Three Slicers: Cura, PrusaSlicer, IdeaMaker - Which One is the Best?

[@moosebrain]

YOU are the best, Irv! I'm getting my first 3D printer tomorrow and absorbing everything I can find. You are an excellent teacher. Thanks so much.

[@behzatc.9911]

Cura and Prusa. They are very nice at their own way. I use them both

[@avejst]

Great walkthrough I've used all slicers Started with Cura, tryed slic3r (almost 4 years ago) but switched soon to Idearmaker, and had good prints for two years. Then I switched to Prusaslicer, and I have stayed there since. My printer was not tuned in at the time (Ender 3 2018 edition) and the x axes was not square... And I loved idearmakers supports (I still do), they are the most easy to place and brake afterwords. Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us, I appreciate it very much :-)

[@MakeWithTech]

Thanks for commenting.

[@sahhull]

I got my printer yesterday. It's still in the box until I make room for it in my office, which could be this weekend but likely next weekend. I have been playing with Prusa and Cura to see which is best for me to use. I like features of both.

[@Sembazuru]

A trick that I discovered in PrusaSlicer for cutting objects. If you want help lining up the parts afterwards, you can use something like a cut piece of popsicle stick or wooden coffee stirrer (really any rectangular profile stick). Measure your alignment stick and place a negative volume modifier of the same dimensions (plus a fit tolerance) within your object in PrusaSlicer across where you plan on making the cut. When you cut your object, PrusaSlicer will copy the negative volume modifier to both parts of the cut. I would expect this in any of the Slic3r based slicers (PrusaSlicer, SuperSlicer, etc), but I honestly don't know if other slicers have this functionality simply out on unfamiliarity.

[@Mcpblackheart]

Thanks for this i was able to use Cura and have a successful first print of an object. Just subbed

[@667Gurba]

Cool video but I have used filament change several times with Cura. Works great.

[@FrankLauerSignalSpirit]

Thanks for the video. It is a very good comparison. I use IdeaMaker and cura and there are some points I dislike in both slicers, which was not mensioned by you. What I hate in cura: - Slow starting time - The settings dialog acts terrible. If I open or close a cathegory, it jumps to another position and I have to scroll back. What I hate in IdeaMaker - If I make changes in the setings, they are instantly stored to the profile. There is no "keep or discard" like in cura. Thats why you could easyly screw up your profiles. PS.: You mensioned the function of Prusa slicer to cut a modell in several parts. IdeaMaker also could do so.

[@MakeWithTech]

I agree with your observations. IdeaMaker has a very rich object editing capability. In fact some people complain the Boolean features in IdeaMaker do not belong in a slicer. I see no issues with it.

[@Edvardius]

11:02 Exactly! Familiarity and comfort of use are the strongest things for Cura. I've been trying to switch to PrusaSlicer, but couldn't get used to it.

[@no-page]

Really nice overview for newbies. Cura and PrusaSlicer have some killer features that ideaMaker is always last to implement. But Raise3D is one company truly responsive to its users (at least this user). Ultimaker refused to fix an annoying Mac bug for years (delete key would not delete), saying that they knew it was a bug but was not important enough to fix. ideaMaker is supported by a forum where employees monitor it and often answer questions. They solicit feedback and have implemented half a dozen suggestions that I have made.

[@louiel8711]

Great overview of the slicers, I use Prusa slicer for PETG seems to work the best, Cura for PLA, the slicing tolerance setting is very useful. Great video .

[@MikeC19100]

That was a very good overview of some of the features in these three slicers. I hadn’t considered using IdeaMaker before, but you’ve convinced me that it might be worth trying out for unique prints with textures applied. I wonder if they have a battle tank or alligator texture I could apply to a building to make it look more real? At any rate the information was very informative and helped me better understand that I need to do some more work with different products to see what can be accomplished in this very fun hobby.

[@MakeWithTech]

Happy I was able to be helpful. That is the whole point of the channel.

[@DanWaters73]

PrusaSlicer paint-on-supports is a must have feature for me.

[@paulradford4100]

Good video and you hit the nail on the head (pardon the pun) in your summary - different slicers are better depending on what your trying to do.. That said, there are more than 3 slicers out there.. You did mention slic3r, but another big slicer is Simplify3D. It seems folks making radio controlled 3d models often favor Simplify3D for this task.

[@MakeWithTech]

Absolutely correct. My challenge with Simplify3D is that they did not have an update for a very long time. I do see they now have a new update and I will check it out again.

[@yitspaerl7255]

Excellent again. As there is no worlds best guitarist there is no best slicer. For everyday printing I use Cura as well, just because of the hasstlefreeness. But I do not want to say Cura is better. While printing ABS the differences will show more especially with constructive parts. Parts with straight surfaces and hollow. With one slicer they will print fast and split, with the other slicer they will print just fine but slow. Constructional parts that help you to finish your project are the main reason I use a 3d printer. The shape of these parts print very differently compared to little boats or spaceman. You could help me and a lot of other people a lot with more focus on the print of professional shapes which have a totally different character, This is more a request than an effort to be pedantically. ;) Best regards ant thanks for your excellent channel.

[@philnelson2364]

The "Large help screen" can be hidden until you need it. Go to "Extensions" "Settings Guide" "Preferences" and uncheck the "Show articles in settings tooltips" (Requires restart) When you need the help screen, all you need to is right click on the menu item you want more detailed info then click on "Settings guide" and presto, it will appear as a separate window which can be moved and resized. The really great part, is that you can actually zoom in on the sample picture and in some cases, run the video (Example: Bottom Pattern Initial Layer) I love the "click when you need" setting.

[@barrya5473]

New to 3d printing. In fact my 1st printer is on order not to arrive until Feb 2023. Doing research to become familiar. I am a retired IT management guy (would have hired these skills now it is me). Thought this was an excellent video and want to pass along my thanks to you. Any suggestions for a beginner (from anyone), I will listen (read). Profiles for FLSUN V400, filaments

[@barrya5473]

Profiles for FLSUN V400, Starter kits for (filaments) and software I need for windows PC. Also interested in what a reasonable setup / camera for smartphone and cloud configs.

[@woofkaf7724]

After installing Ideamaker Cura stop printing at some height (don't extrude) on my printer. Helps clean windows reinstall.

[@MarcelHuguenin]

Hi Irv, great overview video! I've used all three of them. As mentioned, they each provide specific tools for specific jobs. I've spent time to setup a nice template on the IdeaMaker slicer, created Fusion 360 and Octoprint integration and used it for some time. The texture tool is really sublime! When you print a nice vase (whether vase mode or not) you can really create stunning textures following the curves etc. After re-installing my system went for the newer Cura. Also Fusion and Octoprint integrated. Actually using a profile downloaded from a channel that almost halved the print time while keeping the same quality. Very satisfied with that. But now you also made me take a new look at the latest Prusa slicer. Interesting features too. So let's use the right hammer for the job. Thanks for the video!

[@retron2738]

Soooo helpful and calm. Thank you🙂

[@grahamwood3105]

thanks very much for your help. you are very good.

[@randystevens2710]

Great Video, Thank You so Much

[@johnid2020]

Thank you again for informative communication and insights. Genuinely helpful. I'm a RAISE printer user so Idea Maker is my go-to slicer. The best controls arrangement I think. A pity that it doesn't support Arc Welder plug in, despite the Forums pleading with Raise to facilitate incorporation; the one extra update that would raise its game. No pun intended. Keep up the great videos.

[@blatantmisconception]

You're a great instructor.

[@yeroca]

Thanks, Dr. Shapiro! I'm still pretty new to 3D printing, and this is a great overview on why one might want to change slicers. For me, I haven't had the need for multicolor printing, but the speed improvements in the Prusa slicer sound enticing.

[@jonjonsson6323]

I use ideamaker for my delta, it has the best of all interfaces for figurines etc. Cura i use for my ender

[@germansuela]

I have used almost any slicer that i can found, the most i used are 1st ideamaker 2nd cura and third Slic3r/PrusaSlicer, i use two second hand prusa style printers, i feel like ideamaker has some features or more refined than PS or Cura like per layer settings that is more intuitive and visual, same on modifiers where on ideamaker you can change almost any setting like fan speed where on PS you cant change that, boolean operations are great, half split tool is more powerful than PS and cura lacks of this feature, on slicing speed prusa is first, second/ third cura and ideamaker, i think in ideamaker you have more fine tuning when you need more accuracy you have independent compensation for holes and contours(now avaible on superslicer) and some hidden features like belt printers support, and you can use the profiles on the free online raise cloud slicer that is a cloud ideamaker without advanced tools, ideamake is like a more improved, updated and feature rich simplyfy3D sharing similar gui and manual support placement logic, Now im testing SuperSlicer and cura 5.0 but i miss some ideamaker features, tools and gui logic, im changing to other slicers because i have some defects on prints that im not able to correct changing parameters, i hope some day they will fix them i like this slicer so much but good prints are good prints.

[@AndrewAHayes]

Cura 5.0 is released on Thursday with metal printing support and a few other goodies!

[@MakeWithTech]

I'm looking forward to doing a review of Cura 5.0 which has an updated gcode engine that promises faster print time and more accurate prints.

[@Smoothy0911]

Very interesting video, many thanks👍

[@MakeWithTech]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@fierceflyer5]

Cura now has version 5 which has been completely rebuilt. Still a bit buggy but would be interesting to see this comparison when it is stable

[@MakeWithTech]

I agree. I have started testing for a first look video.

[@clarenceniles1934]

Irv I looooooove your videos. So informative while still being relatable and understandable by us laymen. My issue is I just ordered my 13 year old grandson a Artillery X2 and all the slicers seem to have to high of a learning curve. What slicer do you suggest for us to try while learning through youtube and or udemy these more advanced slicers.

[@joem6859]

Very nicely done video, maybe you have some experience in academia. Probably one of the best review/tutorial videos I've ever watched. Are there cost differences between these options?? have you looked at other slicers like SuperSlicer as well? Thanks again, time to sub.

[@chrisBruner]

I recently discovered SuperSlicer which is built off of PrusaSlicer. Pretty nice.

[@zsavage1820]

HEY!.. WHERE IS MATTER CONTROL ? it's very good

[@nice3d190]

I started out using Cura when i was new to 3d printing then went to prusaslicer and now to "imagemaker 09:55" (ideamaker). I think Ideamaker has more advance features that you can really tune well, I have some printers that only want to use ideamaker stls. The easiest to use after you get the hang of it is prusaslicer. I never use Cura anymore, Altought it gets the job done but is more of a hazzle in my opinion depending on what you want to do.

[@Leo-gt1bx]

Thanks for this. I've just been given a second hand Ender 3 Pro and I am still confused as to how to get going 😂

[@michaelo2l]

IdeaMaker allows adding/editing supports and fixing mesh errors but no mention of these category?

[@senorali]

As a beginner, this was a fantastic video. I really like IdeaMaker's texture option, but I'll be using a Prusa Mk4 and thus PrusaSlicer. Is there any way to achieve something like that texture feature on PrusaSlicer, or maybe apply the texture in IdeaMaker and then somehow transfer it to PrusaSlicer?

[@twincast2005]

I understand not getting into the nitty-gritty of support options and model manipulation, but no mention of tree supports (Cura's classic standout feature) and paint-on multicolor (Prusa's recent standout feature)? Despite much time on IDEX? As for IdeaMaker, it's specially designed for IDEX, yes, but on the flip side it still doesn't support more than two extruders, unlike the other two. And I've found setting up a (non-Raise3D) printer in it to be way less intuitive/comfortable than in the others. That said, it also natively support belt printers, whereas in Cura you have to move the Blackbelt plug-in (and profiles) over from Creality Slicer, and in Prusa Slicer you're straight out of luck so far. Two personal musings on Cura: I suppose it must have been an actual "Marketplace" at some point, but I find the continued use of the name for a menu to get free - and only free - plug-ins detrimental. And something I appreciate about it, which doesn't get enough love IMNSHO, is how it handles nozzle size choice menu-wise compared to Prusa Slicer. On that note, less than a week ago I saw that a couple of months ago Creality moved from their Creality Slicer, a fork of Ultimaker Cura, to all-new Creality Print (in addition to their fairly new Halot Box slicer for resin printing). The UI is a nightmare out of yesteryear, and if there is any way to change nozzle size from 0.4, I haven't found it yet, but at least it counts tree supports among its features. Anyway, I use Cura (with classic UI and arc welder among other plug-ins) for Enders, and Super Slicer, a fork of Prusa Slicer, for Vorons. Perfectly happy.

[@MakeWithTech]

Very helpful addition to the discussion. At over thirty minutes this video was getting long so I had to self edit. The features you mention are all additional examples of why it makes sense to use more than one slicer. Thanks for sharing.

[@NickBR57]

I assume all your references you ImageMaker mean IdeaMaker. I use Cura but have a number of others so perhaps I should try the others more often. The other I use almost as much is Flashprint for my Adventurer 3 which doesn't seem to work well with the other slicers and their workarounds. But it is the most reliable printer I have and hardly ever fails or needs bed levelling so I keep using it. I really should spend more time with Repetier and the slicers it uses. See what differences they make. Also, can't Cura do multi-colour with different models having separate extruder and then aligning them? I'm sure I did that in the past when I had a Geeetech A20M? Thanks for a great informative video Irv. Really interesting.

[@SveinOveAas]

One thing I'm not sure you stressed well enough is how much *faster* PrusaSlicer is. If Cura takes an hour to slice a model, then Prusa takes two or three minutes. It's a dramatic enough to make a real difference in my workflow. That being said, I noticed you have an FLSun Super Racer profile in that. That's not standard, and I haven't found a decent profile to use. Do you think I can have a copy of yours?

[@moosebrain]

How can I get the FLSun Super Racer profile you demonstrated in this video? Thanks so much!

[@rondlh20]

Cura 5 beta 1 is available with great improvements

[@TheStrangeSky]

Great video. I know this is a late message and off topic. I've been using cura, prusa slicer and super slicer, I found that on some models each slicer produced different quality with the exact same print setting's, its why I used all three, BUT as of cura 5.0 all three slicer have removed the PRINT TO USB function from their slicer. From what I can gather a lot of people, myself included, found this feature extremely useful since we only have one printer and print when we need to print. The reasoning for this removal from the devs doesn't make any sense from what I can gather their reasoning is because it was buggy and the devs don't use this feature so the users shouldn't either even though it was very useful to a lot of people and a lot less buggy then the devs made it out. what do you think of this feature being removed.

[@minhquangbui852]

I need help sir. My prusa slicer keeps ignoring the paint support. I ask many people but it still not help... Is it because the model too complicated?

[@gonzogorf7019]

thanks!!

[@MakeWithTech]

You're welcome!

[@keithwillis8443]

23-05-2022 Hi Irv Great overview of the three slicers. I was impressed by your review of the prusaslicer on the artist pro. I have downloaded and am trying prusaslicer on my artist pro now. I am getting some stringing when printing pla silk filament which did not happen with cura! Could you make your artist pro prusaslicer profile available for me to download? As always great reviews. Kitsoft (Nottinghamshire England)

[@MisterkeTube]

You missed my pick: SuperSlicer! Basically PrusaSlicer++.

[@MakeWithTech]

Yes it has a lot of fans.

[@etzmannschnappuleck1181]

If it wasn't for the bad z-seam cura creates after I changed to a 0.6 nozzle, I wouldn't have changed to Prusa Slicer. Of course, Prusa Slicer is a good slicer and offers some nice features, anyways, Cura has so many really useful parameters that Prusa Slicer doesn't have.

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

When you said that some slicers print considerably faster than others I wondered what exactly you meant. Did you compare the print times with the same wall thickness and the same infill percentage? Or did you give the win to the slicer with the thinnest walls and the least infill in it's default settings?

[@gladiatormechs5574]

Can you mesh mix to files together in IDEA MAKER slicer... mesh mixer keeps crashing and i will kill myself if i keep trying to use it... do you know if IDEA MAKER can do this ?

[@aquaIONZ]

I downloaded the latest Cura 5.3.1 version on my WIN10 desktop. It won't run because it needs OpenGL. I spent half a day trying to install it but no luck. Any suggestions or another slicer which does not need the Opengl ? I am a newbie using a Sovol 6 plus. Thanks!~

[@Dave-ni4vg]

Out of the printers which large area printer do you recommend I wa thinking of prusa xl but it’s expensive and is a long wait

[@venkataramayya4266]

Will there be a comparison of 3D Printers?

[@MakeWithTech]

There are multiple printer reviews and comparison on the channel.

[@LogicWheels]

I just started with PrusaSlicer, having used Cura up to now. Problem I face is that when I hollow an FDM model by setting infill to zero and bottom layers to zero, no support is added instead. Is there a way? (This is not about the SLA hollow function in PrusaSlicer)

[@senjos4805]

So the texture is a grayscale displacement map?

[@MakeWithTech]

Yes.

[@octo3dmax591]

Hello Thanks for sharing good stuff, I wanted to know about variable speed. Mean to say that is possible to give command "User defined speed"? Like 1 to 100 slices at 30 MM, Next 200 slices at 40 MM and next 100 slices at 50MM ? I have total 400 slices in a particular print.

[@no-page]

You can do this in ideaMaker with "Group and Layer Settings" You create a range (1-100, 101-200, etc.) and you have a whole host of parameters that you can change: speed, texture, flow rate, extrusion width, infill density, solid fill pattern, temperature, cooling, acceleration, jerk, ooze settings, shells, and on and on. It is really easy to create test towers for just about any parameter you can think of. I am less familiar with Cura and PrusaSlicer, but the last time I did this with Cura, it had to be done with a clunky plugin.

[@octo3dmax591]

Thanks for your good guidance.

[@Jootn2kx]

Imagemaker?

[@fw_uke_ha]

The answer to that question is SuperSlicer. :)

[@TroyHallBear]

You left out cura tree support feature

[@MakeWithTech]

Yep. IdeaMaker also has some very interesting support options, specifically adaptive supports. Unfortunately due to the length of the video I had to leave some things out. Thanks for sharing this with the channel viewers as this is a valuable feature in Cura. I am also looking forward to Cura 5.0 which will have a new g-code generation engine. There will be plenty for me to take about in a future video. Maybe I will do a videos just on supports.

[@moriarteaa4692]

I have used all 3. Most recently Ideamaker. It is the worst in my opinion. Compared to Cura and Prusaslicer, its incredible unintuitive. One example: you can set the same settings in the Filament profil and the slicing profile, which make them redundant. Also you cant Change Extruder/Filament at a certain layer

[@stevenwhite7763]

Sorry for asking this unrelated question, I am at a loss on how to fix this problem. I just picked up a CR Touch for bed leveling and I am trying to find the firmware, but none of the links or downloads are for the CR Touch, only the BLTouch. Has anyone found the right firmware?

[@MakeWithTech]

First. Make sure you have a backup of your current firmware. The stock firmware should be available on the Creality site. Then I would try the BLTouch firmware. My understanding, which might be wrong, is that the CRTouch is plug compatible with the BLTouch. If someone else has more complete information please jump in.

[@stevenwhite7763]

@@MakeWithTech Thank you for the help. I have just spent a Bleeping day and a half with every bleeping firmware from Creality for the Ender 3 Max CL and CR Touch. The printer doesn't recognize the Z axis or offsets. It is either going to crush the extruder, burn out the stepper motor or shatter the glass bed. Has anybody solved this problem?

[@sorinborcea4984]

Hello! You don't need a different firmware for CR Touch. It works just fine with the BL Touch firmware and has the same pin assignment. Just pick the right mount.

[@sorinborcea4984]

@@stevenwhite7763 Try using the Z-stop switch for Z homing, not the CR Touch probe. Or manually modify the firmware in order to enable "use probe for Z homing" (there are a lot of tutorials on KZbin). I have another mainboard on my Ender 3 and the manufacturer issued 3 different firmware: no BL Touch, with BL Touch and for BL Touch with Z homing option.

[@stevenwhite7763]

@@sorinborcea4984 I eventually got it to work after 3 days. Why it recognized the Z-offset this time I don't know. Just hope it remembers the Z-offset on the next print.

[@lesbetts5694]

i use to count secounds for my job in industrial xray ... 10 secounds is along time you want me to wait 50 more? you know how much work i can do in that amount of time? lol

[@JSunBurns]

I like the way IdeaMaker has the settings arranged. I like the tabs. This is the way FlashForge FlashPrint does it and the way Simplify 3D does it. I hate the way Cura is organized or I might say unorganized and cluttered. Too bad Simplify 3D doesn't care about their customers anymore.

[@chinavlogg]

Cura's slicing speed is very, very slow, prusa is very fast, but prusa's tree support is not good

[@MeyerSantosH]

I like Cura, and Superslicer, they allow me to put a thumbnail preview in the g-code and with the professional firmware you can see the image in the screen of a Ender3v2, but the new beta version 5 of Cura don't allows to generate the thumbnail, anyone could fix that bug?

[@spectermk1]

Isn't there a gcode script you can add? Not sure if still relevant but the current cura version 5.1 does have the option to attach that script.

[@MeyerSantosH]

​@@spectermk1 I was able to generate the thumbnail by updating the postprocessing script.

[@no-page]

I am going to disagree with your summary on just one point: that ideaMaker produces lower quality prints. That is just your (self-admitted) lack of experience with it. I get better prints with ideaMaker than I ever could with the other two. I won't claim that ideaMaker itself makes the best prints, just that it suits me really well.

[@dannelson8556]

I'm not going to watch 33 minutes of this, he's wrong right off the bat He's comparing slicers to a hammer which is a single tool. A slicer is not a single tool It's like a complete toolbox full of different types of tools. He's also wrong about cura It may be open source but it's primary funding comes from a single company so the slicer and it's features are focused on its printers. If ultimaker doesn't feel that a specific tool in a slicer is useful for their printers then it doesn't get developed in cura Which is why kira has such limited tools. Don't get me wrong cura is probably acceptable for 90% of hobbyists because hobbyists aren't looking for extreme quality or high precision or a wide range of tools. Most hobbyists are looking for the simplest tool that has been dumbed down for use by the average person. I guess the easiest analogy would be that cura is like a toolbox from harbor freight and tool. Super slicer on the other hand is like a tool box from snap-on which is actually free. Where you really learn to appreciate super slicers advanced slicing tools is when you're running a business with multiple printers, this is where super slicer really shines. Another place super slicer really shines is in print that are difficult to slice. You could literally spend hours on all of super slicers advanced tools. For example different slicer settings for different objects on the print bed or different slicer settings based on layer height something cura cannot do because ultimaker doesn't think it's necessary. The problem with super slicer is that it is extremely intimidating for a newbie just opening it for the first time whereas kira is so dumbed down that someone with no experience whatsoever can be slicing files in a matter of minutes. If you been printing for more than a year and are still using Cura then you have no idea what you're missing out on either that or you're just printing very simple knickknacks and doohickeys

[@MakeWithTech]

While I disagree with your conclusions and have been using 3d printers for over 4 years, I appreciate you taking the time to comment. I am sure some of my viewers will learn from your perspective. This channel is focused on explaining technology to non-technical people. Sometimes I use analogies that are not precisely correct to help explain. Super Slicer is a Prusa Slicer fork based on a slicer funded by a single company -- Prusa. This is not good or bad. I, in fact, use different slicers for different use cases. For example, IdeaMaker is quite good for use with IDEX printers. I stand by my thoughts that different slicers serve different needs.

[@geomagicien9085]

Superslicer

[@MakeWithTech]

Yes I have heard food things about Superslicer which is a based on the same source code as PrusaSlicer. There are over 20 slicers in the marketplace and I thought I would start with three of the most popular.

[@jtcustomknives]

Preach “hammers hammer”

[@spaz13b]

Comment

[@carltonwbrooks]

Chag Pesach Sameach

[@MakeWithTech]

Thanks

[@donatosc.5812]

Chag sameach from rome italy

[@MakeWithTech]

One of the most amazing things about KZbin is a creators ability to reach around the world. Chag Koshar Sameach.

[@zsavage1820]

CURA SUCKS NOW..!! what ever that did to it after version 4.2 it wrecked Cura.!!