standalone desktop version of SimplyPrint Slicer#832

I really like the UI of your Cloud Slicer and was wondering whether you would consider releasing a standalone desktop version of it.

Specifically, I would be interested in using the same UI as a desktop application, such as Electron, but with the actual slicing performed locally on the user’s computer rather than through the SimplyPrint cloud.

Essentially, the idea would be to have a desktop frontend for the slicing engines you already support, while keeping the processing entirely local. I think the UI you have already developed would make a very good standalone slicer frontend, compared to current WxWidget implementations in OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer, BambuStudio, etc.

Would this be something you might consider developing or open-sourcing as a separate application?

Thanks.

I’m afraid we can rule that out - it would be cool(ish), but it would defeat the purpose of our slicer, it would double the workload and most that use our slicer use it because they don’t have a desktop computer that can run the slicer engines. SimplyPrint is web-based, we do have a PWA so you can “install” it and run it, a biiit like an Electron app - though with everything being web-and-cloud-based.

Thanks for taking the time to put in a suggestion though! We try to be honest and up front about these things, so when we see a suggestion that we know ain’t gonna happen, we’d rather say right away than give a “PR-answer” and let hope build up.

Thanks for the honest answer. That makes sense.

Would you ever consider separating the SimplyPrint Slicer frontend from the cloud backend, or potentially releasing/licensing the frontend so it could be used with a locally running slicer engine? I really like the UI you’ve built, and I think there is value in having it as a frontend that users could connect to local CuraEngine, OrcaSlicer, or PrusaSlicer installations. SimplyPrint wouldn’t necessarily need to support local slicing itself; it could just provide the frontend while the community handles the local engine integration.

Thanks again for the response.

Hard to say. Potentially, but in that case it would most likely be an Enterprise-feature (self-hosting and all that). On lower tiers, our slicer caters more to those who don’t have a computer that can handle a desktop slicer, and most likely do not have or want a home server - so, for hobbyists; very doubtful I’d say. What’s the use-case? You mention the same slicers already provide.

The use-case is mainly the UI itself. I don’t particularly like the desktop UI of the existing slicers, and I’ve found wxWidgets (the GUI libraryused by Slic3r and its derivatives) to be limiting and/or restrictive to modify. I really like the interface of SimplyPrint’s slicer, so I was wondering whether it could potentially be used as a frontend for a local slicer engine instead. I realize that’s a fairly niche use case, but building a completely new slicer UI from scratch would be a substantial project, whereas you already have a UI that I think works very well and appears to be built on a more modern and flexible stack.

What, beyond the fact that there would potentially not be a monthly slicing limit, and then speed, would be the benefit of not using our cloud for the slicing though?

offline use and, use with slicer engines you don’t currently support, such as preflight or nightly versions of orcaslicer and its various forks