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To start printing, you need to convert your model to layer-by-layer instructions for the printer with a slicer. We recommend using the PrusaSlicer, especially if you have an Original Prusa Printer.
The PrusaSlicer program can be found in our Drivers page, or directly in the PrusaSlicer product page.
When opening the program for the first time, it will prompt the Configuration Wizard (Configuration assistant for Mac). There, you can select your printer and filament.
After finishing the configuration setup, you can try your First print with PrusaSlicer (2.9).
We have many articles describing specific functions in the slicer: PrusaSlicer Support.
The PrusaSlicer settings are divided into Print Settings, Filaments, and Printers, accessed by tabs on the top left. The Print settings will define details of the model to be printed, like infill and supports. In "Filaments", you can adjust the settings for the specific filament being used, like temperature. The Printers tab is where you will find settings that can be changed in the printer's functioning, like retraction and firmware details. You can read more about the PrusaSlicer interface in our dedicated articles.
The Slic3r project was born in 2011 within the RepRap community as an effort to provide the growing 3D printing technology under the leadership of Alessandro Ranellucci, an open-source slicer. Slic3r spread among users quickly. When Josef Prusa was looking for a leading slicing software for Original Prusa printers, the choice fell on Slic3r. It was (and still is) an open-source and very powerful software.
Jo and Alessandro in 2012 (video interview)
However, as Prusa Research was growing (very, very, very fast), we needed to be more flexible with the slicing software development. We needed to make changes to the software, and the changes had to be done asap. We also needed to add more features. At this point, the co-operation with the detached original Slic3r team was unsustainable. The bottom line is that we decided to establish a fork of the original Slic3r project.
Slic3r Prusa Edition was released in November 2016 – read more about the launch here. A dedicated team of full-time Slic3r PE developers was established, and new functions were being added rapidly. These changes culminated in May 2019, when we released a new version with a major UI overhaul under a new name - PrusaSlicer 2.0.
Why the name change? First of all, the old name was really confusing. Even in our own materials, we often didn’t include the “PE” suffix, and the community used Slic3r and Slic3r PE pretty much interchangeably. New users could mistakenly download Slic3r and wonder why it looks different from the screenshots in the 3D Printing Handbook and why it’s not configured for their Prusa printer. Speaking about the original Slic3r: with each update, Slic3r PE was moving further and further away from its original code. We’ve rewritten all of the Perl source code into C++, and especially with the 2.0 update, there were so many differences that it seemed appropriate to make the name more distinct.
Of course, it’s still open-source, and you’ll find everything on our GitHub. And we’re still proud that our slicer is based on the original project written by Alessandro Ranellucci! Both projects now happily coexist, and new features are frequently merged between them.
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