CuraEngine/Slicer Questions - Multiple Independent Print Heads

[EEKizzle 0]

Does anybody know much about the inner workings of a slicer? Where is a good place to start? Are there good resources to read? I am familiar with programming but not at all familiar with the operations a slicer must perform to go from model to G-code.

 

I came across Project Escher and that has gotten me very interested in researching multiple and independent print heads for 3D Printing. I think this would require changes to the slicer so it can figure out what print head should print what part of the model as well changes to Marlin to support a substantial amount of additional motors and also custom hardware.

 

Hardware isn't a problem for me, but I understand very little about how a slicer does what it does. So does anybody have a good idea and interested in this as well? Or could anyone point me toward good resources to learn from?

[gr5 962]

I have written pages about this all around the forum. Use google to look for posts about this although I don't know what to search for.

Quotes from my earlier posts:

 

The way cura works is it intersects a plane with all the millions of triangles in the STL. The triangles are in no particular order so the lines are also in no order. So then Cura goes about hooking up those lines into closed loops. There's a little bit of rounding error in the points so Cura allows a little leeway or slop when deciding if two points are the same.

Also read this and many other topics - Daid has some great explanations too - he wrote Cura although there are more authors now:

https://ultimaker.com/en/community/17986-path-planning-algorithm-used-in-cura

[EEKizzle 0]

Thanks for the reply.

My google skills were weak.  I never found anything on this or any other 3D printing forum (I did search for a few days before asking) but there is a lot written about CNC machines for "tool path generation algorithms".  I think that will get me in the right direction.  "Slicer" is apparently a bad search term when you want to dive into the technical details.

I do appreciate your time though!

[gr5 962]

Well don't forget to adad "site:ultimaker.com" when doing a google search - that will restrict results to be only from the forum.