out with Cura - but S3D has been the reliable go-to workhorse since V3, also because it works seamlessly with my CAD application. I'd be very interested to see further experiences from you & others on S3D V5 - but so far, I'm pleasantly surprised with the new release. Migration was only a few mouse-clicks & (so far, at least) appeared flawless: my profiles & preferences were imported without issue. No doubt, I'll be spending some time in the coming period to further tweak V5 's settings to get the best from my printers, but I'm quite happy with it so far. And yes: one could opt for one of the free slicers - but I'd consider this money well spent.

[@leokastle8041]

What can I say that everyone else hasn't already? Certainly too little too late. I got into 3D printing at the end of 2012. There weren't a lot of options. Repetier w/Slic3r seemed to get the most press, so that's where I started, at least for the first few months. Then I found S3D at version 2.3. Then, it was a game changer. I won't get into everything that I liked about it, as anyone that's used it would know, but I will touch on one feature about S3D that I think very few people utilized. At least, I don't hear anyone mentioning it, and it's not something that any other slicer (to this day) offers. The ability to setup multiple profiles with different configurations, starting and ending layers (or heights), and supporting multiple heads... I found this one of S3D's greatest features. And still, no other slicer (that I'm aware of) offers this ability. I stopped using S3D after 4.1 because of just too many frustrations, lack of support, lack of updates, poor communication. I work with a lot of different printers that I was never able to download profiles for and I just got tired of it. I tried Slic3r again and was just disappointed by it archaic and unfriendly environment. I then started trying the slew of other slicers and finally settled on CURA. Then about 2 years ago I'd heard that Prusa was (or had) releasing their own slicer based off the CURA model. And I've been hooked since. They keep adding new features, new functionalities that other slicers don't. They have a real support team. And, I just love Prusa because they devote so much to R&D and to there customers. And, let's face it, they do EVERYTHING in house! Printers, filament and resin, the slicer...the full cycle. Because of that I trust Prusa. There's some hard competition out there now and their MK3 design is now over 5 years old, but I trust Prusa and they are far from done competing in the market for the hobbyists. Anyway, HIGH FIVE Y'ALL!

[@underengineered_1077]

been using simplify for 3 years and love it. my slicer of choice, but there’s no way that i’d pay for an update with such little improvement. They clearly phoned this one in. There is nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary to justify paying for this upgrade at all, let alone 60$.

[@JayzStudio]

is it worth $200 for someone thats got 4 different printers and is tired of cura braking my profiles?

[@UncleJessy]

You mad man! Haha my vid will be up later this weekend.

[@Greggflynn]

I think I agree with you, too little too late, not sure how many people will shell out $149.00 for software that is just now catching up to the capabilities of free Cura, Prusaslicer, and IdeaMaker (the three slicers I use regularly).

[@emilymarriott5927]

Unless V4 owners get a discount, the listed price on the site for V5 is $200

[@emilymarriott5927]

Okay, it seems like the cost of an upgrade from V4.1 is $60, which is more reasonable to coax people back (Still too much for me), but they don't advertise the upgrade price. They advertise the new license price, which is obscene for what the slicer offers.

[@SebastiaanSwinkels]

This ship has long sailed. As many people before me have said, there are far too many free alternative slicers available that do what S3D does, and then some. They also get updated much more frequently by teams of software engineers that are much more easily accessible. In this video alone, I haven't seen a single thing that I haven't seen anywhere else. If holding down your mouse button to add custom support is supposed to be innovative, Lychee has that in their very first FDM enabled build.

[@JonathanKayne]

PrusaSlicer also has this feature, in multiple forms too. You can paint them on or insert another STL to use as your support (either one of the built in or your own). It also has the added benefit of using that to prevent supports too.

[@SebastiaanSwinkels]

@@JonathanKayne I'm aware, just pointing out that it took S3D years to implement this while the guys behind Lychee put it in their very first FDM release. I use Prusaslicer with my Mini btw.

[@Dark0Storm]

@@SebastiaanSwinkels TBF the Lychee team were already it for their resin slicer... or maybe it migrated over from FDM development, hard to say I guess as the resin update was released at the same time. I think the big point is that even if this version brought S3D up to date, unless they massively improve their previous performance they are just going to get left behind again and again by all the other slicers.

[@dano7448]

I am very curious to see the results of the prints of course. I am a licensed user of Simplify3d as well. And like you I have not used it in years for the same reasons. I am still on the fence about paying 60 bucks to upgrade to version 5 if it just doesnt make sense and the other slicers produce better results or have better feature sets. I will be following and looking into this as well! Thanks Joel! HIGH FIVE!

[@CourtRoss]

I purchased the upgrade because I wanted to try it out. The UI does look a bit more polished and the dark mode is fantastic. The print quality looks good. I've gotten good corners, overhangs, bridging, solid top layers, ect. This is something you would expect though. I've been using Superslicer which allows you to tweak the top layers and they have a variable/placeholder for just about every setting. This is still something that S3D lacks in version 5.0. You can't slow down top layers. In fact, "Top Layer" isn't a feature in the list when you slice the model. You only have "Solid Layer". This means you cannot do custom layer change settings in the scripting section because there isn't a way to call out a top layer. One thing I really like in 5.0 compared to 4.1 is that you can assign settings to custom profiles. For instance, You can create one that handles anything filament. You get to pick and choose what that is. In 4.1 you only had the Profile, Material, and Quality sections to choose from. There wasn't a way to change what the profile sections saved. Now, you can. I've put in a couple tickets thus far for issues I've ran into. Haven't heard back from them yet.

[@Inabottle]

I still use simplify, and I enjoy going to the forums and seeing what the new V5 drama is. Its nice to see a new version, but they kept their userbase in the dark for nearly 3 years while they put out this joke of an update, IMHO these are features that could have been in a free update of version 4. Seriously the big feature is support removal/addition that is a quality of life change and could have been patched into version 4 long ago. I was really hoping they would have some version of tree supports. Also if you want to see a seam it can be hard, best way is to force it by adjusting the coasting distance (1.5 is a good value) so much so that there is a literal gap between start and end.

[@qg786]

I've been a long time S3D user and it's the only FDM slicer I use. I haven't had a need to change slicer as S3D is a one time purchase. For me the features of other slicers aren't game changers. S3D just works for what I need. Also the S3D team are very responsive and helpful in terms of issues.

[@qg786]

Just saw that S3D are charging for the upgrade. I might hold off on it.

[@goramiir]

You've gotten lucky, i've contacted them several times, with no response.

[@isaackvasager9957]

lol...paid shill, eh?

[@Repkord]

Obviously the killer feature here is the new software support team that squashes bugs in less than 24 hours! Hope they keep up this new found passion for product support!

[@paulmilne3038]

Oh you have that sussed

[@AaronFlaming]

I worry that this only happened because a high-profile individual in the community found it. I have my doubts that I would have gotten the same response.

[@gordo3di]

It took them months to fix our profiles (years ago) for the older gMax because they broke them after we submitted. There is literally no way for companies to modify their own profiles for customers meaning the customers complain to us like we created the problem. So we told them to remove all gMax profiles so we can modify/update them in-house which is annoying but it had to be that way. We've also never seen a beta or even been given a single heads up for updates since the beginning despite sending thousands of customers their way. So when an update comes out we have to pay to download then scramble to make sure it works. So I'm not holding my breath 😅

[@grumpydude1598]

dude, had it been a regular user they wouldnt have done that

[@MrTimElmore]

@@grumpydude1598 *woosh*

[@aqhan]

I thought Simplify3D was dead. Honestly, not sure if we can trust them not to abandon the development again. The version 4.1 was without any updates for 3.5 years and they are still selling it at the full $149, hiding the fact that you get an incredibely outdated software that is very far behind the curve. At this point I consider Simplify3D to be a scam.

[@MOVIEKICKS]

PrusaSlicer is probably all I need for now; however I'd like to see some comparisons of print finishes between S3D v5.0 and PrusaSlicer before ruling out S3D as a viable option.

[@JAMESKNOWSGAMES]

For seam hiding to show in the preview you need to check the box to enable previewing retractions. That is how you get to see the bubbles that represent where a layer's "seam" would potentially show up.

[@gordo3di]

After playing with it (paid the $60 for the "upgrade"), I would say it should have been a free update 3+ years ago. It definitely feels more like v4.1.3 instead of v5 especially considering how much more powerful and feature rich Cura 5 and PrusaSlicer 2.5 are (true paint-on supports, modifier volumes, variable layer heights that can be modified, dual extruder model painting, step file importing, continuous free updates, and on and on). The only thing that seems improved is the speed of slicing and visualizations. Plus after opening it for the first time in years, it feels very clunky compared to PrusaSlicer. It doesn't feel new at all. It wouldn't let me drop in an stl file (had to import from the menu), the profiles "Failed to migrate" from the previous version, and it generally doesn't feel like a $200 piece of software. Maybe it's just me. Very let down. Edit: The one positive thing I can say is it does slice much much faster. I just sliced a big cute octopus 410x410x282 with 0.4 mm layers and 10% gyroid infill and it took about 30-40 seconds. It did use 3 gigs of hard drive space and almost 7 gigs of ram to display though...

[@exsurgemechprints2671]

can you find the "perimeter offset feature"? like it offsets the perimeter inward for better clearance for print in place models?

[@3DMusketeers]

Nail on the head. I think the proverbial benchy has sailed here. For 3 years of development only 4 major features is not enough. The infill patterns, while great, are not all that unique. I prefer to paint on my adaptive layers like how PrusaSlicer does, and well, most other slicers are free now. While I get they have dev costs, this is not the HUGE update I was hoping for and it seems I am not alone. I dont know Joel, I want to give them a chance, I do, but I feel VERY conflicted here. This is not the 5.0 we were hoping for.

[@superslacker87]

Doesn't sound like we should expect a video about it from you any time soon, then.

[@3DMusketeers]

@@superslacker87 Likely no.

[@CourtRoss]

Maybe wait for 5.1 if they make it that far. I YOLO'd and bought the upgrade. I've always liked S3D but it is lacking features that should be standard. If you are into simple slicing then it works well. When you need more indepth settings then your pretty much out of luck at this point.

[@mascot4950]

I bought my first 3D printer about a year and a half ago. I remember my learning process included looking into Simplify3D. At that point it had been years since any updates, so I discounted it. Now that I've been using free slicers for all this time, I fail to see anything in this compared to free slicers that makes it worth $20, let alone $200. On top of that, you know that they'll happily go _years_ between updates, so you're not even getting that for your money. Hard pass for me, but they're still in business so apparently they do offer something at least a decent amount of people feel is worth the price.

[@mkesenheimer]

Disclaimer: I paid for the upgrade and I am happy a new version came out. When I started with 3D printing, I was using Cura. And I hated it. Profile management was an absolute nightmare, confusing settings at all ends, slow slicing speed and unpredictable results. Overall, the experience and the results with S3D 4.1 were much better at that time. I tried several slicers in the meantime and I even came back to Cura. However, I still love S3D and nothing comes near the user experience of that program. The results are perfect, the workflow is simple and I really love the profile management. Thus I am very happy a new version came out. I have to evaluate this version even more and come to a conclusion. So far I like the new features. Especially the auto-update if the STL-files change and the new infill types. Yes, Cura and other free-to-use software may have more features. However, I think S3D is still better polished and more user-friendly. (What's more, the latest version of Cura does not even run on my macbook from 2014...)

[@Hexalyse]

It's a great showcase of why Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is great: you can have so many skilled people contributing - even as a hobby, and non paid -, that in the end you'll get better features faster than what a small team of paid developers would do in the same amount of time. The only way paid proprietary software can work is if they have a big enough market share that they can afford to pay really good devs to produce better features faster than what the FOSS community can do. Asking $120 for a software that does the same thing - and not better - than other software do for free is just vain. The boat has sailed, indeed.

[@darkquail2003]

The amount of people in the comments who had not yet tried out the FREE slicers to compare vs. what they have baffles me.

[@thomasklemmer4861]

I've been using S3D since 2016 and I've never used another slicer since then. I've gotten free updates until now and I'm fine with 60 USD for V5. I still recomend it to everybody who is getting into 3D Printing. - Because it just works -

[@roberthoople]

I'm constantly mind blown by how much 3D printing quality and advancement comes from the software rather than just the hardware. From arc based overhangs that almost defy physics to the power and efficiency of new infill patterns. Of note: I'm finally getting a 3D printer - a used Creality CR-6 - for Christmas, and your channel, and all the wonderful information you offer - is turning my excitement level up to 11! 🥳🥳

[@Ed_Stoddard]

I've continued to use S3D as it is familiar and does well enough on my engineering prints. HOWEVER, after checking the upgrade process, it game me a temporary $10 discount to upgrade of ONLY $59.00. New buyers get charged $199.00 and with the $149.00 I already spent, I'm not finding the upgrade much of a bargain. As you said, "Too little, too late". I won't be pouring any more money down that rabbit hole. Thanks for the review and notification that this is out. Great job as usual.

[@lefmicro]

I bought Simplify3D, a few months ago. Tried it and returned it before my trial period was over. It just didn't have the features to justify the purchase price vs the free options in my opinion. It's good to see that they've finally upgraded and I might look into it again, but like a lot of people are saying, I'm thinking it's too little, too late.

[@toddspeck9415]

I did the same exact thing. I was bummed when I first bought it. I tried to get my money back but never could get a reply from them. I read about so many other people That asked for a refund, but it never seemed to happen. I can get some prints so perfect in Simplfy3d And other prints are just terrible. little hairs everywhere. I always used Slic3r and SuperSlicer takes it to another level. I get the most amazing prints with SuperSlicer.

[@vincentrichard2703]

As S3D didn't upgrade for more than 3 years, I tried other free solutions, like Slic3r and Cura... And S3D 4.1 gave the best results for my Ender 3 ! Regarding all difficult features : stringing, oozing, z seam hide, print speed... I'm so excited to test the New version !!!

[@paultegler]

Major diff in v5 compared to the 'free' slicers! I just spent a couple days trying to get SuSi and other to properly print some polycarbonate small parts. So I switched back over the S3D v5 and gave it a go. There is a very noticeable difference in the coordination of how S3D is currently printing this part (as I type this comment) . The ordering of the perimeters, supports, infills etc are all MUCH more organized, to the point I restarted the print with zero retractions. The ordering of the layer lines being laid down are a MUCH more organized in the S3D sliced moves taking place with many many few travels taking place.

[@gilb6982]

i use S3D since the begining and i will continue to use it as long as i can ! because it is simple stable and reliable ! i dont need university course to learn how to use it and it always deliver the result that i want i dont want to show off that i can control millions of little parameter of a slicer i want to show off good print !

[@willierants5880]

See this was my sentiment as well. The other slicer's "looked" more complicated. My friend, trust me. They aren't. Free yourself from your S3D chains as I did recently. I settled on Prusaslicer and I can say with all honesty I love it, its easy and man does it work well. It's fast, reliable, intuitive. I just love it. What is more is the community. Prusa keeps everyone updated on where Slicer is, what's new, what's coming and seeks your input. S3D never did any of this. Give one of these other slicers a try before paying S3D one more cent and see if you don't agree. You can always go back to S3D if you want and there's no cost in trying other than your time to download, install and use. Thank me later!

[@gilb6982]

@@willierants5880 would you realy think that i did'nt look at the other slicer ? i have bought S3D with my first printer and if i need to pay for the new version , i will but one thing is sure , i will not have anything to do with prussa slicer or printer i like to have stuff that work !

[@GarageWeekends]

I loved Simplify3D but one day I started using Cura for the advanced features it provided and I obviously don't think I will look back. The only thing that S3D had and I miss is the support handling, really easy to manually add/remove them.

[@me0262]

So I'm excited to try V5 out (especially for the curved supports), I've been using 4.1.2 because my process is super stable for an old Flashforge / Powerspec 3D X, and during Christmas I'm printing a lot right now. But I've been wanting to get some updates in, 0.2 toolheads, updated sailfish firmware (still working 7.7), filament runout sensor, autoleveling, and updated slicer. I was reading on some reddit forums that yes it's been too long for V5 to come out, and the reason was that they had a high developer turnover, and that it was in development hell (continually adding features and not releasing). Clearly from the feature list it's not as much as one would expect. In this time the free slicers came out and came with a lot of interesting new features, Cura I think had adaptive layer height and tree-like supports. If I have to pay money to upgrade my license to V5, then I'm out. The free slicers have overtaken it in terms of features.

[@CourtRoss]

I was a HUGE fan of version 4.1 back in the day. Just like everybody else I was waiting for the new version which never came. So now, I'm pretty much only using SuperSlicer because I can tune just about everything. If they have a good upgrade deal I may go for it just to check it out. It is a little disapointing that they didn't upgrade the UI. It was a bit dated back in version 4.x. I hope it has good features and functionality. I'm sure the team has worked hard on getting this up and running. However, it may be too late.

[@toddspeck9415]

SuperSlicer is so amazing. Every print is soooo perfect. Always stoked seeing other SuperSlicer users. I own Simplify3d as well. But SuperSlicer is so much better.

[@deepblue812]

already paid $150 for V4, not paying another $60. Switched to Cura about a year ago and so far has been excellent.

[@KellyBC]

I just don't see anything that would make me want to pay money for the upgrade. I believe S3D alienated their existing user base by taking so long to update anything, and they just don't have anything there to attract a new user base. If I were them, I would try selling it to a company that wanted a proprietary slicer and calling it a day.

[@MandicReally]

It exists? WOW Seriously though, I'm unimpressed if that's all that is really new (& bug fixes I'd assume). Time will tell.

[@BeefIngot]

Yea, it seems like they still haven't even caught up to the free and open slicers

[@thelightspeed3d712]

God Bless you for the honest review Joel. I loved it too.. we all did. Simplify does a great job... I love it's algorithms they use. Like bridging is optimized based on the best direction, not just a single angle like PS. But is it too little too late. I am afraid so... A Friend said to me this "Why didn't Bambulab purchase Simplify3d and they could iterate and make that their own?"... That would have been sweet. We are also now used to active development. When S3D was the slicer to have, we were used to a corporate faceless company giving us the slicer. But now with Prusa, we have active feedback, github forks, comments that get listened too etc. I wish this wasn't true... but it's dead on arrival. No one outside of the hardcore users will pay for the update. BTW a smart move would have been a more affordable update cost. $10 etc. $60 for an update is nuts. Let alone the new $199 price for the full version. It's a cash grab at best... They need some serious PR work, they need to come forward to explain. People are mad, they are hurt to some extent.

[@MisterMakerNL]

Honest? I feel like he cut off most negative stuff. And does an awfully lot of efforts too stay positive. Also a link in the description too their commercial website screams sponsored content.

[@mgreb]

I use Simplify 3d for my old Flashforge Creator pro that uses it's oddball file format. Paid for the upgrade and happy with it. If I had a up to date printer I would not bother.

[@CanuckCreator]

It exisits? What timeline is this?

[@MakerMeraki]

The one where CERN broke the universe and 2020-now happened. 😁

[@benjaminscott1927]

The one where the devs are probably trying to avoid bankruptcy. So they add a few standard slicer features to the program and slap a v5 sticker on it and expect all those they screwed to pay an upgrade fee. This will go down badly and the requests for refund will probably dig them in deeper, unless they just do what they did to me personally and deny my refund request (leaving a bad taste about them)

[@tombo7719]

You are so kind. You are doing your best to be good here. We see it, it is appreciated bro.. The time it took, and the additional cost to their "one time fee" are going to need back flips and bewbs for me to be able to fork out more money for. MAYBE CNC/LAZER support would be worth it. They have a great GUI, but at this point free software is doing it where they fell right off the map for YEARS. I just got back to 3d printing after almost 4 yrs and just now, they are upgrading.. pathetic.

[@irblinx]

I think the Benchy has long since set sail. I don’t see anything to tempt me away from the constantly developed PrusaSlicer. I guess they could still sell to corporate customers who don’t know better but they needed to have a killer feature to move the balance back towards them, they don’t have one. It is behind the cutting edge by some distance and have a track record of not developing

[@pierre3036]

I was a S3D user when it first came out and never found an appealing slicer since. I saw S3D yesterday and upgraded to V5 right away. Yeah, I was upset with how they treated customers who had purchased their software by basically ignoring them. I'm retired living on a pension so money is tight. That being said, I enjoyed Simplify3D so much I gave in to this new version. Looking forward to using it. Thanks very much for your video.

[@bobert4522]

Still, to this day, I can mirror my settings in S3D and Slic3r. Same parameters and I try matching as much as I can. S3D always prints better for me on my MK3S.

[@DrFrantic77]

I bought the Version of S3D (think, it was V2 oder V3), on there they sayed, updates for Lifetime!!! And now, I have to pay... and many other slicers free!

[@remthompson]

I’m really glad to see the update finally came out. When S3D first came out I was always interested but too broke to justify buying a slicer. At this point in time the free alternatives are so powerful I don’t think I’d pay for s3d.

[@willierants5880]

I sucked it up and bought it because it was the most highly recommended back in 2017 and being new I wanted software tools that would help not hinder my dive into 3D printing. However in hind sight was it really worth the investment? No and in fact it hindered me more than it helped. Since I paid so much for S3D I felt obligated to use it even though other slicers had far surpassed it in every way including ease of use and more efficient slicing. Just this year I was like I have this project and I'm going to give Prusa Slicer a shot. I thought it would be overly complicated, but boy was I pleased and I've been using it ever since. I love Prusa Slicer and I can't say I ever felt that for S3D.

[@remthompson]

@@willierants5880 I was team cura for a long time. Now Prusa Slicer and Bambu Studio get my attention. I love how many quality options we have now!

[@GregShaw]

Thanks for showing it. But yep, ship has sailed for these guys. Way more advanced, free and constantly updated slicers out there!!

[@jeffsram04]

I have been using Simplify 3D since 2018 and have gotten very used to using it and I have had great success printing with it. Back then it was $149.00. I also have purchased a new Prusa printer and also use the Prusa slicer. I have had good luck with that program too. Of course it is free! As for Simplify V5 the new user is now expected to pay $199.00 and an upgrade from V4 will cost you $59.00. Although not free I still did the upgrade and so far like the new features they have incorporated into it. Time will tell if it is money well spent or not. Old habits are sometimes hard to break but you cannot beat success.

[@erikanders3343]

4:38 Aligned is useful when pausing the printer to put in sand for a weighted base.

[@ImaginationToForm]

Oh also, Did Simplify3d remove the limit on how many times a 3D printer's configuration could be downloaded? I remember JATMN and others had this issue.

[@chrisallen8480]

I think they should allow us to make maybe 2 or 3 prints with their slicer at no cost just to make sure it’s usable for your needs instead of nailing $199.00 price tag and not know what your getting until it’s to late

[@delsydsoftware]

I still have Simplify 3d v4.x installed for an original Replicator 1. The current settings produce flawless prints very reliably, so I don't touch anything about that install. I switched over to Ideamaker for my other printers a couple years ago and don't have any regrets. Pretty much every aspect of Ideamaker is better.

[@justsomeguy5186]

Here's my big issue. I've been a Simplify3D customer since 2017. I have bought three separate licenses for the slicer. Which would bring the total cost up to 630, with this being said I haven't used Simplify3D in over a year now Cura does the job for me on most prints, and if it doesn't I use PrusaSlicer both free and powerful alternatives. Why would I ever go back to Simplify3D after they went dark for over a year on their website, and abandoned the slicer until now? I don't consider that a "Pro-Consumer" move.

[@irql2]

I dont know if its true but I heard the CEO/Owner(whatever) is also the lead dev and has next to 0 business sense. If that's true, it shows... look at these comments, no one wants this trash and they're still mad at him for what he did. Hopefully they learn a valuable lesson from this. A businessman would have been like "free upgrade from 4.1 and new 5.0 licenses are on sale for 50% off for the first week." Not this idiot though...

[@maxgafner6503]

V5 is coming out! I can't believe it

[@kevinmcaleer28]

The trust is broken; how do I know they won't leave it another 5 years for the next update? I'm a previous Simplify 3d user, and was happy with it 5 years ago, however leaving it years without an upgrade and no information about whats coming next, or why its been so long, has left me with little confidence in their product or them as a company. I'd consider upgrading to a later version if its compelling, however this seems like a catchup release and doesn't bring anything worth switching over from Cura for.

[@AlAmantea]

I bought S3D over 2 years ago when I felt it was the best option. Their promise of a free upgrade to V5 was one of the pivotal reasons for my purchase. Now here it is 2 years later, and I've abandoned S3D a year ago for Super Slicer. I no longer feel that S3D is the best option, they have reneged on their promise of a free upgrade to v5 (60 bucks? really?), it is feature poor compared to the other totally free options out there, their tech support has been a GHOST for the past two years, so why would I continue to give them my money and use their product? No thanks, S3D... Your ship has not only sailed, it has sunk on a bigger scale than the Titanic.

[@jz2188]

From this quick review, adaptive layers - Cura, adaptive infill - Cura , custom supports - Cura, multiple infill patterns - Cura, zero cost - Cura, plus Cura has the market place and addons .........

[@aaronhamburg4428]

dynamic infill density is a really handy new feature. I had to do that manually for some tricky big parts with low density by setting separate process just before the first top layer.

[@mpcaz]

Simplify 3D was my first and main slicer and now I've got a Bambu X1 Carbon on order so not sure if I'll even use it again or upgrade it. We'll see.

[@AndrewWorkshop]

I just paid for the upgrade because I really liked version 4, the supports work so well. To be honest I don't think it's worth the upgrade tho after using it to slice a few models unless you have to have those extra features that are available in other free slicers now. The full price is also way too high and i think you can only run V5 on one machine.

[@JPS-up9vj]

I don't hear anybody speak about the speed differences in Simplify3D. It slices faster and prints sometimes half the time of Cura or less. Slice a file in both and then print them in your next video and see if the time difference alone isn't worth the money

[@TimS57064]

I purchased S3D like just over 3 years ago, have tried pretty much all the other slicers, and could not get used to any of them. I like the new option you showed on adding and removing supports, especially for when printing helmets. The change with support layers percentages under top/overhang layers is much better too.Now I have yet to upgrade to the v5, although after seeing this vid, am now considering going ahead and getting the new updated version. It appears that you can hold onto the previous version, and use which ever version you want, i like that. So also since I have been using S3D pretty much non stop, it also appears that carrying the profiles over, to the new version , should be fairly easy, I hope. Joel,Thanks for this vid of what you have seen so far.

[@Grumpyoldtwit]

I’ve also struggled with adapting to Prusa, SuperSlicer and IdeaMaker so I’m happy that S3D is back. I’ve never been able to get my head around Cura.

[@RuudK.]

I agree on Tim's comment and also went ahead and bought the upgrade. Everyone should decide for their own. I think it is worth it (as are other, free, slicers!). I personally really like S3D's interface. Thanks for the video and your insights, Joel.

[@Angwolf1966]

I used to love S3D way back when it was the most advanced slicer available. However, I must admit all other slicers have not only caught up, but they have surpased S3D... and are FREE! I was hoping that S3D V5 would come with ground breaking new features, but it doesn't seem that's the case. For crying outloud, V5 doesn't even have Tree/Organic Supports!!! Nope, I'm gonna go ahead and keep my $59. The ship has truly sailed for Simplify3D.

[@TableTopBiker]

I've only been 3D printing for a little over 2 years now and I've only heard of this program recently. If you ask me, this is absolutely ridiculous and they would never get my money without holding me at gun point.

[@harthenry]

Joel, at the end of your talk you said 'has the boat sailed for Simplify', perhaps a better phrase should be, 'has the Benchy sailed for Simplify', and of course, the answer is Yes.

[@hktrader88]

I have S3D - been using it for many years. Good to finally see V5...thought it was never going to happen but I won't be paying for the upgrade. I will be checking out some of the newer free slicers out there and see what I can use to improve on S3D V4. Thanks Joel for the first look !

[@nonam3007]

Here's how you can improve on S3D V4....ditch it for Cura or Prusaslicer!

[@ChrisOndrovic]

Awesome video review, did they add tree or organic supports?

[@3dpprofessor]

Back in the day S3D was the best engine out there. But these days the only benefit it has left is that it *isn't* beholden to any one manufacturer meaning it, theoretically, could produce features for niche printers like belt printers or polar printers or things like that. However, is there enough potential business in these niches to support a company like this at $60 a pop? My gut says no. However, however, there's another way. Crowdfunding. Release your software for free and put yourself up on Pateron. Sure, you might not get enough to quit your day job, but I'll bet they'll get a heck of a lot more than they're gonna get, in the long run, charging people who already paid for their software $60.

[@ImaginationToForm]

Like many I bought Simplify3d when the other slicers out there were just garbage but thinking I had Life Time Free upgrades. Right now, I don't think I'm upgrading though.

[@paulpardee]

I own S3D 4, but switched to and love SuperSlicer. If I'm going to try to learn the features of a new paid slicer, it's gonna by Lychee because they have a proven track record of listening to their peeps and responding quickly.

[@toddspeck9415]

SuperSlicer is my favorite Slicer too.

[@coaltowking]

Hurray! What a glorious day! I was really thinking it would never happen.

[@Swarm509]

I own Simplify3D 4.-something I bought when I had my first Anet 3D printer over 5 years ago and loved what it did for me then. I was having all sorts of problems with free software and Simplify3D just worked, and well. I have hundreds of hours through that program in printing time. That being said I've since bought Prusa printers, and totally switched over to their programs and workflow and unfortunately don't see any real reason to switch back to Simplify3D. The only reason I could switch back is that I do still prefer how easy and straight-forward the supports were to add, but it doesn't appear they have kept up with things like organic supports and other new changes. I'll keep an eye on the tests that users/youtubers do and show, but I don't expect to switch over to it or upgrade to it any time soon.

[@CoreyGibson43]

I got S3D as part of a package with my first printer back in '15 and looking at my emails it was before V3 was released. I wanted it because, as I understood at the time, it was great for dual extruder machines which is what I had bought. They kept giving me the updates through to V4 and it kept working for me so I just kept using it. Now I am in two minds as to whether I want to pay the money for the few things in the new version that might be a little better and also keep the familiarity of it or if I should just do what everyone else does and use one of the free options, in particular Cura. I guess I need to try Cura before making the call as well as do a little more reading on this update. Thanks for the video review.

[@TheAndyroo770]

Can you print a benchy with both seam hiding and the variable layer height function - it should in theory be a very fine benchy. I believe Prusaslicer's variable layer height feature could be superior though as you can "smooth" the result so there's less noticeable banding where the layer height changes - though that can negate some of the benefits of variable layer height. I think variable layer height with no smoothing is an excellent choice if you intend to paint the print as the print is more detailed and better matches the geometry of the model. Also a good choice for functional prints to better match the geometry/tolerances however it can cause issues as the required melt volume changes with different layer heights.

[@VesuviusAntaria]

I have purchased an upgrade. I am satisfied with version 5. The prints look much better and the printer prints much faster than the previous versions. No complaints about version 5.

[@kkuenzel56]

Joel, do you plan on doing any more videos on Simplify 3D 5 again? There have been 2 updates since it came out. Just wondering if they addressed issues people have reported.

[@goeland86]

You didn't mention pricing, and I think prusa slicer and super slicer also have variable layer heights. I'm not impressed, they seem to have been playing catch up and are still behind. What's their target market though? Are they assuming at makers or industrial users who need to run controlled software?

[@Ed_Stoddard]

After reviewing the updates page for 5.0 and reading the comments below, I noticed on HUGE subject omitted. Cost of future upgrades, will they be free? or pay more as you go? I'd forgotten about the trial period as I bought it when it first came out years ago. S3D should offer a trial period for the update to entice users to appreciate or reject ALL of the updates in V5. Are you listening S3D?

[@Steel_shooter]

yeah, thats a biggie.

[@Moyersteven1]

$200 for a slicer software is absolutely INSANE! Ill stick to the FREE ones.

[@justinh3d]

Would definitely love to see some print comparisons. I used to love Simplify3D but eventually they were surpassed by free alternatives. Curious if there's still any benefit to a paid slicer.

[@woodwaker1]

I agree, I would pay the upgrade if I can see improvement. That is why I purchased it in the first place, but now it seems to be still catching up.

[@lmaoroflcopter]

Upgraded to v5 primarily due to support for network based printers. I run a flashforge adv3 and whilst flash print and polarcloud slices and prints fine. I missed more advanced options on my slicer. Simplify3d v5 works over the network nicely with my ffadv3 in like 2 clicks.

[@LincolnWorld]

Thanks for showing us Joel! Definitely too little too late as far as the update goes. What other slicers have seem hiding? Other than that I did not see anything I have not seen already. Even if they are the only one, it is not worth the money. I bought s3D about 10 years ago and it paid for itself right away since it was able to get things done way faster and better than the other options at the time. to stay afloat they really needed to put out a version that is way better than the free options, and I just don't see that here. A big, Happy Holidays high-5"!

[@MitsumaYT]

Every slicer has seam hiding options, that it does not show in preview seems suspicious, you can't get rid of it. Looks like it just does "shortest distance" (in other slicers).

[@Musiquence]

I still prefer the Simplify3D interface and workflow over Cura and still primary use S3D, but lach of update and now this after all these years… I have no problem with the update fee. I bought S3D 5 years ago for $149 (upgrade to 4 was free) so good value for money there. I’ll wait for some more reviews and probably upgrade when (if?) 5.1 comes out.

[@adrianmartinez5418]

Did the devil buy a snow shovel. I thought it take hell freezing over before updates of S3D.