Send2Orca

Send a SolidCraft design to OrcaSlicer in one command. Model in SolidCraft, run send2orca, and the part is open in Orca, ready to slice.

$ send2orca
exported ~/.local/share/send2orca/out/Banana_box.step (323850 bytes) from live:7878
opened with /usr/bin/orca-slicer

• Works with the design open in a running SolidCraft window, or with a saved design file.

• Exports STEP (default), 3MF or STL; a multi-body design arrives in Orca as separate objects.

• Finds your slicer by itself: orca-slicer / orcaslicer / orca-belt* forks on PATH, the OS install, an AppImage, or the Flatpak.

• Ships an MCP tool (send2orca-mcp) so an AI agent that is already driving SolidCraft over MCP can say "send it to Orca".

• Pure Python standard library. No dependencies.

Why a companion tool and not a plugin? SolidCraft has no in-app plugin API today. Send2Orca uses only the interfaces SolidCraft documents: solidcraft-cli run for files and the MCP bridge (solidcraft-cli mcp --connect) for a running window.

Install

You need SolidCraft (for solidcraft-cli) and OrcaSlicer, plus Python 3.9 or newer.

pipx install git+https://github.com/tommasobbianchi/Send2Orca
# or: pip install git+https://github.com/tommasobbianchi/Send2Orca

Check what it detects:

$ send2orca --doctor
send2orca: 0.1.1
solidcraft_cli: /usr/bin/solidcraft-cli
solidcraft_version: solidcraft-cli 0.14.0
live_windows: [7878]
orca: ['/usr/bin/orca-slicer']

Related MCP server: orcaslicer-mcp

Use

The design that is open right now. Start SolidCraft with its control channel once:

solidcraft --control 7878

then, from any terminal on the same computer:

send2orca                      # STEP, opened in Orca
send2orca -f 3mf               # another format
send2orca -b Body2             # only one body
send2orca --no-launch          # export only
send2orca --list               # which windows are running

A saved design, no window needed.

send2orca part.solidcraft
send2orca part.solidcraft -f stl -o /tmp/part.stl

Files are written to ~/.local/share/send2orca/out/ (Linux), named after the design.

Options

Choosing the slicer

Order of precedence: --orca, $SEND2ORCA_ORCA, "command" in the config file, then auto-detection. Config file: ~/.config/send2orca/config.json (Linux/macOS), %APPDATA%\send2orca\config.json (Windows):

{ "command": "/home/me/bin/orca-belt-2026-08", "format": "step" }

This is also how you point Send2Orca at a fork (for example a belt-printer build). If you start it from SSH on Linux, it borrows the desktop session's display variables so the window opens on the screen.

MCP tool for AI agents

claude mcp add --scope user send2orca -- send2orca-mcp

Tools: send_to_orca (file?, format?, bodies?, port?, launch?) and send2orca_doctor. Register it next to SolidCraft's own server (solidcraft-cli mcp --allow-path ~/designs). A ready-to-copy Claude Code skill is in skills/send2orca.

Status and honesty

• Developed and tested on Linux with SolidCraft 0.14 (real solidcraft-cli, file export and the MCP export with body filter). The test suite (pytest) runs against stand-ins for SolidCraft and Orca, and CI runs it on Linux and macOS.

• Windows and macOS install locations for SolidCraft and the location of the control-channel token folder are best-effort guesses. If detection fails, set SOLIDCRAFT_CLI and pass --port, and please open an issue.

• STEP is the default because Orca imports it faithfully; Orca triangulates it on import. Use 3MF if you prefer.

• The window path needs solidcraft --control PORT. Without it SolidCraft exposes no control channel and only saved files can be sent.

Development

pip install -e '.[test]'
pytest

Licence

MIT OR Apache-2.0, at your option (the same as SolidCraft). Not affiliated with SolidCraft or OrcaSlicer.