Public bug reported: Although Ubuntu is a desktop Linux distribution, it is much behind other distributions regarding 3d printing support. And that is inadmissible, because 3d printing, hardware-wise, is very simple: commands sent to a 115200 serial-via-USB connection. The big gap here are the programs that comprise the chain leading to these commands. E.g.:
* 3d-modelling software: Ubuntu is sort of ok here: - blender is on the repositories; - meshlab is on the repositories; - openscad is on the repositories and there is also a PPA for it: http://ppa.launchpad.net/chrysn/openscad/ubuntu/ - but a very useful program, wings3d, is currently uninstallable (depends on erlang-wx >= 1:15.b.1-dfsg which is not installable) - Bug #1185616 * 3D printer control software: - the most popular software is repetierhost, an open-source MIT-licensed software (written in mono) which has a nice download page at http://www.repetier.com/download/ and nice instructions for installing it in Ubuntu. It also comes with the object slicer named "slic3r", another open-source software - GPL this time. The most troublesome part of its installation is that it installs a bunch of perl modules, some of them are not yet packaged in Ubuntu. - repsnapper (open-source), which is sort of "ok" but not the best application, is on the repositories; - replicatorg (open-source) has a "needs packaging" bug report open, Bug #829789 - cura (open-source), a fantastic application with its own very fast slicer, is not packaged, and in their page they even offer a packaged download: http://daid.github.com/Cura/ - this one is very easy to add to Ubuntu, it has few compiling requisites (mostly wx). - pronterface (open-source, formerly printrun): has a packaged version on a PPA: http://ppa.launchpad.net/richi-paraeasy/ppa/ubuntu/ * slicer software: - as said, slic3r, the most popular slicer, comes with repetierhost, but it might be needed by other control software and it also works standalone; it has its own site, with linux downloads - http://slic3r.org/download - and it is written in C++ and perl (this is why repetierhost needs a bunch of perl modules). It has a separate elaborate building page for ubuntu: https://github.com/alexrj/Slic3r/wiki/Running-Slic3r-from-git-on-GNU-Linux - kisslicer (PROPRIETARY!!) has linux versions too: http://kisslicer.com/download.html. As it is proprietary, it is most likely unappropriate for packaging. Its use forbids reverse engineering. * Bonus: server-side 3D printer control software - repetier server, a quality web 3d printing server: http://www.repetier.com/repetier-server-download/ - octoprint, an awesome, feature-packaged but still low footprint 3d printing server that works even on the raspberry pi: http://octoprint.org/ - the raspberry pi is better server by a packaged solution called octopi: http://guysoft.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/octopi/ - Doboz-Web: http://reprap.org/wiki/Doboz-Web A very good inspiration for Ubuntu support for 3D printing would be the Fedora 3D printing page: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/3D_Printing ** Affects: ubuntu Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: 3d hardware printing reprap -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1225612 Title: Lack of packaged 3D Printing Software To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1225612/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
