I've noticed something when I'm introducing new users to 3D printing. After I show what a digital model looks like and then what a G-code job file looks like, novices can sometimes become worried. They asked me, "How do you go from the design to the print job? Do you have to know how to program to make things?" Thankfully for scores of people pouring into this field without a coding background, translating the mesh model into a print job doesn't require a computer science degree. While it is feasibly possible to build print job files like G-code by hand, people very rarely do so. Instead, they make use of 3D printing applications that assist them in this process. There are two stages to this process. The first stage, 3D printer control software involves importing your 3D mesh model and then locking it into a specific size and orientation within the bounds of the printers fabrication stage, the build platform. The second stage 3D printer slicing software governs the process of tuning and tweaking every aspect of how that digital template will be used to specifically direct the device itself to produce a physical object. We'll be exploring the 3D printer control software in this video and using the open-source software, Ultimaker Cura to demonstrate. We will wait to pick up the trickier 3D slicer component in the next video. What is 3D printer control software? What do you mean by 3D control software? What aspect of the process does it control? 3D control software packages are utilities to import that mesh interchange file you generated from your design file and make all the decisions about how the machine were fabricated. Even before you have the opportunity to tune and tweak all the fine details for how the paths are selected, you have a first task to determine the position of the object in the build up of the scale, the rotation of the object, whether you want to make multiples of the same object or perhaps mirror one object across to produce a mirrored pair. All of these transformations and translation decisions you make at the start of the process will then provide the ground rules for how the 3D slicer analyses the mesh and produces the clear instructions for the machine to follow. The 3D slicer on the other hand is the set of processes that are performed on the mesh once it is fixed into absolute place, scale, and rotation. Typically, composed of a series of interdependent scripts that help both to identify the simple paths need to produce the object as well as performing a number of smaller adjustments to settings pads and other instructions that delivers a full set of instructions to producing that model from base to top with all the surface features and functional requirements successfully executed. Note that traditionally the 3D slicer is considered a separate aspect or package from the control software. Some control software packages give you options to try multiple slicers to produce different job files based on how those slicers resolve certain features. These days in most cases, 3D control software includes 3D slicing software. So these two types of software packages are considered instead merely two operational stages in the process of preparing your files within the 3D control software program. Let's take a look at Ultimaker Cura to show you how the 3D control as slicer features are included and provide a quick overview of how this tool fits into the digital pipeline. So now, we have the 3D printer control software stage of preparing the print job tackle. With all the parts in place within Cura's virtual representation of the build platform scaled and ready to go. So it's time to go and explore the wide range of options and decisions we will face as we move on to the 3D printing slicing software stage. So next, let's take a look at the job files that will be produced as a result of this entire process.
