area515/Photonic3D

Control software for resin 3D printers

Photonic3D is a control server for DLP resin 3D printers with a web-based user interface. It has been designed to run well on a Raspberry Pi, but is cross-platform and the install distribution will also run on Linux, Windows, and MacOS.

The server is capable of printing a variety of formats, including:

• .cws files created by Creation Workshop
• STL files, which Photonic3D will slice incrementally at times when the CPU would generally be inactive(exposure and gcode execution)
• Zip of PNG images, which Photonic3D will scan recursively and print based on alphanumeric ordering (meaning both zero-padded and non-padded numbered PNG files will work correctly)
• Single GIF, JPEG, or PNG image, which Photonic3D will extrude and optionally print a 3D relief
• Block of text, which Photonic3D will extrude using a system or user uploaded font
• SVG file, which Photonic3D will extrude and optionally print a 3D relief

Raspberry Pi Usage

If you have a brand new dedicated Raspberry Pi, there is a flashable Jessie Lite based image that you can use to quickly get started. Download the Raspberry Pi system image and then take a look at the image install docs at photonic3d.com for the installation instructions.

If you have an existing Raspberry Pi, follow the Linux install instructions below.

User Interface Examples

Use with Creation Workshop

Photonic3D can run .cws scene files saved from Creation Workshop which contain PNG files. When printed, these files will obey the GCode and imaging commands inside of the files instead of the slicing profiles configured within Photonic3D. This process is depicted in this YouTube video.

Feature List

1. Print STL files without performing pre-slice stage.
2. Load STL files directly from thingiverse or the internet.
3. Uses common xml Creation Workshop configuration files.
4. Custom printer mask overlays.
5. TLS encryption with Basic authentication.
6. Use of FreeMarker templating in configuration files.
7. Restful developer API for printer management.
8. Video Recording and playback of build.
9. Print Zip/CWS files exported from Creation Workshop.
10. Execution of custom gcode from GUI.
11. Managment of multiple printers with a single print host.
12. Plugin based notification framework.
13. Sophisticated javascript calculators that compute gradients, exposure time, lift speed and distance.
14. Notification of Printer events through webSockets.
15. Simple printer setup for Zip/CWS based printing.
16. Automatic updates via online installs or manual updates through offline installs
17. Script(or a native Windows app)to find CWH based printers on the local network with zero network setup. (DLNA/UPNP support)
18. Capability of building printer configurations with simulated Serial ports and displays.
19. Two clicks and a password for Linux Wifi management to support a turnkey hardware solution.
20. Automatic projector model detection through serial (Plug and play for Acer & Viewsonic models).
21. 3d firmware printer port detection.
22. Hardware compatibility test suite.
23. Experiment and override printing options after a print is already in progress.
24. Take still pictures of the build at the click of a button.
25. Print material detection framework implemented with a computer vision inspection portal.
26. Supports Windows, OSX and Linux OSs. (Service support on Linux)
27. Supports dynamic direct slice-on-the-fly 3d printing of (.mazecube, .stl, .jpg/.png/.gif, .cws/.zip) files.
28. Automatic uploading of files from removable drives. (USB sticks)

Linux Installation Quickstart

NOTE: When you install this to your linux host/computer, your computer display will be used for the projector/LCD, your computer will send serial to the microcontroller on the printer, and your computer runs a web server to provide a GUI via browsers. If you do not intend to dedicate your computer to the purpose of this software, you might want to find a raspberry pi to use for this software.

If you installed by mistake and want to uninstall, remove the init.d service by executing the following as root and restarting:
sudo update-rc.d -f cwhservice remove

If you are experienced with Linux, you can quickly install Photonic3D with the following commands:

Latest stable:

sudo wget https://github.com/area515/Creation-Workshop-Host/raw/master/host/bin/start.sh
sudo chmod 777 start.sh
sudo ./start.sh

Latest development:

sudo wget https://github.com/WesGilster/Creation-Workshop-Host/raw/master/host/bin/start.sh
sudo chmod 777 start.sh
sudo ./start.sh WesGilster

Latest Kudo3D Fork (or other forks named Photonic3D):

sudo wget https://github.com/Kudo3D/Photonic3D/raw/master/host/bin/start.sh
sudo chmod 777 start.sh
sudo ./start.sh Kudo3D/Photonic3D

Photonic3D will be installed into /opt/cwh and an init script will be added to /etc/init.d to launch the server on boot.

Windows Installation Quickstart

• Download the latest stable or development version:
• Stable repo Github Releases or Development repo Github Releases or Kudo3D repo Github Releases
• Unzip the zip file into the directory of your choice.
• Double click on start.bat.

Client Tools

There are also a number of tools designed to run on your client desktop that are bundled with the installation.

• Download the latest stable or development version:
• Stable repo Github Releases or Development repo Github Releases
• Unzip the zip file into the directory of your choice.

The browseprinter tool will help you find the Photonic3D server on your network, in case you have it installed a machine with a dynamic IP address and you don't know what what is.

• Linux: Run sudo browseprinter.sh at the command line
• Windows: Run browseprinter.bat