New chitu boards and the locking out of other slicers

#1

Well I hate to be the one to say this, but it looks like Chitubox is pretty determined to lock down their chitu boards to only using chitubox slicer. I have heard that they may be releasing an SDK for other software vendors to use but haven’t seen much on it.
Is there any word on this? For me being forced to use their software is a deal breaker for any new machine/upgrade. Its a damn sketchy business practice no matter how you slice it. (ha ha)

#2

Hi,

Yes it’s been known for some months their latest machines have good encryption on the files.
So far haven’t been cracked I think. Can also be it’s not crackable.

Interesting about the SDK. Where did you pick this up?
I know there is some SDK to write a plugin; but a ‘plugin’ is only a way to start an external program after slicing. You can just set that as a setting in Formware…

So this is my personal thought on this practice; I think in the short run it will work a little for them. In the long run (as a matter of fact this is already happening), the OEM’s will develop their own hardware so they will loose clients because of this lock in strategy.
I think taking an open approach would have been better; have a look at Ultimaker and their free software Cura. It’s afaik the best FDM slicer out there.

Elco

#3

I am basic the SDK info off a posting on the Peopoly Phenom facebook site.

You can use Chitubox Pro or the free Basic with it, and we are working with other OEMs to get Chitubox open SDK for other slicers to be used for this new board.

So take from that what you will. I hate the fact that Chitu has done this, its a dick move.

Profile for Epax E10 5k (using new .ctb format)
#4

Well that’s lame.

Chitubox is a chunk of crap. Unfortunately nearly everyone out there doing resin is doing Warhammer miniatures and they don’t really care.

I’ve got an Anycubic Photon that’s probably dead (waiting on a part, not enthusiastic about my chances); I was gonna replace it with another Photon. I don’t really wanna spring for a Prusa and I really don’t want to spring for an Asiga but having seen my models come out of a Form 3, I know Form is out of the running. What’s left?

#5

Not much unfortunately - almost ALL cheaper or even mid tier MSLA printers use chituboards. Now you can try get an older model, but I have to believe that all newer ones that stick with chitu boards will have this issue. I am facing the problem myself right now.

My hope is that people will demand either they open source the damn file format, or that other printers will spring up in the next 6 months that don’t use chituboards.

#6

I think the last one will happen… OEM’s are working on it. Afaik creality already created their own hardware/software solution. anycubic did. But the chip shortage isn’t helping.

We’ve been looking at duobond screens, which is I believe 1 of 2 manufacturers of mono screens being used by ctb. All of them are able to work with raspberry PI’s. The trick is to configure the PI correctly which is not trivial.

Last months we build a printcontroller sofware solution that runs on a PI with a touchscreen.

The question is if there would be any market for it… if people are willing to ‘rebuild’ their own machines with a PI + some new printcontroller software… and should it be free, or for a small fee…

#7

I would much rather use a Pi than a chituboard

#8

How much would a mono LCD + the pre-configured RPi cost?
If that screen would fit a stock Photon…
(LCD on a stock Photon or any other in the same class has a lifespan of 500 - 1000 Hours. Then it’s at best a $50 replacement)

#9

So Anycubic has moved away from Chitu? That’s good news. I also saw they’re trying out a DLP engine.

I’ve been talking to Epax. Might go that way. How have they been to work with?

#10

I would need to check with my colleageau for a direct price comparison… the downside is you first need to buy a printer with a chituboard… so you’re spending double money.

I haven’t been in contact with Epax for a while.

#11

the fine folx at Epax, for what it’s worth, said they foresaw no problems with their printers continuing to work with other slicers, even though they’re using Chitu. I just sliced some test cubes for an X1-4k and so far, so good.

#12

Interesting. I REALLY don’t want to stop slicing with formware.

#13

Refer to my post of the WANHAO D11 C.G.R printer

#14

Hi all,

As an update. We’ve been in contact with chitubox about their SDK yesterday.
Their current response was that it was still to slow to release in producing the files and they will contact us again in a couple of weeks.
No other information.

thought I share this information.

kind regards
Elco

#15

@Bruno, i think the wanhao doesn’t use an encrypted .ctb file.

#16

Well that sounds like either
a) They are full of Bull s**t
B) They shouldn’t have released the new format until they were ready.
C) Both of the above.

Thanks for keeping us in the loop

#17

Resurrecting this, as there are ways around the Shitu stupidity.

I have forked the original Liberating Mars to cater for two stage lift. It’s been tested with Formware and the Phrozen Mega 8K and works perfectly.

As 1.0.3.7 doesn’t allow for complete custom arguments when calling an external application (It always gives the file name as the first argument), you will need to create a single line batch file to re-arrange the arguments, and call that instead

My batch file contains the following line:
“C:\LiberatingMars\LiberatingMarsCLI.exe” “C:\Program Files\ChiTuBox64 1.9.0\CHITUBOX.exe” “%~1” %~2 %~3 %~4 %~5 %~6

Look for user fcollingwood on GitHub.

#18

This is great - I was unable to find your github repo though

#19

Word is the new 3.6 version of lychee slicer has support for the newly encrypted files. @formware you might want to ask them again about that SDK.

#20

Hi,

Yes we are studying the terms and the SDK we’ve received last week.
So we are positive in implementing it in the next release.

kind regards
Elco