§4 · §5 — Placing

Libre Mode

Roughly half of this fork is hidden behind one switch. It changes how the slicer behaves in ways that would confuse somebody who just wants to print a benchy, and Snapmaker should be able to hand this build to anyone and have it come up looking like a stock build. So it is off until you go and turn it on.

• the gate itself
• off by default
• restart required

The two-key gate

Turning Libre Mode on takes two deliberate steps, and the first one needs a restart. That is not friction for its own sake: the master switch decides whether the extra UI gets built at start-up, so until it is on there is no Libre Mode anywhere in the application to find.

1. Master switch. Preferences → Enable Neotko LibreMode (requires restart). Off by default. Until this is on, no Libre Mode UI exists at all and Snapmaker sees a stock build.
2. Active toggle. Once the master switch is on and you have restarted, a side button labelled Neotko LM: Off / On appears in the toolbar. Click it to toggle the active state.

While active, Libre Mode also signals the slicer itself: an object with no first layer becomes a warning instead of a hard error, and split and assemble operations are allowed across Z = 0.

Assemblies that stay assemblies

Assembled Boolean mode

When you combine parts into an Assembled object, the stock slicer performs a boolean union. Assembled Boolean mode (right-click an object to toggle it; neotko_assemble_boolean, default on) lets you turn that off per object. The parts are then sliced and merged without a union, so overlapping multi-material geometry (inserts, interlocking colour regions) is kept as separate co-existing meshes instead of being collapsed into one. This one is print-verified.

Per-volume XY compensation

Normally XY contour and hole compensation is per object. With Libre Mode and an Assembled object, each volume can have its own value, and the slicer applies the delta between the part's value and the object's to that part before merging. The case this exists for is a multi-material assembly whose materials shrink differently, like a PETG insert in a PLA shell.

Assembled parts get the full option set

In stock OrcaSlicer the parts inside an Assembled object expose only a limited subset of settings. With Libre Mode active each part's settings tab exposes the full set: the combined print-object and print-region keys.

Copy / Paste Process Settings

Libre Mode adds Copy Process Settings (a submenu with Speed, Quality, Strength and All) and Paste Process Settings to the object context menu. Copy one object's settings and paste a chosen block onto another: All replaces the target's process settings, while a single category merges into the target and leaves the others alone. It is how you propagate a tuned block across many parts without flattening everything else they have.

Floating objects

With True Objects active, objects can sit at any Z height, floating above the bed or partly below it, instead of being snapped to the plate. The floating Z is preserved across object operations: copy and paste, Paste Process Settings, reload from disk, replace STL, boolean, mesh simplify, move, rotate, scale, mirror and "face the camera" all leave a floating object where it is. To drop one to the bed on purpose, use the sinking column in the object list.

Realistic shading in Prepare

• 2.3.9

With Libre Mode active, the Prepare tab's 3D objects render with the same Phong, fresnel, screen-space ambient occlusion and projected contact shadow shading that RealColor already used for shells in Preview. Turn Libre Mode off and objects go back to the stock flat look.

• It applies to the normal opaque object view only. The Assemble tab and the sinking or transparent pass are untouched.
• The contact shadow appears on the bed under each object, the same as it already did in Preview.
• There is no new toggle to learn: it is automatic once Libre Mode is on, and it falls back silently to the stock shader if a shader or framebuffer is not available on your GPU.

It is also the foundation Photo Mode is built on, which is why Photo Mode needs Libre Mode too.

Simplify3D import

Where File›Import›Import 3D model›pick a .factory

This pack can open Simplify3D .factory project files: a complete project with multiple objects, positions and extruder assignments. A .factory always loads as a single Assembled object, because its parts share one world-space layout.

The same recommendation applies to world-space import, which is still marked WIP. With Libre Mode active, objects can be imported at their source-file world coordinates instead of being re-centred on the plate, preserving relative positions across an assembly. Basic functionality works; importing as Assembled and splitting is the reliable route while the world-space path is being finished.

A note on internal bridges

On floating objects and unusual geometries, internal-bridge detection can misfire and apply bridging where it is not wanted. Worth knowing separately: the stock 2.3.5 default for internal_bridge_density is 25%, so if a top surface looks unexpectedly filled or unexpectedly empty, that stock setting is usually the cause and it has nothing to do with Libre Mode.

The older fork's automatic "disable internal bridges" behaviour is deliberately not carried over as-is here. It caused a layer-count bug, and it will come back later as an explicit opt-in.

Everything behind the switch

Everything not on that list works without any of this: the whole Sandwich family, the Painter, RealColor, Painter Pro Mode, PerObject Support and bridge expansion.

The catch

• A restart, once. The master switch builds UI at start-up.
• Two switches to remember. "The button is missing" almost always means the master switch is off; "the button is there and nothing happens" almost always means the active toggle is off.
• It is a genuinely different slicer while it is on. Objects can float, errors become warnings, and parts expose settings that can contradict each other. That is the point, and it is also why it is not the default.
• Some of what it unlocks is experimental. Each of those pages says how far along its own thing is.