Lychee Slicer

For anyone following some of the 3d design threads on the forum you may have picked up on the multiple stages required in the 3d model process.

The model design / creation process needs a modelling software, there are several and vary in price from free to eyewateringly expensive, and all have steepish learning curves.

For the tightwads (me included) the free options include Blender and 123D (if you can get it as Autodesk have discontinued it , both Andy Sollis and myself use it). Fusion 360 is available for free if your annual turnover is less than $100K - I wish , but you need to dig to find the license option, and could end at any time. Through my work I get access to Solidworks, and even my manager winces at its cost.

However that is not the subject of this post, once you have your 3D model, you need to prepare it for printing, to do this you use a Slicer program.

For resin printers most use Chitubox (or a skinned version of it), and it supports most printers, however from the release of the Photon S onwards, Anycubic have released thier own software the Photon Slicer, and have been less supportive to Chitubox for info to allow them to support newer printers. Hence no current support for my new printer the Mono X .

So a nice surprise when a youtube video appeared for another free slicer, that also supports the newer Anycubic printers . There is a free version and a pro version - more of which later.

Lychee Slicer - by Mango software a French software company

So first the video



For the principle sum of Nowt, I downloaded and installed the slicer.

I've started playing with the software and appears very intuitive to use, the supports take a little getting used to but they always do

The free version has everything you require for most hobbyist needs, the Pro-version apart from supporting the team, provides a lot of customisation for the supports plus additional 3D printing effects and a rather neat 3d measuring device, allowing me to measure a face to ensure the print is the correct size and not being subject to any form of scaling.
Cost €3.99 per month (€47.88 pa), or €2.99 per month (€29.88 pa) if paid as a yearly subscription, and if purchased before 30th November 2020 can get a 20% Blackfriday discount on the 1st years subscription (€23.91) which in real money is £21.40, so you guessed it I'm now a pro user.

I like the printer and resin management, where you can easily add multiple printers and resin settings.



so in the above example, I have set up the Photon Mono X, with Anycubic's Rapid Grey Resin with a layer height 0.05mm - the gear icon on the right allows you to edit the resin settings



I will give these settings a try, but not sure if the speeds may need a little tweaking, but that is normal as local conditions (temp and humidity) effect the results - and Scotland is generally cold and damp and that's just the summer.

A neat feature (not unique) is the price calculator, but unlike the Anycubic slicer allows for more than USD or Yen, and gives a nice indication of the resin cost for each model.

Ah well time for tea and then a wee bit of playing

Paul