BeltEngine

A commandline slicer for belt-style printers utilising CuraEngine.

Ported code from blackbelt slicer by FieldOfView

Installation

Raspbian/Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt update
sudo apt install \
  libgeos-dev \
  libblas-dev \
  liblapack-dev \
  gfortran \
  libjpeg-dev \
  zlib1g-dev

wget https://github.com/Autodrop3d/BeltEngine/raw/main/dist/belt-engine-0.1.3.tar.gz
pip3 install ./belt-engine-0.1.3.tar.gz

Other OSs

The suggested way to install BeltEngine is via Pip however you may need to install additional dependencies in order to get the pip install to succeed.

wget https://github.com/Autodrop3d/BeltEngine/raw/main/dist/belt-engine-0.1.3.tar.gz
pip3 install ./belt-engine-0.1.3.tar.gz

Help Wanted: Please submit a pull request to update these docs if you install BeltEngine on an OS that is not yet documented!

Building the Pip Package

Warning: This is for developers only. Normally you will not need to do this.

Install poetry in system,
cd into the project directly and create venv using python3 -m venv venv
Activate virtualenv with source venv/bin/activate
Run poetry install (this will install development version as executable in the virtualenv. That means you can just change the code and run belt-engine and changes will take effect. Usefull for development). I did not test this in rpi (YMMV)
Change the version in pyproject file.
Run poetry build. This will create packages inside dist folder.

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python-poetry/poetry/master/get-poetry.py | python3 -
source $HOME/.poetry/env
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
poetry build
cd dist

Usage

It is recommended to use the script from a python virtual environment. The virtual environment can be created like this:

python3 -m virtualenv ./venv
venv/scripts/activate

On Windows, use the following:

python -m virtualenv ./venv
venv\Scripts\activate

To install the dependencies on Linux, you may need to install libspatialindex with sudo apt install libspatialindex-dev. Once that is available, the Python requirements can be installed directly using pip.

(venv) pip install -r requirements.txt

On Windows, it is easier to install some python wheels manually from https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/: numpy, scipy, Rtree, Shapely, Pillow, lxxml The rest of the python dependencies can be installed using the same pip command as above.

The basic usage of the script is as follows:

(venv) python3 -m belt_engine.BeltEngine -o output.gcode model.stl

This uses the settings defined in the .def.json files in the resources/definitions folder.

Setting values can be specified in configuration files, or directly on the command-line.

Configuration files

Basic syntax:

(venv) python BeltEngine.py -o output.gcode model.stl -c default.ini

Contents of default.ini:

machine_width = 300
machine_depth = 300
layer_height = 0.15

Multiple configuration files can be specified, eg:

(venv) python BeltEngine.py -o output.gcode model.stl -c default.ini -c petg.ini

This way a default profile for a a certain printer type can be created with a smaller profile with just the changes to that printer type needed to print with a certain material.

Configuration files are read "in order", so setting for which values are specified both in default.ini and in petg.ini use the value from petg.ini

Command-line values:

Basic syntax:

(venv) python BeltEngine.py -o output.gcode model.stl -s infill_sparse_density=25 -s support_enable=True

Setting values specified on the command line always override what is set in configuration files, even if those configuration files are specified after the command-line value.

Example for Blackbelt 3D printer

(venv) python BeltEngine.py -o output.gcode model.stl -c settings/blackbelt.cfg.ini -c settings/bb_04mm.cfg.ini -s beltengine_gantry_angle=35 -s support_enable=True

CR30 Example

python3 -m belt_engine.BeltEngine -o ./output.gcode model.stl -c ./belt_engine/settings/CR30.cfg.ini -s support_enable=True -v

normal printer Example

python3 -m belt_engine.BeltEngine -o ./output.gcode model.stl -c ./belt_engine/settings/verttest.cfg.ini -s support_enable=True -v

Development effort sponsored by: Autodrop3d Polar3d