Status of Simplify3D

[tcope]

I'll be honest... I have my doubts about Simplify3D.

I bought v4 not really understanding Simplify's past and current status. I was under the impression that it was and would be updated in a reasonable fashion. I still had no issued paying $60 as, at the time, other slicers were just not as good and, IMHO, Simplify's interface was _extremely_ good... the best. Great layout and easy to understand.

After years of waiting and V5 is released. To be honest, I was convinced that it would never happen. So while I'll give kudo's for the update, it's kind of a wash that there had been _years_ with no update. But then it came with a $60 fee. That was a tough pill to swallow as now, there are 3 or 4 other slicers that are _100%_ free that not only do _everything_ V5 can but offer many other features that have been out for years. But I paid the update fee as. I'd say 50% of the reason was that the interface was something I was use to and was still (kind of) good. The other 50% was because I'm _still_ (arrggg) hoping that the slicer will see some good updates.

Reason why I'm posting this today? Well, I started to have an issue with the first few layers of a print that I sliced in Simplify. Certain lines in the layers were just peeling up. I've never seen it before. Tried all kind of things and I had not changed anything in Simply but I reviewed all of those settings anyway. One recommendation was to decrease the flowrate of the first layer. No such setting in Simply. I can live with that. I'm not sure that is a common setting. But this lead me to look back at SuperSlicer. I used it a little before and it was good but I was not as familiar with it as with Simplify. I went back and used my old settings and started to print my project again. I need to say... it is one of the BEST prints I have ever seen on my printer! Was this because of the the slicer alone? I honestly don't know. However, this got me looking at SuperSlicer again. I realized that there were a _lot_ of simple things in SuperSlicer that Simply lacked. Again, simple things... like when I hover over a setting it not only explains the setting but also shows me what the default was. Something that I _really_ could have used in Simplify to see if I made a mistake and changed something by accident. I think it should be easy to show the defaults for the printers profile. There are other things like ironing and trees that have been around for years that Simplfy still does not support.

In the end, I'm still hopeful. I did not think we'd ever see V5 and here we are with 5.1. Is it worth $60 for v5? I'd say no... not yet. If they continue to improve Simplify I'd say it might be. But I a lot of things would need to be added and improved. Right now I will probably switch over to SuperSlicer and wait to see if Simplify is improved. Yes, I already paid $50 for it but if it does not get better... I've made costlier mistakes.

[S3D-Jason]

First layer issues can be caused by a lot of factors, so it's hard to know what's causing that. Some slicers will print at different first layer heights so it's possible one could work better than the other depending on the bed leveling or Z offset. Did you try lowering the first layer speed or adding a brim to see if that helps adhesion?

Concerning updates, we're just about to finish our second software update for V5 so I know the new foundation has been paying off. We're able to make changes quicker and add more features that weren't possible with V4. If there's specific features you want to see implemented, definitely make sure you vote for the in the feature request forum! The team reviews that a lot as we are planning future releases. I know we're already looking into a few of the ones you mentioned, so I think that's a good sign for the future.