The beta is gone, and the stable release is in!

Download Cura 3.2.1 today

(http://go.imade3d.com/cura-download)

and reap the benefits of the breakneck feature development of this massively popular open source project.

Highlights

Startup time greatly reduced.

This makes my Cura startup speed hack obsolete. And I’m grateful for that.

Better graphics performance on your old and slow computer

Adaptive layer height
Experimental section. This one is amazing. Following the suit of many slicers starting with the powerful but buggy KISS slicer many years ago, and continuting with Slic3r Prusa Edition and the experimental IceSL slicer, Cura has its own Variable Layer Height Slicing, and it is amazing. Unlike other slicers that offer varying the layer height manually, Cura let’s you set some boundaries, and then figures out all alone what parts of your model need lower layer height for maximum smoothness. Way to go.


A sphere, adaptively smooth.

Tree Supports
Experimental section. A new way to handle overhangs similar to what Meshmixer or Autodesk Print Studio have pioneered. It uses ‘branches’ that ‘grow’ and multiply towards areas that need support, with fewer points of contact on the model, giving better surface finishes. This makes it ideal for organically-formed prints. It is possible to use tree support in tandem with other support methods.


A horse statue by ProCoPrint3D.

Change Log

Tree support
Experimental tree-like support structure that uses ‘branches’ to support prints. Branches ‘grow’ and multiply towards the model, with fewer contact points than alternative support methods. This results in better surface finishes for organic-shaped prints.

Adaptive layers
Prints with a variable layer thickness which adapts to the angle of the model’s surfaces. The result is high-quality surface finishes with a marginally increased print time. This setting can be found under the experimental category.

Faster startup
Printer definitions are now loaded when adding a printer, instead of loading all available printers on startup.

Better Graphics Performance
Backface culling in layer view. Doubled frame rate by only rendering visible surfaces of the model in the layer view, instead of rendering the entire model. Good for lower spec GPUs as it is less resource-intensive.

Multi build plate
Experimental feature that creates separate build plates with shared settings in a single session, eliminating the need to clear the build plate multiple times. Multiple build plates can be sliced and sent to a printer or printer group in Cura Connect. This feature must be enabled manually in the preferences ‘general’ tab.

Improved mesh type selection
New button in the left toolbar to edit per model settings, giving the user more control over where to place support. Objects can be used as meshes, with a drop down list where ‘Print as support’, ‘Don’t overlap support with other models’, ‘Modify settings for overlap with other models’, or ‘Modify settings for infill of other models’ can be specified. Contributed by fieldOfView.

View optimization
Quick camera controls introduced in version 3.1 have been revised to create more accurate isometric, front, left, and right views.

Updated sidebar to QtQuick 2.0
Application framework updated to increase speed, achieve a better width and style fit, and gives users dropdown menus that are styled to fit the enabled Ultimaker Cura theme, instead of the operating system’s theme.

Hide sidebar
The sidebar can now be hidden/shown by selecting View > Expand/Collapse Sidebar, or with the hotkey CMD + E (Mac) or CTRL + E (PC and Linux).

Disable ‘Send slice information’
A shortcut to disable ‘Send slice information’ has been added to the first launch to make it easier for privacy-conscious users to keep slice information private.

Signed binaries (Windows)
For security-conscious users, the Windows installer and Windows binaries have been digitally signed to prevent “Unknown application” warnings and virus scanner false-positives.

OctoPrint plugin added to plugin browser
This plugin enables printers managed with OctoPrint to print via Ultimaker Cura interface (version 3.2 or later).

Bugfixes

  • Fixed a bug where the mirror tool and center model options when used together would reset the model transformations
  • Updated config file path to fix crashes caused by user config files that are located on remote drives
  • Updated Arduino drivers to fix triggering errors during OTA updates in shared environments.
  • Fixed an issue where arranging small models would fail, due to conflict with small model files combined with the “Ensure models are kept apart” option