Quick Update for the AnyCubic Photon S Photon Workshop V2.1.17.RC1

Just last week I did the first part of the review of the Anycubic Photon S. One of the pain points of printing was the long workflow.

Chitubox
Prusa slicer
Photon File Validator
Photon Workshop

First thing I have to decide is if the model needs to be hollowed to conserve resin. I load up the model in Chitubox and use the built-in tool to hollow the model. After the models hollowed and a drain hole is placed I export it to an STL and open with Prusa Slicer. In Prusa Slicer, I orient the model and use its auto-support feature and auto-orient feature. It is a roll of the dice if the orientation makes sense. I want all the supports to be on the back/bottom of the print. Little marks are left when removing the supports. I have found that Prusa Slicer has the best auto support feature. Then I export to STL again with the supports and open back up with Chitubox. I leave Prusa Slicer open in case I need to modify or add supports. In Chitubox I slice to the regular photon format. Not the new photon s file format. I then open the sliced file in Photon File Validator and verify no islands are present. If any islands are found I then go back to Prusa Slicer and manually add the missing supports. Finally, I opened up the object in photon workshop and slice and save to the format the Anycubic Photon S can read. This process can take a very long time to complete. I can say that is worth it. I have had zero failures except 1. I have missed a few islands but I don’t consider that a failure.

I really wish Anycubic would incorporate the auto-support feature of Prusa Slicer along with Photon File Validator and bake into Photon Workshop. Both are open source and all the code is available on Github.

Well, it looks like Anycubic has made this a lot easier. I have only just loaded the Photon Workshop but it looks completely different. Anycubic did a major overhaul. The workflow can be brought down to just 2 programs. Part of this is that they upgraded the firmware for the printer itself. The Photon S can now print .photon .photons and .pws files.

Auto support generation seems to have improved. Manual support adding has improved. The model can be hollowed and a hole can be placed to drain filament. That covers all the bases.

Now everything can be done in Photon Workshop. I did just a test run. Hollowed and holed the model then auto-generated support. Sliced and opened in the validator and added the missing supports and then did the final slice.

I will test fully in the next part.

Thank you Anycubic… Now only to incorporate the validator into Photon Workshop.