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Businesses are more complex than just one facet. Not everything the business offers has to be a direct revenue driver; it builds trust with the brand and improv

Businesses are more complex than just one facet. Not everything the business offers has to be a direct revenue driver; it builds trust with the brand and improves the experience by putting everything you need with respect to your printer in the same spot. Which of the following experiences delivers better value to the customer: 1. They buy a printer and can immediately slice and print stuff on the vendor's web app 2. They buy a printer and have to deal with the nightmare of installing and configuring Cura The former is more meaningful still when you consider how it can integrate with other parts of the value-add, such as Creality's model database, which can take you from the model's detail page to the slicer in just a click or two -- no download, no import into Cura, no setting up Octoprint or whatever. For enthusiasts the value-add is not entirely necessary but for consumers it's massive. And none of this precludes continuing to support local slicers or free software! In fact, if you value FOSS in your product line (as Prusa… well, used to) they will be using and contributing to the same slicer you run on your workstation as they run on their servers.

riddley 3y ago
Again I have to ask if you've ever used a Prusa, no really this time? Prusa users use Prusaslicer, not Cura. Printables.com often hosts gcode files that require no slicing at all by end users. These points completely aside -- do you think 3d printer novices are going to last long without learning a slicer? Is that really your assertion? Also, is installing Cura a "nightmare" ? So much explosive language!
- drewdevault 3y ago
  Yes, I have used a Prusa, but I have mostly used Cura with it. The bulk of my experience with Prusas started with finding one at the local hackerspace, firing up Cura and finding a profile for it, getting it to work and never questioning this procedure again. I used Prusaslicer once or twice, but nevertheless, I cut my teeth on Cura so I used the tool I knew. Not that the comment you're replying to alleges that most Prusa users are using Cura, for the record. Yes, installing and using Cura is a nightmare for non-technical users, and indeed serious users will have to install a slicer eventually. But that's the point: this product design locks it into the enthusiast market, and most consumers don't want to deal with that overhead. Clicking "print this" on a model catalogue, having it fire up a cloud slicer thing, and pressing "go" is a better user experience for a novice, plain and simple, and I'm sick of arguing with your enlightened enthusiast takes here.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    If you're sick of arguing maybe you shouldn't be starting arguments? What you say makes very little sense. Prusa has an audience, you are not that audience. So go buy something else and write about how great your experience is instead of kicking Prusa, especially if you haven't bothered using their slicer, which is absolutely fantastic, runs locally and supports linux.
  - kiba 3y ago
    I used both Prusaslicer and Cura. They worked. Prusaslicer comes in with built in profile for my specific Prusa machine. The generic profiles work well enough for my purposes.
  - riddley 3y ago
    I'm sorry you're sick of having to defend your baseless claims. If you don't know about Prusaslicer, you download it, and in some cases click Next a few times to install it. You then select whatever printer(s) you have from a set of pre-populated profiles that include non-Prusa models, btw. You now have a highly tuned profile for your Prusa printer because -- and I can't stress this enough -- Prusa's QC... well exists! which means it's already better than the competition. Because they have QC, they're able to predict very well how the machine is going to behave and are able to release profiles that work very well for everyone. Also, if you don't know about Prusaslicer -- it's the origin of Bamboo's slicer. They get to ride along for free while you chant "Innovation!" Also, if you don't know about Prusaslicer, why do you feel so comfortable commenting on what Prusa has and hasn't done? Like when you say things like "comes with an ecosystem that Creality has invested in to a much greater extent than Prusa." You don't what you're talking about. > But that's the point: this product design locks it into the enthusiast market, and most consumers don't want to deal with that overhead. What product design? Cura? Why are we talking about Cura again? Oh yea, you brought it up because you used it one time. Seriously though, what product design are you talking about? I love it when people speak for "most consumers."
  - StayTrue 3y ago
    I’ve lost track of where the goalposts are. The original author is all over the place.
- holoduke 3y ago
  I use both slic3r and cura. Both are installed in 2 minutes. Slicer is good for having better out of the box profiles. But the biggest drawback for me is the auto orientation tool to lay an object flat. For thin complex objects slicer always has issues. Cura does not.
kiba 3y ago
The former is more meaningful still when you consider how it can integrate with other parts of the value-add, such as Creality's model database, which can take you from the model's detail page to the slicer in just a click or two -- no download, no import into Cura, no setting up Octoprint or whatever. For enthusiasts the value-add is not entirely necessary but for consumers it's massive. Consumers? What use case are you imagining? Why is it better than a consumer going on amazon or to a physical store and buying a product? 3D printers are a manufacturing technology. At best it's suitable to hobbyists, DIYers, and enthusiasts. If you can only print stuff, then you are limited to only what other people are willing to design for you. So you will learn CAD and other tools. At that point, you might as well invest in the effort in learning how to use a slicer. It's not really hard to use. That said, I am all for making 3D printers more accessible and easier to use, but the magic of 3D printing isn't really in printing things but bringing to life stuff you designed, for your specific needs.

riddley 3y ago

Again I have to ask if you've ever used a Prusa, no really this time? Prusa users use Prusaslicer, not Cura. Printables.com often hosts gcode files that require no slicing at all by end users. These points completely aside -- do you think 3d printer novices are going to last long without learning a slicer? Is that really your assertion? Also, is installing Cura a "nightmare" ? So much explosive language!

drewdevault 3y ago
Yes, I have used a Prusa, but I have mostly used Cura with it. The bulk of my experience with Prusas started with finding one at the local hackerspace, firing up Cura and finding a profile for it, getting it to work and never questioning this procedure again. I used Prusaslicer once or twice, but nevertheless, I cut my teeth on Cura so I used the tool I knew. Not that the comment you're replying to alleges that most Prusa users are using Cura, for the record. Yes, installing and using Cura is a nightmare for non-technical users, and indeed serious users will have to install a slicer eventually. But that's the point: this product design locks it into the enthusiast market, and most consumers don't want to deal with that overhead. Clicking "print this" on a model catalogue, having it fire up a cloud slicer thing, and pressing "go" is a better user experience for a novice, plain and simple, and I'm sick of arguing with your enlightened enthusiast takes here.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  If you're sick of arguing maybe you shouldn't be starting arguments? What you say makes very little sense. Prusa has an audience, you are not that audience. So go buy something else and write about how great your experience is instead of kicking Prusa, especially if you haven't bothered using their slicer, which is absolutely fantastic, runs locally and supports linux.
- kiba 3y ago
  I used both Prusaslicer and Cura. They worked. Prusaslicer comes in with built in profile for my specific Prusa machine. The generic profiles work well enough for my purposes.
- riddley 3y ago
  I'm sorry you're sick of having to defend your baseless claims. If you don't know about Prusaslicer, you download it, and in some cases click Next a few times to install it. You then select whatever printer(s) you have from a set of pre-populated profiles that include non-Prusa models, btw. You now have a highly tuned profile for your Prusa printer because -- and I can't stress this enough -- Prusa's QC... well exists! which means it's already better than the competition. Because they have QC, they're able to predict very well how the machine is going to behave and are able to release profiles that work very well for everyone. Also, if you don't know about Prusaslicer -- it's the origin of Bamboo's slicer. They get to ride along for free while you chant "Innovation!" Also, if you don't know about Prusaslicer, why do you feel so comfortable commenting on what Prusa has and hasn't done? Like when you say things like "comes with an ecosystem that Creality has invested in to a much greater extent than Prusa." You don't what you're talking about. > But that's the point: this product design locks it into the enthusiast market, and most consumers don't want to deal with that overhead. What product design? Cura? Why are we talking about Cura again? Oh yea, you brought it up because you used it one time. Seriously though, what product design are you talking about? I love it when people speak for "most consumers."
- StayTrue 3y ago
  I’ve lost track of where the goalposts are. The original author is all over the place.
holoduke 3y ago
I use both slic3r and cura. Both are installed in 2 minutes. Slicer is good for having better out of the box profiles. But the biggest drawback for me is the auto orientation tool to lay an object flat. For thin complex objects slicer always has issues. Cura does not.

kiba 3y ago

The former is more meaningful still when you consider how it can integrate with other parts of the value-add, such as Creality's model database, which can take you from the model's detail page to the slicer in just a click or two -- no download, no import into Cura, no setting up Octoprint or whatever. For enthusiasts the value-add is not entirely necessary but for consumers it's massive. Consumers? What use case are you imagining? Why is it better than a consumer going on amazon or to a physical store and buying a product? 3D printers are a manufacturing technology. At best it's suitable to hobbyists, DIYers, and enthusiasts. If you can only print stuff, then you are limited to only what other people are willing to design for you. So you will learn CAD and other tools. At that point, you might as well invest in the effort in learning how to use a slicer. It's not really hard to use. That said, I am all for making 3D printers more accessible and easier to use, but the magic of 3D printing isn't really in printing things but bringing to life stuff you designed, for your specific needs.