3D Sprint vs IceSL

3D Sprint prepares CAD and polygon data for additive manufacturing and manages print jobs on 3D Systems plastic 3D printers. It imports native CAD files from industry-leading CAD systems, analyzes part geometry, corrects some CAD and STL translation errors, and offers manual polygon editing and hole filling. Preparation tools include automatic support generation, build placement, 3D nesting, printability checks, slicing, and estimates for build time and material. The software supports color-jet, digital light processing, multi-jet, stereolithography, and selective laser sintering printers, as well as resin slicing and multi-material printing. Users can submit jobs, manage queues and priorities, and view directly connected, networked, or shared printers. The Windows product accepts formats including STL, OBJ, PLY, STEP, IGES, and 3DS. Basic is a complimentary license included with purchases of specific 3D Systems plastic printers. A 30-day trial is available; paid pricing is on request. Pro upgrades an existing Basic license, and add-ons require an existing 3D Sprint license.

IceSL is a free set of 3D modeling and slicing tools for customizable shape fabrication. IceSL-forge combines modeling and slicing through a Lua language that describes Boolean combinations of triangle meshes, voxels, implicit surfaces and shaders. IceSL-slicer turns models or geometry scripts into G-code, DLP printer images and laser-cutter paths. SliceCrafter provides browser-based slicing, while WebPrinter previews G-code by emulating a 3D printer. Available slicing methods include cubic and tetrahedral infills, bridge supports, adaptive layer thickness, progressive infills, efficient offsetting, protective shields and self-supporting cavities. Polyfoam and Phasor infillers expose local density, orientation, direction and randomness controls. Layer thickness, infill density and printing speed can vary by layer. Documentation covers plugins, printer profiles and pyicesl Python bindings. IceSL requires a GPU with full OpenGL 4.3 support. Its free license is limited to internal research and academic use; commercial and production use are forbidden.