FOrcaSlicer¶
Read First¶
FOrcaSlicer can behave very differently from Snapmaker Orca while looking almost identical to it, so read every section of this wiki before you make any slice or print. It may take several minutes to work through, but it can save you time, effort, and trouble down the road.
Flexible OrcaSlicer - a fork of Snapmaker OrcaSlicer for the Snapmaker U1, built around one idea: the U1 has four independent print heads, so stop making them all do the same job.FOrcaSlicer lets each of the four heads carry a different nozzle diameter and take a different role in the print - a fine nozzle on the visible outer wall, a coarse nozzle on everything behind it, and painted color applied as a surface layer instead of a solid volume of filament.
Current release: v2.3.2-fos.8.5.6. See Releases and Download and Install.
Four Heads, Four Jobs¶
Most multi-material slicing treats extra print heads as a color feature: load four filaments, paint the model, done. The nozzles themselves are assumed identical - four of the same tool, differing only in what is fed into them.
The U1's four heads are independent hardware. They can carry different nozzle diameters. Once you accept that, the four heads stop being a color system and become a fabrication strategy - a way to spend precision where precision is visible, and speed where it is not.
- Assign features to nozzles by role. Outer wall wants a small nozzle - it is the surface you see. Inner wall, solid infill, and sparse infill want large ones - nobody sees them. A gear printed with a 0.2 mm outer wall and a 0.4 mm interior has an identical tooth profile to an all-0.2 mm print and finishes hours sooner. -> OW/IW Split
- Use a nozzle as a brush. Painted color is applied as a surface shell, so the width of a colored region follows the nozzle painting it. A patch laid down by a 0.6 mm nozzle is a bold single-pass band; the same patch on a 0.2 mm nozzle is a fine skin. Shell and core can even be different materials - a soft TPU grip wrapped mechanically around a rigid PETG core. -> Color Patch
- Pick the outer wall nozzle first. It sets the ceiling on surface quality and it is the one choice visible in the finished part. Everything else is a speed decision.
- Do not over-assign. Four nozzles means four tool changes per layer, each with a purge. Mixed nozzles pay off on parts with real volume behind a demanding surface, not on small ones.
- Each nozzle already prints at its own line width and speed. Assign a feature to a nozzle and it takes that nozzle's width and speed - support and the prime tower included, not just walls and infill. This is what mixed nozzles are for. -> OW/IW Split
- Layer height is still shared, and bounded by the smallest nozzle in use. This is the largest constraint in FOrcaSlicer today, and lifting it is the current focus of development. -> Known Limitations
Start Here¶
Download and Install¶
Installer, portable build, requirements, and uninstalling.
First Launch¶
First-run prompts, choosing your region, adding the printer, and setting up mixed nozzles.
Before You Print¶
Picking the right nozzle type and diameter, replacing hot ends, and why not to sync nozzle info.
OW/IW Split¶
Why Outer Wall and Inner Wall are separate features, and how to run mixed nozzle sizes.
Color Patch¶
What Color Patch mode is, how the CL (color loop) count works, and when to use it instead of painting in Original mode.
Technical Guardrails¶
The things FOrcaSlicer deliberately blocks, disables, or auto-corrects, and why.
Known Limitations¶
What does not work yet, what has a workaround, and what is planned.
Releases¶
Link to the Releases page - every version, its notes, and its downloads.
Some Terms Used¶
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Nozzle 1 - Nozzle 4 | The four physical U1 heads, and their slots in the UI |
| T0 - T3 | Tool numbers, used only when quoting G-code. T0 = Nozzle 1 |
| OW | Outer Wall - the visible outermost perimeter loop(s) |
| IW | Inner Wall - every perimeter loop behind the outer wall |
| CL | Color Loops - how many perimeter loops a painted Color Patch occupies |
| PTP | Printer preset - the machine profile: the four nozzle diameters and their layer-height ranges |
| PRP | Process preset - the print-settings profile: layer height, line widths, and speeds (per nozzle in FOrcaSlicer) |
| FLP | Filament preset - the material profile: flow, temperatures, and other filament properties |
Scope¶
FOrcaSlicer targets the Snapmaker U1 only. It is built on Snapmaker's OrcaSlicer 2.3.2 development branch. It is not tested against, and not intended for, other printers.