Helio Additive is deploying an amazing solution that most FFF 3D printer operators will be quite interested in using.
The company produces Dragon, an advanced slicing system that is unlike anything you’ve seen elsewhere. It uses a voxel-based approach: each voxel of the print job is mechanically and thermally simulated to understand the optimal extrusion parameters and toolpath. In other words, it can figure out a perfect print job.
They’ve had Dragon for a while now, but there’s a new development: They are providing an integration with OrcaSlicer, the popular open-source slicing system used by many FFF operators.
The integration works by hitting the “Slice with Helio” button, where the job is dispatched to their cloud system. The results appear back in OrcaSlicer in less than a minute.
What does it do? It will show you a visualization of the job output, as predicted by Dragon. This isn’t the optimal job configuration, but it shows the operator a visualization of where problems may be present. This allows the operator to do some iteration to eliminate the issues in many cases. Tune and slice again.
CEO David Hartmann told us:
“It can strengthen your mental model of the job.”
What’s the catch? There really isn’t one: Helio Additive is providing this service at no charge to those with the OrcaSlicer integration.
In other words, they are providing 3D print job simulation for free!
You might ask how they can manage to do this, as they do require some way to monetize their system. That’s done by an additional step if the operator wants Dragon to figure out the full solution automatically. While some might want that, the integration still allows free simulation of print jobs from OrcaSlicer.
The system does require some knowledge of the situation, however. It needs to know which model of printer is being used, along with the specific material being printed. Also, it requires the current ambient temperature of the build chamber, a parameter no other slicer has required.
Hartmann told us that they’ve characterized several popular 3D printer models in Dragon, along with around 45 materials. In other words, these are what the system “knows” and can be used.
Hartmann hopes to have around 250 materials in the bag by the end of the year, as they are adding 5-10 per month.
At this point, they have the first non-Helio Additive customers testing the system, and they are hoping to have a wider release in around 3-6 months.
This is a very exciting development, as it will not only make your prints better — it could also bring an old 3D printer back to life by helping overcome tuning issues.
Via Helio Additive
