Welcome to printer software v1.37!

In this release, we’ve included the following improvements to your print process:

We look forward to hearing from you about this release. Keep printing great parts and sharing your feedback. If you have any questions, please contact the Carbon Support Team at [email protected].

Version Details

As part of an ongoing effort to provide industry-leading capabilities and quality for dental models, this software update improves both the accuracy and consistency of DPR 10 models printed across different printers. Please note that this will impact all printers except L1 printers configured for aligner manufacturers.

Your printer(s) can begin printing with these new print settings as soon as v1.37 is installed by continuing to choose “DPR 10” in the resin drop-down when printing models. You may experience a slight increase in the tightness of die, analog, and/or restoration fit on your models due to the improved accuracy, and be required to adjust your design settings and/or fit check processes as a result.

To provide time to test the new settings and make any needed adjustments, you can continue to print with the previous DPR 10 settings by selecting “DPR 10 (Pre-v1.37 Settings)” in the resin drop-down until January 1, 2023.

If you have any questions, would like to learn more about this update, or if you need help adapting to this change, please contact the Carbon Support Team at [email protected].



In printer software v1.36, we enabled users to specify key parameters for bar and fence supports to simplify post-processing, troubleshoot prints in which supports detach from the part or the platform, and/or provide greater stability. With printer software v1.37, you can now specify key parameters for the bar and fence supports generated within a selected patch (including boundary fences).

Example: Defining a patch with bar supports and a boundary fence

Examples: Defining a patch with fence supports; defining a patch with a boundary fence only



You can create support structures on different areas of your part with different parameters by defining and generating multiple supported patches, applying the appropriate parameters each time.

Basic and Advanced (FEA) auto-supports continue to offer the same functionality, and can be accessed by selecting “Automatic” in the supports user interface.

You can learn more about using supports and get a refresh on other functionality by reviewing the “Printer UI” course on Carbon Academy. Sign in, then search for the course name or click Printer UI (note that you must be signed in to Carbon Academy in order for the direct link to bring you to the course).

Patch selection functionality has been updated to grant users more control over the size and shape of patches.

Previous software versions used the overhang angle as the only edge constraint for patches. In some use cases, this could result in overlapping patches. For example, if a user created one patch for overhang angles of 0-20° and another patch for overhang angles of 0-30°, the two patches would overlap for overhangs between 0-20°. This limited a user’s control over patch placement, and also made it possible to inadvertently add double-density supports in areas where patches overlapped.

This software update disallows overlapping patches, meaning that you can now use existing patches as an edge constraint for new patches. This eliminates the potential for unintended double-density supports and, importantly, allows for better control over patch definition.

Consider this example, in which the part in question is a curved surface that we have decided to support above-platform:

Imagine that the desired support strategy varies at different overhang angles: perhaps we want a dense nest of bar supports from 0° to 20°, and a lighter fence treatment from 20° to 50°. Here’s a sketch of the desired support structures, viewed from the bottom of the part (beneath the platform, looking up):

In previous versions of the software, this would not be achievable via patch supports – a user would have to manually place supports to achieve this result.

In printer software v1.37, however, this result is easily achievable. Simply create one patch from 0° to 20° (below, in green) and select the desired bar support settings…

… then add two more patches extending to 50° above and below the initial patch, and configure the desired fence supports. The original patch, limited to 20° (below, in purple), will act as an edge constraint, creating the desired segmented patches and enabling fast generation of our preferred support structures.

This functionality can also be used to exclude an area from a patch for support generation, by adding an edge-constraint patch and then deleting it before generating supports. In the following example, the goal is to add supports to most of the pictured surface, but leave the purple triangle free of supports (perhaps for assembly reasons). Here, an initial patch is used to define the area where the user does not want to place supports. Additional patches are added that use the original patch as a boundary; the original patch can then be deleted so that supports are not generated in that area.

You can learn more about using patch supports by reviewing the “Printer UI” course on Carbon Academy. Sign in, then search for the course name or click this link (note that you must be signed in to Carbon Academy in order for the direct link to bring you to the course).

After we introduced a new interface for adding manual supports in printer software v1.36, some users reported difficulty placing supports on fine features when zoomed in on a part due to the size of the dot used to mark the support location before supports are generated. To ease these workflows, the size of the displayed dot has been reduced.

This change impacts both the bar and fence support experiences. The actual size of generated supports is not impacted by this change; this is only a change to the dot marking the support location prior to clicking “Generate All.” Note that the size of the dot is not representative of the size of the support tip that will be generated, which varies by resin; for fence supports, dots do not represent specific tip locations (as fence support tips are spaced evenly along the polyline defined by the dots).

To provide additional clarity and extensibility, the two slicing options available in the Print Preparation interface have been re-named.

The option formerly known as the “Default Slicer” is now “Gen1 Slicer.” This is Carbon’s original slicing option, and will continue to be used as the default if no other selection is made. This slicer is fast and reliable, though it may struggle to effectively slice some geometries (particularly those with small holes, which includes lattices).

The option formerly known as the “Poisson Slicer” is now “Gen2 Slicer.” This is Carbon’s newer slicing option, originally released as part of printer software v1.33 (fall 2021). This slicer often provides a better option for parts with holes (including lattice-based structures). It can also often handle parts with unrepaired defects in the input mesh, though such parts may result in a longer processing time. You can read more about how the Gen2 (Poisson) slicer works here Printer UI (log in to Carbon Academy before clicking the link).

The Gen2 slicer (formerly called the Poisson slicer) has been improved to more capably handle parts with overlapping surfaces. If you have tried the Poisson slicer with such a part and experienced large slicing defects, consider retrying your slicing operation after installing this software update.

Additionally, the Gen2 slicer is now faster, making it a more attractive option for many applications. For parts with no defects to the input mesh, the Gen2 slicer may now run in roughly the same amount of time as the Gen1 slicer (formerly called the Default slicer). Parts with defects in the input mesh may still benefit from slicing via the Gen2 slicer, but will still take longer to slice than via the Gen1 slicer. If you have tried the Gen2 slicer in the past but found that processing time was too long for your application, consider retrying to determine if speed improvements net better outcomes.

For parts that previously sliced successfully with the Gen2 slicer, output slice results will be comparable to those previously created.

A note about older model files: While the vast majority of parts will now slice more quickly on the Gen2 slicer, in certain rare cases, a part that was uploaded via a previous version of printer software (prior to fall 2020) may experience slower slicing on the Gen2 slicer after installing v1.37. If you experience any such issues, please use the following troubleshooting steps:



Easier access to Print Plan Adjustments

With this release, users who rely on Print Plan Adjustments (Advanced Controls) will no longer have to wait for the Print Plan analysis to complete in order to make adjustments to the Print Plan. For some users, this wait could previously have been several minutes and could interrupt workflows.

The print plan analysis is now optional when accessing Advanced Controls. This allows for a faster, smoother experience for users who already know they want to make adjustments. Once in the Advanced Controls interface, you can opt to click “Start Analysis” if you would like to view relevant graphs to inform the adjustments you would like to make.

Example: Advanced Controls interface with the option to run a print plan analysis (red arrow)

With this release, a clipping plane tool has been added to the Print Plan Adjustments (Advanced Controls) interface. This tool automatically shows the clipping plane (parallel to the print plane) within so that users can quickly and easily determine which slices need to be adjusted for a given project. Use the slider to adjust the view of parts on the platform; note that slice numbers are visible to the right of the slider.

Example: Advanced Controls interface with integrated clipping plane (red arrow)

Note that Advanced Controls are not currently compatible with M3 printers. This functionality will be added in future releases.

If you do not have access to Advanced Controls, but would like to learn how to adjust your print plans, contact Carbon for assistance.



While the features described above are the most noticeable and impactful changes in this software release, there are a few more minor changes you might want to be aware of.

The following issues have been resolved with this release.



We love hearing from you about your workflow, your parts, and how to improve. Keep your insightful feedback and ratings coming. We read them carefully and follow up when you request that we contact you. If you prefer real-time feedback, you can always email the Carbon Service Team, [email protected].