These range from slicers, to 3D printer design software, to software for managing many 3D printers at once. This is difficult to answer because there are simply so many different types of 3D printing software.

Save you money and time: a good example is simulation features in the most premium 3D printer design software that can simulate and analyze your model to identify areas likely to break or snap under strain, as well as any parts that are likely to warp or come out badly from printing unless supports are used.

For example, GCode, OBJ, DXF files and many other types that are commonly used.

Versatile: beyond the range of tools available, being able to work with a range of file types beyond just STL makes life much easier.

Team-friendly: the best tools ideally let you collaborate with your friends, team and co-workers - especially in design software.

Wide range of tools: we picked 3D printing software with a versatile toolset.While we include a range of very different 3D printing software designed to address very different needs, there are some key aspects that make or break software for your 3D printer. Within each section we have free 3D printing software options, as well as premium, paid options. To make things easier for you, we have split each of these types of 3D printer software into sections. 3D printer software take a variety of different forms: 3D software modeling tools to design 3D models, 3D slicers to slice STL files for printing, and specialist software for fixing errors in your models. 3D printing software programs are key for high quality printing, designing and monitoring - without software, 3D printers are just machines with no direction.

Freecad slicer