Have cura on steam

[Cogster 0]

I have been using Blender a bit recently and found that even though it isn't a video game, it being on steam helps a ton. Why can't Cura also be free on steam just like Blender? It would give some advantages:
 

• Easy to install - Literally go to the steam page for it and hit add to library. From the library, find it and hit install.
• Automatic updates - No need to reinstall for the latest updates.
• News page - This may not help some people, but Cura news and information could also be put on the news page. People would see it along with news about other games, where they expect to see it. Instead of having to go to a certain website to see what is new and have to navigate around all the help and question posts.
• Steam workshop - Just an idea I thought of, but what if thingiverse things and Cura .3mf files could be uploaded to the steam workshop? You could simply download a plate or a thing and load it easily, no file management required!

Of course, like Blender, you can still have the manual download and the separate website. This would simply benefit those like me who already have steam accounts. Maybe this is a dumb idea and I shouldn't have made this post. Who knows.


And for anyone who has been living under a rock, when I refer to steam I mean the application made by Valve. Website here.

[Slashee_the_Cow 480]

I don't know if this counts as a "feature request" in the traditional request but here's the feature request form.

 

Personally I think it's exceedingly unlikely to happen (and due to the corporate bureaucracy inherent in any business the size of UltiMaker, it definitely wouldn't happen soon), but, for example, Blender is entirely created by the community, for the community. Cura might also be open source, but a lot of the development is done by UltiMaker and you can basically consider it a part of their printers. Especially for enterprise (corporate/government/education) deployments you need to have control of the distribution. And while obviously such customers will still almost certainly choose to distribute and install updates manually, there's always an exception to people with common sense.

 

The following might sound like I'm trying to 💩 over all your idea, but I'm just trying to be realistic (it's just great at seeming like the former):

(n.b. I am not nor have I ever been involved in the development of Cura and have never worked for UltiMaker. This is all my personal opinion.)

• Steam's rules - I have read Steam's terms and conditions for customers (and I'm assuming I can count the other people who have on my hands) but I don't know what they're like for distributing software through Steam, and whether any of Cura's functionality runs afoul of those terms and conditions I'd have no idea.
• Discoverability - I doubt many people will unbox their first 3D printer and then decide the best way to find a slicer is to search the Steam store. If you know the name Cura it's easy enough to do a web search and find the website.
• Ease of install - If you can't download and run an installer I'm really not sure you have the technological savvy required to use a 3D printer. Steam might be a bit easier but the current process is easy as it is. Also on Linux you don't even need to install it as it's a self-contained AppImage 🐧
• Automatic updates - There's a lot of people who stick to a version they like and don't upgrade, or don't do so very often. You can disable automatic updates in Steam, but you still have the problem that someone can't install any version other than the latest one if for whatever reason they need to reinstall it. Cura already has update notifications built in (unless you disable them) so it's not like you have no idea when a new version comes out (and I'd rather a friendly reminder than an automatic update which might affect a complex project I'm working on).
• News page - About all the Cura news there is is covered in the the "what's new" dialog that comes up the first time you run a new version. And you don't exactly need "here's these cool new features in the latest version" updates when it'll automatically update and show that to you anyway.
• Workshop - It's probably more hassle to access than Thingiverse, plus you'd need to add functionality to Cura to show you what items you've subscribed to which is only going to serve the minority of users who install it through Steam. You also have the problem that the Steam Workshop tends to be a wild west with little curation. With the newer versions of Cura you can also just click a link on Thingiverse to open something directly in Cura anyway.
  • It could also be argued that you could distribute plugins through the Workshop instead of Cura's Marketplace, but it's another matter of curation - it would be possible to develop harmful plugins which is why things get vetted by UltiMaker before they go on the Marketplace, whereas you could disguise something on the Steam workshop.
• Splitting up the community - I realise that the UltiMaker forum is hardly the only Cura community out there (though I've never spent much time in /r/cura) but having another discussion board in the Steam community further splits up any discussions, or more importantly, requests for help. The more people asking for help in one place (preferably this one) the more people I can try and help because I'll see them.

[Cogster 0]

22 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

I don't know if this counts as a "feature request" in the traditional request but here's the feature request form.

 

Personally I think it's exceedingly unlikely to happen (and due to the corporate bureaucracy inherent in any business the size of UltiMaker, it definitely wouldn't happen soon), but, for example, Blender is entirely created by the community, for the community. Cura might also be open source, but a lot of the development is done by UltiMaker and you can basically consider it a part of their printers. Especially for enterprise (corporate/government/education) deployments you need to have control of the distribution. And while obviously such customers will still almost certainly choose to distribute and install updates manually, there's always an exception to people with common sense.

 

The following might sound like I'm trying to 💩 over all your idea, but I'm just trying to be realistic (it's just great at seeming like the former):

(n.b. I am not nor have I ever been involved in the development of Cura and have never worked for UltiMaker. This is all my personal opinion.)

• Steam's rules - I have read Steam's terms and conditions for customers (and I'm assuming I can count the other people who have on my hands) but I don't know what they're like for distributing software through Steam, and whether any of Cura's functionality runs afoul of those terms and conditions I'd have no idea.
• Discoverability - I doubt many people will unbox their first 3D printer and then decide the best way to find a slicer is to search the Steam store. If you know the name Cura it's easy enough to do a web search and find the website.
• Ease of install - If you can't download and run an installer I'm really not sure you have the technological savvy required to use a 3D printer. Steam might be a bit easier but the current process is easy as it is. Also on Linux you don't even need to install it as it's a self-contained AppImage 🐧
• Automatic updates - There's a lot of people who stick to a version they like and don't upgrade, or don't do so very often. You can disable automatic updates in Steam, but you still have the problem that someone can't install any version other than the latest one if for whatever reason they need to reinstall it. Cura already has update notifications built in (unless you disable them) so it's not like you have no idea when a new version comes out (and I'd rather a friendly reminder than an automatic update which might affect a complex project I'm working on).
• News page - About all the Cura news there is is covered in the the "what's new" dialog that comes up the first time you run a new version. And you don't exactly need "here's these cool new features in the latest version" updates when it'll automatically update and show that to you anyway.
• Workshop - It's probably more hassle to access than Thingiverse, plus you'd need to add functionality to Cura to show you what items you've subscribed to which is only going to serve the minority of users who install it through Steam. You also have the problem that the Steam Workshop tends to be a wild west with little curation. With the newer versions of Cura you can also just click a link on Thingiverse to open something directly in Cura anyway.
  • It could also be argued that you could distribute plugins through the Workshop instead of Cura's Marketplace, but it's another matter of curation - it would be possible to develop harmful plugins which is why things get vetted by UltiMaker before they go on the Marketplace, whereas you could disguise something on the Steam workshop.
• Splitting up the community - I realise that the UltiMaker forum is hardly the only Cura community out there (though I've never spent much time in /r/cura) but having another discussion board in the Steam community further splits up any discussions, or more importantly, requests for help. The more people asking for help in one place (preferably this one) the more people I can try and help because I'll see them.

Now that I think of it that is a good point.
But remember, I never said anything about having it ONLY on steam, I just want it as an option for those who want it. I wouldn't want all the community stuff, because splitting the community does seem like a big problem. Maybe have the community stuff disabled on steam, idk. If you don't want the latest version all the time then download the non-steam one.

Also I can download and use an installer, but I find it a hassle to reinstall it every single time.

[Dustin 175]

The only place UltiMaker Cura is distributed is via UltiMaker.com / UltiMaker's Github.
This will likely not change.

It is known that there is versions of UltiMaker Cura on various "flatpack" or linux repositories etc.. 
Please note, none of these are official releases by UltiMaker.

UltiMaker does not publish official releases of UltiMaker Cura anywhere but UltiMaker.com  or UltiMaker's Github.

[Slashee_the_Cow 480]

8 hours ago, Cogster said:

Also I can download and use an installer, but I find it a hassle to reinstall it every single time.

There's always a way to make anything lazier. If you use the .exe installers, anyway (this could almost certainly be done for the .msi installers, but I never use those.)

 

Copy the following code into Notepad and change the directory (inside the quotes) on the fourth line to where you actually download the installer to (only works if you download all versions to the same folder), then save it (in your documents folder or something where you can easily find it) as something like "cura upgrader.bat" - you need to use the quotes while typing the filename into the save box or else it'll save it as a text file.

@echo off
set /P old=Old Version Number: 
set /P new=New Version Number: 
"C:\Downloads\Software\3D\Cura\"UltiMaker-Cura-%new%-win64-X64.exe /S
"C:\Program Files\UltiMaker Cura %old%\"uninstall.exe /S

Double click the batch file in file explorer to run it. Put in the version number then press enter for each one, Just remember that even if it isn't a patch release like 5.8.1 the version number is always three digits, i.e. 5.9 is 5.9.0

 

This will run the installer for the newer version in the background with the default options (which is just install directory and start menu group I think), and then run the uninstaller for the old version in the background. When the command prompt window closes it's finished (though you don't have to keep that active if you don't want to, just switch back to another program and keep doing what you were doing).