Lack of packaged 3D Printing Software
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu |
Incomplete
|
High
|
Ricardo Salveti |
Bug Description
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://
- 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://
- 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://
- pronterface (open-source, formerly printrun): has a packaged version on a PPA: http://
* 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://
- kisslicer (PROPRIETARY!!) has linux versions too: http://
* Bonus: server-side 3D printer control software
- repetier server, a quality web 3d printing server: http://
- octoprint, an awesome, feature-packaged but still low footprint 3d printing server that works even on the raspberry pi: http://
- Doboz-Web: http://
A very good inspiration for Ubuntu support for 3D printing would be the Fedora 3D printing page: http://
OBS.: as of now, this bug is valid for the current version of Ubuntu, 13.04 with the latest updates.