PrusaSlicer 2.4.0-alpha2

PrusaSlicer PrusaSlicer 2.4.0-alpha2

Summary

This is the second alpha release of PrusaSlicer 2.4.0, following 2.4.0-alpha1 ↗. This alpha adds several new features and improvements and it fixes bugs found in the first alpha. The most important change is significant speed-up of the G-Code generator.

To let you enjoy the alpha without worries, the alpha builds save their profiles into PrusaSlicer-alpha directory, so you may use the alpha side by side with the current release without ruining your production configuration.

Improvements with respect to PrusaSlicer 2.4.0-alpha1

• G-Code export was parallelized and optimized. This results in significant improvement of performance: The total slicing time is now 2x to 4x shorter, higher speed up is achieved on high-end CPUs #2263.
• The G-Code coordinates are newly exported without emitting the leading and trailing zeros, which makes the G-code a bit smaller. While the new G-code conforms to standard ↗, it may not be consumed by some non-conforming applications #6996.
• 3MFs, AMFs and OBJs are loaded considerably faster, models imported from them are no longer repaired automatically (see 'Architecture and infrastructure' below for further details)
• Mesh repair statistics used to be confusing: It was not quite clear which errors were fixed during import and whether there are any errors remaining after the mesh import and repair. This has been improved: The fixed / remaining errors are newly shown clearly at the side panel and the "exclamation mark" icon is shown with white color for a completely fixed mesh, while an orange color is used for a not fully fixed mesh.
• Bottom status bar was removed and replaced by notifications showing progress of slicing and the "abort slicing" button. This also solves the Windows 10 dark mode issue, where we were not able to adjust status bar colors #6860.
• Windows specific: InnoCielo Meridian injects AMHook.dll into PrusaSlicer, which makes PrusaSlicer to crash. We added AMHook.dll to a blacklist so a warning dialog will be shown on startup when that DLLs is injected into PrusaSlicer #2939. This is a similar issue to the dreaded Nahimic OSD issue #6864 which we blacklisted in PrusaSlicer 2.4.0-alpha1.
• OSX specific: The PrusaSlicer and G-code viewer application icons were updated with the new rectangular background to match the new OSX icon style #6874 thanks @xarbit.
• Windows specific: Several function calls that might have been considered suspicious by anti-virus software were replaced by alternatives. This should lower the probability that PrusaSlicer will be reported as a potential threat. #6914, thanks @jschuh
• Windows specific: Selected mode button (Simple/Advanced/Expert) has now an orange background to make the active mode more distinct #6860.
• The G-code preview settings at the bottom of the Preview screen are no longer resetted to their defaults after each slicing #5471.
• Windows specific: 'Fix by Netfabb' can now be used on several objects at once.
• Place on face no longer unifies rotation of multiple instances around their Z axes to the same angle.
• The new "Tip of the day" notifications can now reference menu items. We use it to activate the "Configuration Snapshots" dialog from a "tip of the day".
• When navigating to a configuration option from the Search dialog, the option's input field gets focus automatically #6941.
• The dialog asking about unsaved changes is now shown in all scenarios when some changes in presets would be lost #6991.
• The placeholder {version} (denoting current PrusaSlicer version) can newly be used in output filename format template string #7002.
• When the "Reload from disk" action was called on an object for which only the source file name, not the full path to the source file name was known, PrusaSlicer used to always ask the user to look up the source file location manually, while newly PrusaSlicer searches for the source file next to the active project file before asking the user for help.

Bugs fixed with respect to PrusaSlicer 2.3.3

• Fixed crash when the bed texture was located in a directory that user had no permission to access #6873.
• The 'Entering SLA support points' undo/redo snapshot is now taken before the gizmo is opened, not after. This bug was introduced between 2.2.0 and 2.3.0 and resulted in two identical snapshots on the undo/redo stack.
• It is now possible to use Backspace to delete selected items at the object list. Delete and Backspace should now be equivalent in all contexts. The reason that Backspace is used as an alternative to Delete is that some laptops do not have the Delete key at all (some Macs, Chromebooks).
• Fixed handling of "N/A" config options under some translations #6921.
• Fixed a rare error preventing slicing of specific models #6933.
• Fixed color of objects in preview for SLA printers. Until now, the color of the last filament selected in FDM mode was used.
• When printing with a wipe tower, all objects are required to have the same variable layer height profile. The test for this constraint was buggy and it sometimes allowed incorrectly the slicing to continue, leading to cryptic error messages later on. This is now fixed.
• When slicing was finished while the user was moving the object in the scene, it would reset the object's location. This was happening mainly with the background processing enabled #6898.
• Selection rectangle in SLA support points editing mode did not work reliably when the object was rotated or scaled #4666.
• The view settings combo boxes had incorrect layout the first time they were opened.
• OSX specific: The items in the dialog with selection of object-specific settings to show was incorrectly stretched #6926
• Linux specific: Flatpak package did not allow to export to external devices because of insufficient permission #6758, thanks @xarbit
• Linux specific: Fixed crash when $USER environment variable was not set #3969.
• Windows specific: Under certain circumstances, a system text edit box unintentionally appeared in the right panel.