Running Chitubox and resin 3D printing with Gentoo

[AECFXI]

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/sup ... llation/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:

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/home/matthew/Downloads/CHITUBOX V1.8.1/CHITUBOX: symbol lookup error: /home/matthew/Downloads/CHITUBOX V1.8.1/CHITUBOX: undefined symbol: _ZNSt7__cxx1112basic_stringIcSt11char_traitsIcESaIcEE9_M_createERmm, version Qt_5

I tried

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PKGDIR=/tar.gz folder path/ emerge -aK chitubox

and several variations of this w/ the tar file named "chitubox-1.8.1.tar.gz" but only ever got the output:

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emerge: there are no binary packages to satisfy "chitubox".

I tried placing the chitubox-1.8.1.tar.gz file in /usr/portage/distfiles/ and doing emerge -a chitubox but had the same output.

Most threads about installing from a tar.gz files are well over 10 years old. Creating an ebuild myself is really over my head. There's probably a lot of basic stuff about this topic I don't understand yet. I even tried running the windows version in WINE without any initial success. Whatever help folks can offer would be really great, and if we can get a chitubox ebuild available somewhere for everyone resin 3D printing w/ gentoo, that would be even better!

[Hu]

I've been getting into 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.

Packages are in the main tree, or a major overlay, if they can satisfy the quality standards of that tree and have a maintainer to tend to the ebuild. If Chitubox is not in the tree, then either no one cares to maintain it or it has a quality problem that required its exclusion. If the former is a problem, you could volunteer to maintain it. If the latter is a problem, you could work with its upstream authors to resolve the quality issues.

Chitubox does release a linux version of its software and it's available as a tar.gz download

I had a quick look around the referenced site, and I see a few problems. First, the navigation bar does not work, because it is implemented in Javascript. This is not fatal, but does speak to a lack of awareness that bodes ill for the future. Second, the download page always points to a Windows executable, even when choosing the radio button for Linux. Again, this does not look good. Third, the download appears to require an authenticated login. This is a really bad sign for getting it into the main tree. There are fetch-restricted packages in the tree, but in my opinion, you will have a harder time convincing anyone to help you or care about a package that is fetch-restricted. Convincing upstream to switch to unrestricted downloads would be helpful.

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.

The first step to getting it into a popular tree is to propose a working ebuild, or find someone to help you write one.

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/home/matthew/Downloads/CHITUBOX V1.8.1/CHITUBOX: symbol lookup error: /home/matthew/Downloads/CHITUBOX V1.8.1/CHITUBOX: undefined symbol: _ZNSt7__cxx1112basic_stringIcSt11char_traitsIcESaIcEE9_M_createERmm, version Qt_5

The application was compiled incorrectly. It depends on a symbol not provided by any library it can find. You should recompile it with standard options, and it will likely start properly afterward.

I tried

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PKGDIR=/tar.gz folder path/ emerge -aK chitubox

and several variations of this w/ the tar file named "chitubox-1.8.1.tar.gz" but only ever got the output:

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emerge: there are no binary packages to satisfy "chitubox".

The provided tar.gz is probably not a Gentoo binpkg, but instead just a plain tar file. As such, you cannot use emerge to install the tar.gz directly, because it lacks the required control information.

I tried placing the chitubox-1.8.1.tar.gz file in /usr/portage/distfiles/ and doing emerge -a chitubox but had the same output.

If you want to treat it as a distfile, then you need an ebuild that can consume the distfile.

Most threads about installing from a tar.gz files are well over 10 years old. Creating an ebuild myself is really over my head. There's probably a lot of basic stuff about this topic I don't understand yet. I even tried running the windows version in WINE without any initial success. Whatever help folks can offer would be really great, and if we can get a chitubox ebuild available somewhere for everyone 3D printing w/ gentoo, that would be even better!

I would start by linking to the instructions on how to download the source, and how to build it. Due to the problems with their site, I was unable to confirm whether they even offer source, and if so how to get it.

[AECFXI]

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:

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emerge -av sys-fs/fuse:0

Which I already had, and

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chmod -x Lychee*.AppImage
/.LycheeSlicer-3.2.1.AppImage

to run the software. I have not tested every feature, but I am able to import files and move them around albeit its more slow and laggy than I would have hoped for. It does seem very useable overall though.

It seems the best option in the current state of things is to run an appimage of Lychee.

[ouranes]

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:

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uv3dp myfile.sl1 myfile.ctb

Prusa-slicer is not as good as chitubox or lychee if you're into manual support (for automatic support, I heard it's actually better than them), so I do mine in blender. It requires to know to use blender, but unsurprisingly, it's way more powerful to modelize support than what any slicer could do. The other cool thing is that prusa-slicer can slice gcode for FDM printers as well, so if you have a FDM and a SLA, you need only prusa-slicer for slicing. Given how cura/slic3r/prusa-slicer can be an unmasking hell on gentoo, it helps to need only one.

[ouranes]

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 :

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sl1toctb myfile.sl1 myfile.ctb

Alternatively, there is UVtools, which has many more features than simply converting file format. I found it a bit difficult to build it from sources and even run it on gentoo, though, because it's a dotnet program and this requires a lot of dependencies. Comparatively, sl1toctb is a C program with minimal dependencies.

[lastrodamo]

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

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file myfile.ctb

and it answer data.
The file weighs 10Mo
I there a tutorial to configure Prusaslicer for elegoo SLA/MSLA printer ?

[ouranes]

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]

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/impre ... pro-00.png

I have chosen :
Portrait display orientation
Horizontal symmetry checked

For the layers :
https://3dminfographie.com/images/impre ... 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/impre ... ion-00.png

[ouranes]

Thank you very much ouranes
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 ?

Apparently, those values are hardcoded in sl1toctb. You can edit the code to put your values there, if you want it to be optimized, I guess. That being said, I haven't had any issue with the values used in either of my printers, their diference may not be that important. Given it's about lift speed and height, the more conservative values from sl1toctb compared to the settings you found mean print will be slower but safer (less chances of the print failing by not sticking to the build plate). If those settings are Elegoo recommendations, you can bet they're already on the safe side, though. In your place, I would start with sl1toctb default settings, then try to adjust in case of problems, save the first working profile I get, then try to adjust parameters one at a time to optimise. Or just stop when things work and spend time modeling rather than configuring - depends on what is fun to you.

If it's your first experience with a resin printer, it really wouldn't hurt to stay on the safe side, regarding parameters. Print fails are frequent, especially when starting, be it for faulty support on the model, poor inclination, print file settings, room temperature problem, vibrations, faulty usb stick, etc. One less possible source will help you find your problem more easily.

[lastrodamo]

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]

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.