Cura for other type of 3D printing

[david_datian3d 0]

Hi,

 

As far as I know, Cura has been able to process certain type of SLA 3D printing based on the laser scan method. I'd like to change cura to support other type of 3D printing. 

 

My first goal is to modify cura so that after slicing the 3D model, it could output a pack of PNG image files, similar to the Creation Workshop CWS format. So that the result could be used with LCD/DLP type of SLA printer. And hopefully it might be useful for powder based 3D printing as well.

 

Secondly I'd like to add another support generating function to cura for the LCD/DLP 3D printing. For example, a support structure with the sticks/nails.

 

My questions are,

 

a) has similar work been done before. Although I did a brief search with google, I haven't been able to check all the cura variants;

b) if I need to do it myself, since the complete cura software is rather complicated, which part shall I start with, at least Cura, UM framework, CuraEngine, etc? or better more detailed module I shall look into first?

c) is there any developer's document for cura?

 

Many thanks for your help in advance.

 

David

 

[ahoeben 1,968]

Both of the things you want to do would be mainly in CuraEngine (which is written in c++), with some very minor work to enable settings for it in The frontend.

 

A new type of supports was recently added, you can easily find that in the closed pull requests in the CuraEngine project on github.

[david_datian3d 0]

2 hours ago, ahoeben said:

Both of the things you want to do would be mainly in CuraEngine (which is written in c++), with some very minor work to enable settings for it in The frontend.

 

A new type of supports was recently added, you can easily find that in the closed pull requests in the CuraEngine project on github.

Thanks for your information. I think the support generation you've mentioned is https://github.com/Ultimaker/CuraEngine/pull/655 I'll probably change the thick trunk to thin tubes for SLA. Anyway it should make my job a lot easier.

 

Moreover, regarding the sliced preview in Cura, where the gcode path has been shown in different color, I guess it's done by Cura interpreting the gcode generated by CuraEngine. If so, should that part of Cura be changed to show raster images?

 

[ahoeben 1,968]

CuraEngine produces gcode AND a large set of “layer polygons”, the latter of which is used in the layerview. In theory you could keep using the current layerview implementation while storing the sliced output as a set of images (png or svg)

[david_datian3d 0]

I've managed to build the CuraEngine on Windows 7. IIRC, Cura supports 3MF data format. Is this handled by Cura or CuraEngine? since a quick search through the CuraEngine project files didn't show any clue about the 3MF. If the 3MF is handled in Cura, what kind of 3D data is Cura passing on to the engine?  I'm particularly interested what would happen when a colour 3D file (3MF) being loaded.