Running Chitubox and resin 3D printing with Gentoo

AECFXI · n00b Joined: 28 Nov 2018 Posts: 33

Resin 3D printing is a seriously big emerging component of the DIY culture and Chitubox is emerging as the most popular "slicer" software being used by the resin 3D printing community. As a "slicer", it cuts up a 3D model into "layers" for a resin printer to print out and performs other tasks needed to make the model printable + defining the printing parameters. This software is a necessary component for any use of a resin 3D printer. I've been getting into resin 3D printing as a very long-time Gentoo user, and was startled to find Chitubox is neither in the official portage tree nor can I identify any overlay with a chitubox ebuild available in its repository.

Chitubox does release a linux version of its software and it's available as a tar.gz download and is a part of the Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora ecosystems. The installation directions are here: https://www.chitubox.com/en/article/support/howto/chitubox-free/installation/50 However, I can't figure out how to install or run the application on gentoo.

I firstly want to encourage the Gentoo to community to include this popular 3D printing slicing software in the official package tree or make its availability in a custom overlay known.

Secondly, I could use some support with a workaround to run the application. I tried just extracting the tarball and executing the program in KDE's Dophin file manager with no discernable output. Asking Dolphin to run it in console seems to give this output:

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21635

AECFXI · n00b Joined: 28 Nov 2018 Posts: 33

An update on the current state of resin 3D printing software on Gentoo for anyone stumbling into this thread from a google search:

Along with the discussion on Chitubox,

Cura, a fully open source slicer, is in the main tree behind a ~amd64 keyword, however it will not run properly for Plasma/KDE users running a recent version of QT, at least not the ebuild in the portage tree. This is a known problem and it appears that Cura's developers are not interested in making an ebuild of their software compatible with QT at this time. Arch users in a QT environment have reported success running it with an AppImage.

Lychee is a very new freemium slicer that is getting some highly favorable reviews, which I was not aware of until an hour ago. They have an AppImage readily downloadable from https://mango3d.io/downloads/, and I had no trouble running the AppImage. For me it required only the following:

ouranes · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2021 Posts: 6

For the record, I found a way to use a resin printer with a chitu board (the Elegoo Mars 2) with only freesoftware (chitubox and lychee being both proprietary).

I use prusa-slicer, which is already in portage, to slice my model into a .sl1 file, then I use uv3dp to convert it to a .ctb file, like this:

ouranes · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2021 Posts: 6

An update as of 2022 : chitu boards (in most printers) now only accept ctbv4 file format, which uv3dp doesn't support (it outputs ctbv2 and ctbv3).

I now use sl1toctb to convert my files, it works similarly to uv3dp :

lastrodamo · n00b Joined: 26 Jan 2023 Posts: 8

I would like to know if stl1toctb work for all elegoo SLA/MSLA printers.
I don't want to use chitubox.
Can you give me feedback on your experiences?
How can i check my ctb file? I use

ouranes · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2021 Posts: 6

I've only tried it with the Saturn and the Mars 2, but it's supposed to work for any ctb based printer.

My experience has been flawless since I started using it, it just does the job. Figuring out _how_ to setup prusaslicer was indeed more painful. I started from the Prusa SL1 profile (Prusa's SLA printer), then edited it to match what I had in Chitubox, but of course the parameter names did not match 1on1.

So I learned what they meant, and it was then easier. There are two important set of settings :

1. In the "printer settings", using the "advanced" settings (you can switch between simple, advanced and expert settings)

* the "bed shape", where you give the size of your bed, the "x" and "y"
* the "max print height", which is basically the "z" of print volume, how high a print can be
* the "display width" and "display height", which are the same things than "bed shape"
* the "number of pixels x / y", which is the resolution of the printer

If it's not enough to get proper print, you may want to go to "expert" settings and change "Display orientation" and/or "mirror horizontally" (you'll have to play with that to find which combination work). In case anybody needs it : for the Saturn, I have display orientation "Landscape" and mirror horizontally checked, for the Mars 2 I have display orientation "Portrait" and mirror horizontally checked.

2. In the "material settings" (that is, the resin settings), you'll need to change :

* the initial layer height (it varies depending on printer ; if you can't find information for yours, it's safe to start with 0.05 mm)
* the exposure time
* the initial exposure time

For those last two, it depends both on the printer and on the resin, but not on the software. So you can just make a web search to find what people use for your combo of printer and resin, reddit is full of such reports.

Regarding the file format version, I don't know if there is a way to tell the version. sl1toctb only handles v4 files, so you could use it with the `-i` option (the inspect mode), it will tell you if it doesn't recognize it (thus, it's not a v4). I seem to remember uv3dp had something similar, if so, if it refuses to use the file, it's not a v3, nor v2 If the printer was produced this year or last year (or if you updated its firmware in that interval), it's probably v4. If it was two years ago, it will probably be a v3. In any case, if you put a v3 file in a printer expecting v4 (or reversely), it will just say that the file is not recognized, so no biggie here. And you will use the same prusaslicer settings whatever the version is, the only thing that changes is whether you should use uv3dp or sl1toctb, so no biggie either if you don't get the proper one at first.

lastrodamo · n00b Joined: 26 Jan 2023 Posts: 8

Thank you very much ouranes

I have configured my printer (Elegoo Mars 3 Pro) in Prusaslicer.
Everything is working fine in expert mode.

So here are the printer settings:
https://3dminfographie.com/images/impression_3d/configuration_mars_3_pro-00.png

I have chosen :
Portrait display orientation
Horizontal symmetry checked

For the layers :
https://3dminfographie.com/images/impression_3d/layers_mars_3_pro-00.png

I changed the faded layers to 5 instead of 10.
Chitubox talks about a layer counter and choosing from 3 to 6 layers
Should I change it to 10?

However, while reading the manual of the Mars 3 Pro printer, I found several parameters that I can't find in Prusaslicer.
It advises me :
. Bottom lift height: 3 to 5 mm.
. Bottom lift speed: 80.00mm/min.
. Lift height: 3 to 5mm.
. Lift speed: 110.00mm/min.
. Retract speed: 280.00mm/min.

Here are the parameters I found by doing sl1toctb -i of a ctb that I converted with sl1toctb :
[Print config]
Bottom lift height: 7.00mm.
Bottom lift speed: 70.00mm/min.
Lift height: 7.00mm.
Lift speed: 70.00mm/min.
Retract speed: 210.00mm/min.

What to do in this case? Can we modify in Prusaslicer these parameters, so that I can find them in the export ?

For the material I chose a resin Esun PLA.
Here is a summary of prusaslicer
https://3dminfographie.com/images/impression_3d/esun_pla_configuration-00.png

ouranes · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2021 Posts: 6

lastrodamo · n00b Joined: 26 Jan 2023 Posts: 8

Thank you for all these tips

I converted with sl1toctb and the file is not recognized by the Mars 3 Pro printer

I tried to use uv3dp and the file is not recognized either.

What should I do?

ouranes · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2021 Posts: 6

If sl1toctb does not work for you, you can either use UVTools, or, if you want to keep the minimalist approach, try to fix sl1toctb for you. A good first step to do that would be to inspect a known working file with `sl1toctb -i` or UVtools, check what differs with the ones generated by sl1toctb, then change sl1toctb to use those settings, possibly hardcoded.