I personally use Slic3r because it's pretty feature packed. Many of the issues that are the byproduct of the lack of features in the Makerbot software are easily correctible in Slic3r. That being said, it's not for beginners, and I'd recommend Cura to start out with until you have a solid understanding of settings, what issues are created and solved by adjusting various settings, etc. Slic3r has great compatibility with the OctoPI stuff, and as far as I know, Cura does not, but it's been a bit since I've worked with it so software revisions may have rectified that by now.
Something to remember, Makerbot doesn't use standard GCODE like other printers, it does some weird voodoo mumbo jumbo and operates on its own protocol. There are some tools that allow you to use the Octo stuff with it, but I'm not sure how easy or reliable they are. I've never bothered.
Something to remember, Makerbot doesn't use standard GCODE like other printers, it does some weird voodoo mumbo jumbo and operates on its own protocol. There are some tools that allow you to use the Octo stuff with it, but I'm not sure how easy or reliable they are. I've never bothered.