SlicerBridge

SlicerBridge

A Rosetta Stone for multicolor 3MF files. Any multicolor project in, a ready, checked file for every multicolor printer out.

You paint a multicolor model in one slicer. The people who print it own a Bambu Lab A1, a Creality K2, an Elegoo Centauri Carbon, a QIDI Q2, a Prusa XL, a Snapmaker U1… and each of them has to retarget your project to their printer by hand, guessing at presets, and often losing the colors on the way.

Every slicer and printer speaks its own dialect of the same 3MF format. SlicerBridge is the translator: it reads your project once and writes it out in each printer's dialect without losing its meaning: the colors, the size, and the way you set it up to print.

SlicerBridge takes the project from whichever slicer you made it in (Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, or a printer maker's own fork of either) and writes one file for each of 34 printers, named for that printer (My Model - Creality K2 Plus.3mf), so a downloader can open theirs and print. Its files for Bambu Lab, OrcaSlicer-family and U1 printers can go back in, for yet another printer. Every file:

• keeps the colors where you painted them. The filaments a model actually uses are kept in order, and every painted triangle is re-encoded to match.
• carries that printer's own settings, written by its own slicer, and that printer's filament presets. Your print settings (layer height, walls, infill, supports, brim, ironing and the rest that shape the print) come along where the printer has the same setting, whether or not your project marks them as changed. A value the printer's slicer won't take keeps the printer's own, and the output says so.
• gets a prime tower built for its height. A print taller than 100 mm gets a heavier tower (a wider brim, longer and wider ribs, wider purge spacing, a slower tower), so a tall, thin tower doesn't get knocked over partway up. Each file gets the heaviest one its bed has room for, and the output says which.
• keeps its size. Nothing is ever scaled. A model bigger than a bed gets a warning with the scale that fits.
• is checked before it's written: colors, paint, plates, size, settings and the tall-print tower. With --slice it's also sliced in that printer's slicer (Snapmaker Orca for the U1), proving automatic color changes and a prime tower clear of the model, and reporting the print time, the grams and the prime tower's share of the filament. A file that fails a check is never written.

What goes in

A multicolor .3mf project, painted or with colors per part or object, saved by any of these. They all write the same project format.

A mesh-only 3MF (no slicer project inside) is refused with what to do: open it in your slicer, give it its colors, and save the project.

What comes out

"File built for" is the slicer whose settings the file carries. Files for Creality, Elegoo, Anycubic, Flashforge and QIDI printers are written by OrcaSlicer and also checked in each maker's own slicer: see docs/brand-slicers.md for what those slicers read differently, and how the files handle it. Missing your printer? Ask for it, or add it.

Install

SlicerBridge runs on macOS and Windows (what's different there; Linux: help wanted), with Python 3.10 or newer.

pipx install slicerbridge                                    # or: uv tool install slicerbridge

pipx install git+https://github.com/UnicornGraveyard/SlicerBridge # the latest from GitHub

It builds each printer's settings with that printer's slicer, so install the ones you need:

Then slicerbridge doctor shows what it found. Details, other install locations and environment variables: docs/install.md.

Use

slicerbridge inspect model.3mf                       # colors used, plates, fit on each bed

slicerbridge convert model.3mf # the popular printers, into out/ / slicerbridge convert "Dragon - Creality K2 Plus.3mf" --printers bambu # retarget a file you already have slicerbridge convert model.3mf --printers all --slice --name "My Model" --prefix "My Shop - " slicerbridge convert model.3mf --name "My Model" --suffix "My Shop" # My Model - Prusa XL - My Shop.3mf slicerbridge convert model.3mf --printers creality,qidi,u1 slicerbridge printers # every printer, its key, engine and slicer slicerbridge verify "out/My Model" --source model.3mf --slice slicerbridge brand-check "out/My Model" # slice each file in its maker's own slicer

--printers takes all, popular, a vendor (bambu, creality, elegoo, anycubic, flashforge, qidi, wondermaker, prusa, snapmaker), or printer keys, comma-separated.

What it won't do

• Merge colors. A model that uses more filaments than a printer holds is refused for that printer. Which two colors to merge is a design decision; make it in your slicer. (Prusa printers take an explicit --map.)
• Resize anything. Size is never a reason to skip a printer either: the downloader scales it in their slicer.
• Write a file that failed a check, or overwrite a file it didn't write (those move to _previous/).

Use it from Claude or another AI assistant

SlicerBridge includes a local MCP server, so an assistant can inspect a model, convert it for the printers you name, and read the check results for you. It runs on your machine over stdio, with your slicers: nothing is uploaded.

Claude Code and Cowork: install the SlicerBridge plugin, which adds the server and a skill that teaches Claude the workflow. It needs uv.

/plugin marketplace add UnicornGraveyard/SlicerBridge

/plugin install slicerbridge@slicerbridge

Any other MCP client: run uvx slicerbridge mcp (or slicerbridge mcp once installed). Setup for Claude Desktop and others: docs/mcp.md. It's also listed in the MCP Registry as io.github.UnicornGraveyard/slicerbridge.

How it works

Every input is read the same way: Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer and their forks save the same 3MF project format (meshes, paint, plates, settings). Three engines write the outputs, sharing one printer table, one CLI and one set of checks:

• orca: Bambu Lab and OrcaSlicer-family printers. Each printer's slicer writes its settings once, from its own bundled presets (templates). A file is the source project with those settings, its filaments compacted and its paint re-encoded, each plate moved onto its own plate of the new bed with room for the prime tower.
• prusa: Prusa multi-material printers, written by Panda2Prusa as PrusaSlicer projects, one per plate.
• u1: the Snapmaker U1, with bl2u1's U1 templates. With --slice, Snapmaker Orca slices the file.

docs/how-it-works.md explains each step; docs/checks.md lists every check.

Contributing

Bug reports, printer requests and pull requests are welcome: start with CONTRIBUTING.md. Please don't attach paid or licensed models to issues; the test suite builds its own projects.

License and credits

SlicerBridge is free software under the GNU GPL v3 or later. It stands on Panda2Prusa (MIT, vendored) and bl2u1 (GPLv3, its U1 templates), and on the work of the OrcaSlicer, Bambu Studio and PrusaSlicer projects, whose profiles it reads from your own installs. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Made by Unicorn Graveyard, who needed every ColorStacked model to reach every printer.