Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Hi All,
Not an owner of a 3D printer, very curious.
Recently started using Alibre/Geomajic's Personnel Edition CAD software with interest in learning CNC machining. First time ever knowing, learning, or understanding, how to do anything in a CAD program outside of Tinkercad. I have a longways to go, but enjoying it every day.

Question:
Can you explain any steps and software that is needed to go from an .stl file to making a print on the current complete Rostock Max Printer kit?

in a nutshell...
design the file, convert to stl, load to slicer program, slice with slicer with selected settings,

load sliced gcode file to repetier host.

hit print.


slicer programs. slic3er, kisslicer, cura etc
host programs, repetier host, ponterface ..etc

pick which softwhere you like best. or just read the forums on what other people use.

Cambo's right.

Basically with any CNC machine, you take a CAD model (usually an STL file) and plug it into CAM software that calculates toolpaths for the machine and generates the corresponding GCode. In the 3D printing world, this is called a slicer program because it literally slices the object into layers for your printer to print (Slic3r, Cura, and KISS are the 3 most common ones in our Rostock community). Then you load the GCode into a host program like Repetier that can run your machine and do the print. Some machines can run a print off of an SD card (the current Rostock kit comes with this capability) which allows you to print without a host program, but it's still nice to have.

So basically, create a CAD model, save it as an STL file, run it through a slicer program to create GCode, and either load it directly to your machine or into a host program, and click print.

You can add steps if you want (some will check and repair their model with a program like netfabb, or simplify the model with something like blender), but these are discretionary.