The team at Dutch company Printr are on a mission to make 3D printing more accessible and easier to use. The manufacturers of The Element, which turns any 3D printer into a smart connected device, have gone one step further with its quest in bringing 3D printing up-to-date by launching its own slicing software called Katana.
The launch comes hot on the heels of $820,000 in seed funding for Printr, which will be used in an effort to scale its FORMIDE platform and support more desktop 3D printer manufacturers with The Element.
Katana is a desktop application available for free and comes with over 160 pre-configured printer settings and 50+ material profiles, Douwe Bart Mulder, CEO of Printr explains more:
“As fellow 3D printing enthusiasts, we know that the best possible print is determined by a well calibrated printer and how well 80+ parameters are adjusted within a slicing program. But we couldn’t think of a good reason as to why it has to look so complicated. Katana is a demonstration that the technical process of 3D printing can indeed be a lot cleaner than what we are experiencing today, without any compromise on print quality.
"The goal from the very beginning was to provide 3D printing users with a fresh take on achieving impressive prints, consistently, and in significantly shorter period of time. ”
Katana converts your 3D model (.STL format) and determines the best tool path based on the parameters selected. It uses the nozzle diameter, printing/movement speeds, layer height and other variables to determine the coordinates for where it needs to move and the rates at which it will do so. Once complete, a .gcode file will be created that can be sent to the printer via USB or through an SD card.
For newbies to 3D printing, Katana is user-friendly and straightforward. They can take advantage of Katana’s predefined database of 160+ printer settings and 50+ material profiles, all of which can be accessed and adjusted if required.
For the experts, it is refreshingly productive with a clean look. All the time and effort devoted to perfecting slice profiles won’t go to waste since they can be imported directly into Katana with just one click.
Features in this release
- 80+ parameters in advanced settings
- Fast reliable slicing
- Import slice profile from Cura
- Print via USB or SD card
- Quick print option
- 160+ preconfigured printer profiles
- 50+ preconfigured material profiles
The application is free to download on Printr’s website and is available for Mac OSX, Linux, and coming soon for Windows.
