With the S4-Slicer, developer Joshua Bird presents an experimental tool for non-planar 3D printing. In contrast to conventional methods, in which models are sliced horizontally layer by layer, the S4-Slicer creates complex, curved print paths. These enable a more uniform surface structure and potentially better mechanical properties, especially with curved or angled geometries.
The special feature of the approach lies in the integration of the entire process into a Jupyter notebook environment. There, the system first calculates a tetrahedral mesh of the 3D model. On this basis, the shortest connection from the selected starting point – for example the nose of a benchy model – to the printing platform is determined. From this path, the slicer derives a deformation grid that changes the geometry of the model so that it can be processed with a conventional slicer such as Cura.
After slicing, the generated G-code is transformed back into Jupyter. This restores the original geometry, with the print paths following the deformed shape. This step is computationally intensive, but allows existing slicer software to be used in an otherwise unsupported scenario.
Bird’s project is based on concepts from previous open source projects, in particular the S^3 slicer. According to Bird, the name S4 stands for “Simplified S^3”, not as a hierarchical continuation.
The S4 slicer is open source and available on GitHub.
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