Calibration
- Axis Steps/mm Steps per millimeter for X, Y, and Z axes — determines positional accuracy of the print head and bed.
- Backlash Compensation Mechanical play in the motion system — the small amount of ‘lost’ movement when an axis reverses direction.
- Bed Mesh / ABL Automatic bed leveling — probes the bed surface to create a mesh that compensates for unevenness during printing.
- Bed Temperature Heated bed temperature for a given filament — controls first layer adhesion, warping tendency, and part release.
- Belt Tension Tension of the motion system belts — affects positional accuracy, resonance frequency, and print quality.
- Cooling / Fan Speed Part cooling fan speed — controls how fast extruded plastic solidifies, affecting overhang quality, bridging, and layer bonding.
- E-Steps Extruder steps per millimeter — how many motor steps the extruder needs to push exactly 1mm of filament. The foundation of all extrusion accuracy.
- Extrusion Temperature Nozzle temperature for a given filament — controls melt viscosity, layer adhesion, stringing, and surface finish.
- Flow Rate Extrusion multiplier — fine-tunes the volume of plastic deposited after E-steps are calibrated. Compensates for filament diameter variation and material compressibility.
- Input Shaper Vibration compensation — measures the printer’s resonant frequencies and applies counter-signals to cancel ringing artifacts at corners and direction changes.
- Max Acceleration / Velocity Maximum safe speed and acceleration limits — the fastest the printer can move without skipping steps, losing accuracy, or causing artifacts.
- Max Volumetric Flow The maximum volume of plastic (mm³/s) the hotend can melt and push through the nozzle — the true speed limit for extrusion.
- PID Tuning Proportional-Integral-Derivative temperature control — tunes how the heater responds to reach and maintain target temperature without oscillation.
- Pressure Advance Compensates for pressure buildup and release in the melt zone — pre-decompresses before decelerations to prevent bulging at corners and oozing at stops.
- Retraction Pulling filament back before travel moves to relieve melt zone pressure and prevent oozing. Defined by distance and speed.
- Skew Compensation Corrects non-perpendicularity of the X/Y axes — when the frame isn’t perfectly square, prints come out as parallelograms instead of rectangles.
- Speed Profile Per-feature print speeds — optimal speeds for perimeters, infill, bridges, overhangs, top surfaces, first layer, and travel moves.
- Probe Z-Offset The distance between the probe trigger point and the actual nozzle tip — determines true first layer height.