Mince Slicer

Mince Slicer is a 3D resin print slicing web application, featuring relief / emboss 3D textures.

Please keep in mind that this is experimental software. By using it you accept its MIT License:

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2021 Juan Jose Luna Espinosa

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Usage

Mince Slicer runs in a modern web browser. It is a purely static web app. You can use it right now at the following URL:

https://yomboprime.github.io/MinceSlicer/dist/MinceSlicer.html

Or you can clone this repository and serve locally (git and Node.js are required):

To install, issue this commands:

git clone https://github.com/yomboprime/MinceSlicer.git
cd MinceSlicer
npm install

To run (ctrl-c to quit):

npm start

The serve script will tell you on the console the URL to open Mince Slicer locally.

When the application is open you will see a 3D view of the build plate, and a main menu on the right.

Note 1: To use Mince Slicer you will have to adjust machine and print settings correctly and according to your printer. Failing in doing so could result in failed prints or printer damage, or worse losses. Please refer to the settings section.
Note 2: About overlapping solids, Mince Slicer can handle them correctly when anti-aliasing is off (value 1) and relief / emboss is off. If overlapping solids are present and these conditions are not met, the slicing will give incorrect results and the print will probably fail.

Loading models

To load a model, image or project file, just drag it to the screen. Mince Slicer can load .dae, .obj, .stl (model files), .mince (project files) and images files.

When a model is loaded it will show in the 3D view, and in the 'objects list' in the main menu. You can select a model by clicking on it in this list. Only one object can be selected at a time.

Image files can also be loaded, to be used as textures in the relief / emboss section. They will be converted to grayscale. A list of loaded images is shown below the objects list.

Main menu

The first four buttons in the menu select different tools. When a model is selected, you can use different 3D handlers with the mouse to edit the model.

Tools buttons

Move tool (Key g): You can move the model around the build plate (but not change its height position). Holding Ctrl key activates snap to integer millimeters.
Rotate tool (Key r): You can rotate the model around different axes. Holding Ctrl key activates snap to multiples of 15 degrees.
Scale tool (Key s): You can scale the model on different axes or uniformly. Holding Ctrl key activates snap to multiples of 50%.
Sit model on face (Key f): Just click on a point in the model and it will be oriented so that it sits on that triangle.

Note that when moving an object out of the build plate (partially or not), it will show a red box around it.

View slice preview

By checking this option a preview horizontal section of the models is shown. You can adjust the height of the plane section with the two vertical handlers that are shown. An exact preview of the layer at that height will be shown on the section.

Keep in mind that when using anti-aliasing or relief / emboss textures, the preview can become very slow.

Show build volume box

By checking this option a green box that delimits the build volume is shown. This option is saved with the settings.

Reset view

This button resets the viewing camera angle and position to the initial state.

Machine settings

Open this folder to show the machine settings:

Machine type: You can type the name of your machine here. By default its value is "default".
Build volume X, Y and Z: These are the dimensions of the usable build volume in millimeters. Getting them right is crucial to have your prints without distortions.
Layer height: Set the layer height in millimeters.
Resolution in X and Y (pixels): Set here the resolution of your printer.
Mirror: Image mirror. Leave this value to 1 for normal operation.

Print settings

In this folder you have the options that control exposure times, speeds, etc:

Number of bottom layers: This number of initial layers will be made with different (usually higher) exposure times.
Normal layer exposure (seconds): This is the exposure for normal layers (not the bottom ones) in seconds.
Bottom layer exposure (seconds): Exposure time for bottom layers.
Normal layer lift speed (mm/minute): Speed of the build plate when lifting to unstick from the FEP film, for the normal layers.
Bottom layer lift speed (mm/minute): Speed of the build plate when lifting to unstick from the FEP film, for the bottom layers.
Drop speed (mm/minute): Speed of the build plate when going down, for both normal and bottom layers.
Normal layer lift height (mm): Distance to travel upwards when unsticking from the FEP, for normal layers.
Bottom layer lift height (mm): Distance to travel upwards when unsticking from the FEP, for bottom layers.
Z slow up distance (mm): I've not found much information on this parameter. I guess it is travel distance with slower movement to start unsticking from the FEP.
Bottom layer light off time (seconds): Additional time period to wait with the UV lamp off, just after exposing (for bottom layers)
Normal layer light off time (seconds): Additional time period to wait with the UV lamp off, just after exposing (for normal layers)
Resin density (g/cm³): Resin density in grams per milliliter, or Kg per liter, which is the same. This is used just to calculate resin weight based on volume.
Resin price per Kg: Coin units per Kg of resin. Just used to estimate resin print cost.
Anti-aliasing level (1 to 4): If value is 1, no anti-aliasing is done in the slicing (and it is much faster). Values 2, 3 and 4 generate progressively smoother voxels. Higher values have a higher computing time.

Global settings

Max. number of workers: Number of parallel processes that will be run simultaneously to compute sliced layers. By default it is set to the number of system CPUs minus one.
Max. distance in mm: Maximum size of viewable space in the 3D view. By default 2500 mm, you shouldn't need to change this, but perhaps someone has a very big build plate...

Relief / emboss

This button opens up the relief / emboss 3D textures dialog. See the section on relief / emboss.

Slice

Click this button to start the slicing. A progress dialog will appear. You can cancel the slicing by hitting the CANCEL button.

When slicing is finished, another dialog will appear, in which you can preview the sliced layers, see print information, and save the print file in ZIP format. You can also export the sliced voxels as a mesh, to STL format.

Mince Slicer outputs sliced files in a common ZIP file format. This file cannot be put directly in a printer, it has to be converted to a printable format first. To do so, you can use another utility. I use uv3dp. Once installed, convert your file by just doing this (for example, to convert the .zip to .ctb format):

uv3dp inputFile.zip outputFile.ctb

Please see the uv3dp documentation for supported file formats and file extensions.

Clear build plate

This button removes all objects from the build plate.

Save project

This button lets you save the project as a .mince file. It includes all models on the build plate, all loaded images and all settings including relief / emboss presets.

When loading a project by dragging a .mince file to the screen, a dialog will show asking what things do you want to load from the file: Models, images, machine settings, print settings and/or relief / emboss presets. So you can save projects with different settings and use them as templates.

Save settings

This button saves all current settings to local storage in the browser, so they will be active the next time you open the application. This includes the relief / emboss presets.

Restore settings to defaults

This option restores settings to the application default values. You can select what to restore: Machine settings, print settings, global settings, and/or relief / emboss presets.

File name

Select here the project file name. It must have .mince extension.

Reset selected object rotation

This will revert the selected object rotation to the rotation it initially had.

Make copies of selected object

A dialog will appear when selecting this button, that lets you make copies of the selected object. A number of rows and columns is asked, and also the separation between the pieces. a total of number of rows X number of columns - 1 new objects will be created, and they will be distributed evenly and centered in the build plate.

Delete selected object

This button removes

MinceSlicer

Install / Use

README