Cura

If you’re not familiar with Ultimaker, then you probably don’t know that it’s a Dutch company that makes 3D printers. And if you don’t know that, you probably don’t know this bit either: Cura is an Ultimaker product. It is a free, open source, 3D printer slicing software application that will help you prepare your model for 3D printing. "Cura creates a seamless integration between hardware, software and materials for the best 3D printing experience around," says Ultimaker.

Cura is available for all 3 major desktop operating systems. It is available for Windows (as a 32-bit and a 64-bit application), it is available for Mac, and it is available for Linux as well. A straightforward setup wizard will help you install Cura on a PC that runs Windows. When you’re done with that and you launch Cura for the first time, you’ll be asked to add a printer (Ultimaker, Custom, or Other) and connect to your printer. If you don’t connect to your printer, you can use a portable USB drive to transfer files to the printer.

Cura has a good looking and user friendly interface, which should make it easier to figure out how to use this application. If you can’t figure things out right away, then you need to know that a detailed, comprehensive Cura manual is available online. Go over it to understand everything that can be done with this free 3D printer slicing software application.

According to Ultimaker, using Cura is a fairly straightforward 3-step process:
Step 1 – design a 3D model with the modelling software of your choice and export it as a STL, 3MF or OBJ file.
Step 2 – import the 3D model into Cura; preview it, scale it, adjust the settings as you see fit.
Step 3 – print the 3D model with your Ultimaker printer.

Cura is free and open source software released under a GNU Affero General Public License.

If you have an Ultimaker 3D printer, you absolutely need to get Cura. With this advanced 3D printer slicing software application you can easily prepare any 3D model for printing.