Before talking about ChiTuBox I put you a little bit in context. Some time ago I received my new resin printer AnyCubic Photon and I started to mess with it right out of the box. This printer comes with its own official software for slicing, the AnyCubic Photon Slicer.
While this software do its job perfectly, you are missing enough extra features. Obviously, you can complete the preparation of other pieces by using some other available software. But in my opinion, using different programs to prepare your print pieces is not an effective way to work.
Among the various alternatives that exist to prepare your pieces I discovered the ChiTuBox Slicer. To this day, it is the one that has convinced me the most and the one that I use daily in my daily impressions. I leave here some reasons why using ChiTuBox is a good idea.
1.- Great speed of slicing your pieces compared to other existing programs
If speed and waiting times are a problem for you, ChiTuBox is your software. ChiTuBox slice your files much faster than a large majority of current Slicers available in the market. So do not hesitate to try it.
2.- Function of automatic supports very well integrated, as well as manual supports
The function of automatic supports that brings the ChiTuBox is effective enough to not have to “retouch” hardly any support after the creation of the same. With a wide range of possibilities and configurations you will easily forget about the problems caused by suction or weak supports.
It even brings different forms of finishing in structures that I have not seen (at the moment) in other Slicing softwares. For example, the possibility of placing spheres in the final area of contact with the piece. This will facilitate the work at the time of eliminating the supports, since in theory they do not leave as much mark as the normal columns and are easier to “take off”.
In case you need to make some modification after executing the function of automatic supports, you can always do it without any problem since it is completely available.
3.- Possibility of making the hollow pieces, as well as holes for resin drainage
ChiTuBox offers a function to convert solid pieces into hollows by selecting the filling structure and its density. It also allows you to give a thickness to the walls in millimeters.
It is recommended that you then make holes in the design for the drainage of the resin that remains inside. In this way we will save enough material during the printing process.
Before you should use programs like MeshMixer and similar to perform all these operations, with ChiTuBox you can do everything without needing other alternatives, which saves preparation time.
4.- Support for a large number of formats
ChiTuBox supports a large number of formats for the export of prepared parts. This gives us great flexibility when working with a certain software. Too, developers will release a format plugin that can support many format like cws, and others more.
Among the available storage and export formats we can find the following:
- ChiTuBox project (*.chitubox)
- ChiTuBox Slicer (*.cbddlp)
- STL file (*.stl)
- Object file (*.obj)
- Photon Slicer (*.photon)
- Photons *.photons)
- Zip compressed (*.zip)
- SLC (*.slc)
- FHD (*fhd)
- WoW (*.wow)
5.- Automatic positioning function available
You can easily position any part in the printing base with a single click. Among the available options is to position it directly in the center, or in one of the X and Y axes.
You also have an option to position the axes at a certain desired distance (very useful).
6.- Intuitive graphic interface for the user
While the dark interfaces is not something that I’m passionate about (a mania of mine), I must admit that it’s quite accomplished. In fact, for the eyes it is something that is appreciated when you spend many hours in front of a computer.
The simplicity when positioning / modifying the pieces, and how easy it is to move between the menus is something that should be highlighted.
7.- Native support for a multitude of languages (12 in total)
ChiTuBox software currently supports 12 languages, including Spanish. The support of the programmers is excellent. In fact, I sent the translation to Spanish and in 48 hours they released the update v1.3.0 with the included one. Something worth mentioning.
The languages currently available are the following:
- German
- English
- French
- Italian
- Portuguese
- Turkish
- Spanish
- Greek
- Russian
- Korean
- Simplified chinese
- Traditional chinese
8.- Slicer preview function very useful
ChiTuBox gives us the possibility to see in real time the section of the piece on two screens. While we move down the progress bar we can see the different layers that will heal in our design.
Apart from that, it will show us quite complete statistics, such as weight, volume, price, type of resin, etc. All this will facilitate our budgeted work before our clients.
To finish, and in the same screen, we will have the option to export, without needing to move to other sections.
9.- Support for all current operating systems
Currently, ChiTuBox supports 3 types of platforms, which is to be welcomed as not all slicing programs offer you all the available options.
- Windows (32/64bits)
- MacOS X10.6 o LATER
- Linux (Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora)
10.- Free updates for the community
Since the beginning of ChiTuBox , each and every one of the updates has been released for free. I know they have in mind to develop a ChiTuBox PRO version (possibly for a fee). This would come with exclusive features, but the main idea of the developers is to continue both applications and keep the current version free and with constant updates for the entire community.
From the group of FaceBook from ChiTuBox the programmers work hand in hand with the users who report errors, and they correct them on the fly. I encourage you to join and you can contribute your bit to the development.
There is also the possibility of importing APIs from third-party developers. These will provide ChiTuBox with new features provided by the community.
You can find another ChiTuBox interesting articles here: