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NeotkoCM 2.3 - SnapMaer 2.3.5nighty

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@github-actions github-actions released this 24 Jun 06:38
v2.3
c597926

Proud to announce that @Snapmaker is officially sponsoring this project!!

Development is conducted in close collaboration with the Snapmaker ecosystem and with Radoux/Radu, author of FullSpectrum and now part of the Snapmaker team.
By Neotko — inventor of Ironing/Neosanding (Ultimaker Cura, PrusaSlicer)

Neotko FullSpectrum 2.3 (beta) — on Snapmaker Orca 2.3.4 — Release Notes

🆕 Superseded by 2.3.1 — see NEOTKOCM_RELEASE_2_31.md for the incremental release that adds the Sandwich Painter weave preview, the Variable Layer Height (Experimental) unlock, and an important wipe-tower correctness fix. The notes below remain the canonical description of the 2.3 re-platforming base.

⚠️ This is a beta. Several pieces below are usable but still being refined — review your generated G-code before long or production prints. Surfaces that are still in progress show a (WIP) marker in the UI.

Base build: Snapmaker Orca 2.3.4 nightly (commit 8597556, 2026-06-17) with the complete 2.3.5 beta patch set integrated on top (upstream main 4d77d7f, 2026-06-23). See Upstream Snapmaker Orca 2.3.5 (beta) — integrated below for the full list.

2.3 is a re-platforming release. The headline is not a new effect — it is that the entire Neotko feature pack now runs on the official Snapmaker Orca 2.3.4 base, instead of the older FullSpectrum 0.99 fork. The whole stack — Surface ColorStitch (the Sandwich), the ColorStitch Painter, NeoTower, NeoArachne — was ported onto 2.3.4 so the features can be adopted à la carte on a current, official base. On top of the port, Libre Mode graduates to a full professional-workflow tier, and Align & Stack joins as a first-class gizmo. Everything is opt-in: with the new options at their defaults, the build behaves like stock Snapmaker Orca 2.3.4.

What's new in 2.3

Ported to the official Snapmaker Orca 2.3.4 base
The complete pack now lives on top of upstream 2.3.4 (build 8597556) rather than the FullSpectrum 0.99 fork. This brings every stock 2.3.4 improvement and keeps the Neotko features as cleanly-gated additions for pick-and-choose adoption. Surface ColorStitch, the Painter, NeoTower and NeoArachne were re-verified on the new base.

Surface ColorStitch — the Sandwich, as a pass stack
The Sandwich Editor (Quality → Surface ColorStitch → Sandwich editor…) builds each surface as a stack of 1–3 passes per zone (Top layer / Penultimate layer). Each pass is Solid / ColorStitch / PathBlend (Half|Full), with its own Z share (drag the dividers) and angle. MultiPass is simply two or three stacked Solid passes. The per-line ColorStitch editor uses plain-language controls (Smooth blend 2/3 colours, Stripes with manual band sizes, Custom text pattern, transition-shape easing), and the ColorStitch Studio generates Gradient / Flat / Mixed-approximation palettes with Target + Match ▸ (ΔE2000).

Libre Mode — professional workflow tier
Libre Mode is now a real assembly/professional toolkit, gated behind a master switch in Preferences → "Enable Neotko LibreMode (requires restart)" and toggled from the "Neotko LM" toolbar button:

  • Floating objects — place parts at any Z (no forced bed snap); empty first layer becomes a warning, not an error.
  • Assembled Boolean mode (per object) — turn the boolean union off so overlapping multi-material geometry is kept as separate co-existing meshes (print-verified).
  • Per-volume XY compensation — each part of an Assembled object can carry its own hole/contour compensation for materials that shrink differently.
  • Copy / Paste Process Settings by block — copy a tuned Speed / Quality / Strength block (or All) and paste it onto other objects (All replaces, a single block merges).
  • Assembled Parts — full options — parts inside an Assembled object expose the complete option set, with a ↺ Refresh Part button.

Align & Stack — new gizmo
A new left-toolbar gizmo for aligning and stacking objects against an anchor. Click objects in order (#1 is the anchor), then choose Place against (rest touching a chosen face of #1, chained — the stacking mode) or Align flush (same-side faces coplanar). Includes a controllable Z gap and a Drop to bed action. Object selection was improved for easier picking.

NeoArachne — alternative wall generator (under Libre Mode)
The NeoArachne wall engine (per-feature Classic / Arachne (stock) / Arachne (NeotkoEdge) routing, Edge-Closure controls, and the before-slice Preview Lab) is ported and exposed in Quality → Wall generator when Libre Mode is active. Default recipe = Neotko Hybrid v2 (Classic outer + stock Arachne inner).

ColorStitch Painter — palette groups, Save All, bigger slot budget

  • Palette groups — organise saved palettes into up to 10 global groups (+ New group, group selector).
  • Save all — promote every unsaved working colour into the active group at once, so Erase all leaves nothing dangling.
  • Slot cap raised to 254 painted slots per object.
  • Painting and the slot→profile mapping are now covered by undo/redo.
  • Pro mode (the active colour is what you paint), Pick eyedropper, Pin to palette, two-tier working/saved model and right-click-camera-only all carry forward from 2.1.

S3DFactory — Simplify3D .factory import
.factory projects open directly (File → Import → Import 3D model). They load as a single Assembled object preserving the world-space layout; split in Libre Mode to recover the parts in place.

Upstream Snapmaker Orca 2.3.5 (beta) — integrated

The full 2.3.5 beta patch set from upstream main (4d77d7f, 2026-06-23) is folded into this release on top of the 2.3.4 nightly base, so every official 2.3.5 improvement ships alongside the Neotko pack. Patches are referenced by their upstream PR number:

Wipe-tower filament-waste fix — upstream Snapmaker#501 (adopted).
On multi-tool prints the slicer auto-selected a dedicated wipe filament, a side effect of which was that every other filament got treated as soluble — adding a PVA-style extra solid purge on the tower slice of the layer before each tool change. On PLA/PETG that solid floor is pure waste (≈10.3 mm vs the normal 6.4 mm sparse slice in our tests — roughly +60% on each pre-toolchange slice). Adopting upstream Snapmaker#501 removes the auto-force: non-soluble filaments no longer trigger the extra purge, the genuine tool-change purge is untouched, and tool-change ordering now matches upstream. Sandwich prints benefit most (many tool changes). Note: this was an upstream mainstream bug — the soluble flag was meant only for true soluble supports (PVA), which need the extra purge because they degrade in the hot end over time; it should never have fired on PLA.

Beta Defaults & Notes

  • Sandwich wipe reserve (multipass_prime_volume) default 10 mm³ — the single unified purge reserve before each Sandwich sub-layer toolchange (Solid / ColorStitch / PathBlend, Top + Penultimate).
  • Sandwich purge compaction default 1.7 (1.0 = off).
  • NeoTower tower type default Classic; Zigurat taper default on. Sandwich / multi-pass scenes auto-promote to NeoTower regardless.
  • Penultimate top layers default 0 — set it above 0 (Strength → Top/bottom shells) to use penultimate effects globally. Painting a penu recipe auto-forces 2 penu layers for that object.
  • Default changes only affect new profiles — existing saved profiles keep their values.

Work in progress / not yet in this build

  • Adaptive (variable) layer height is locked by default here, and the adaptive × multi-tool × Sandwich combination is not yet unlocked on the 2.3.4 base. It is proven and works on the 2.2 line (FullSpectrum 0.99 fork); unlocking it on 2.3.4 is still being finished. Use a fixed layer height for multi-tool Sandwich prints for now. (Unlocked as Experimental in 2.3.1 — see NEOTKOCM_RELEASE_2_31.md.)
  • Neoweaving + Monotonic Interlayer Nesting are not yet ported to this base (coming in a later release).
  • World-space import is functional at a basic level; for assemblies, importing as Assembled and splitting in Libre Mode is the recommended route while it is finished.
  • NeotkoEdge is selectable as a wall source, but its extra tuning knobs (Wall Count Stability / Blend Distance) are not exposed yet.

Important Reminders (read before slicing a Sandwich)

  • Use Monotonic Line for the top surface pattern. ColorStitch only sequences correctly with Monotonic Line (Quality → Top surface pattern). Plain Monotonic / Rectilinear may look fine on a simple square but produce wrong toolchange order on complex shapes.
  • Enable Penultimate Top Layers to use penultimate effects (Strength → Top/bottom shells → Penultimate top layers > 0), unless you paint a penu recipe (auto-forced per object).
  • PathBlend on the Penultimate zone is still disabled — a known gradient-direction bug on multi-stair penu surfaces. Top-zone PathBlend works normally.
  • TD values are per-machine, not per-print. Calibrate them so the predicted palette swatches match reality.
  • This is a beta — the ColorStitch Painter especially is WIP. Inspect G-code on important prints.

Backward Compatibility

  • ColorStitch remains a UI rename only — config keys, 3MF metadata (colormix_profiles_b64, per-volume slot tables, paint_colormix facet attributes) and saved profiles are all the same format. Projects and presets from earlier Neotko builds load unchanged.
  • New options (Libre Mode, NeoArachne, NeoTower, palette groups) default to safe/off values and don't affect existing prints unless you opt in.
  • Some .3mf files created with much older FullSpectrum builds may still need a re-save, as noted since 1.9.

Neotko FullSpectrum — on Snapmaker Orca 2.3.4 · ColorStitch / NeoTower / NeoArachne / Libre Mode
Features designed by Neotko · in collaboration with Snapmaker & Radoux (FullSpectrum)

Big thanks to:
SnapMaker
Leszek
Ratdoux / Radu
Sentientstardust
dennisw

Contributors

Snapmaker
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