> 3D printers required solid model generation, slicing using either some proprietary software or solidworks, and transmission to the device over network share,

> 3D printers required solid model generation, slicing using either some proprietary software or solidworks, and transmission to the device over network share, ftp, or sneakernet. These days(for me, and most of the stuff I've seen) it's solid model generation, slicing using free/open source(slic3r or equivalent), transmission over usb. It's an interesting idea, but part of the problem is slicing is currently a tricky operation. I change settings based on a variety of things. I'm not certain what this is cutting out, cause I doubt they made their own slicer. If this is just taking pre-sliced data files, then you have to run everything through your slicer before you can send it to CUPS anyways. If they are integrating a slicer into CUPS, that'd be interesting, but I'd be really interested to see how they handle the many many settings that you can(need) to configure to get your slicer to output a file that the printer will work with. Another issue is quality of progress display. I like to be able to see the print while it's printing, and track variables like temp of the printhead and progress through the print. Bear in mind, the average hobbyist 3d printer is going to take more then a couple hours to print anything of halfway decent size, so "oh you can just sit and watch it" isn't an answer. I personally use OctoPrint, which lets me track the print, and even see it using a webcam.