Glossary

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene — durable, ~100°C heat-resistant. Requires enclosure for warping control and ventilation for styrene fumes.

See also: ASA, Enclosed Printer

Rate of velocity change in print and travel moves, mm/s². Higher acceleration enables faster prints but stresses the mechanical system.

See also: Jerk, Input Shaping

Hotend without PTFE lining in the melt zone. Required for high-temperature filaments (>240°C sustained).

See also: Hotend, Polycarbonate, PA / Nylon

Bambu Lab's Automatic Material System — 4-spool filament changer.

See also: MMU, multi-material

UV-stable ABS analog. Same mechanical performance as ABS with better outdoor longevity.

See also: ABS

Process of ensuring the bed surface is parallel to the nozzle's XY motion plane. Automatic probes use inductive, capacitive, or strain-gauge sensors.

See also: Z-Offset, First Layer

Printer where the bed moves on the Y axis. Lower cost but speed-limited by accelerating the bed and print mass.

See also: CoreXY

PTFE tube routing filament from a remote extruder to the hotend. Reduces print head mass; complicates retraction tuning and flexible material handling.

See also: Direct Drive

Single-layer skirt printed in contact with the model outline to increase first-layer surface area. Removed after print.

See also: Raft, Warping

The material the first layer adheres to. Common surfaces: smooth PEI, textured PEI, garolite (for nylon), glass with adhesive.

See also: PEI Sheet

Sliced print where a single parameter (temperature, retraction, pressure advance) varies across height sections. The cleanest section identifies the correct value.

See also: Temperature Tower, Retraction Tower, Pressure Advance

Kinematic system where two motors drive X and Y axes via crossed belts. Bed moves only in Z. Enables high-speed, high-acceleration prints with a stationary heavy bed.

See also: Bed Slinger

Extruder mounted on the print head, gripping filament directly above the hotend. Best for flexibles and high-flow prints; adds moving mass.

See also: Bowden Tube, TPU

Number of stepper motor steps required to extrude 1mm of filament. Calibrated by marking filament, commanding a known extrusion, and measuring actual length.

See also: Flow Ratio

Flared bulging in the first few layers from over-squish or excessive bed heat. Compensated for via slicer elephant-foot compensation setting.

See also: First Layer

Printer with a sealed chamber. Retains heat for warping control and enables higher chamber temperatures for engineering plastics.

See also: ABS, Polycarbonate, Warping

Cura / SuperSlicer name for flow ratio.

See also: Flow Ratio

Fused Deposition Modeling — heated thermoplastic extruded layer by layer along a path. Also called FFF.

See also: FFF, Resin Printing

Fused Filament Fabrication — generic term for the FDM process to avoid Stratasys's trademark.

See also: FDM

Heated enclosure for drying hygroscopic filament. Sunlu S2/S4, Polymaker PolyDryer, and food dehydrators are common.

See also: Wet Filament

The base layer that anchors the print. Usually printed slower with extra squish to maximize adhesion.

See also: Z-Offset, Bed Leveling

Multiplier applied to the slicer's commanded extrusion volume. Calibrated by printing a single-wall vase and measuring wall thickness against expected line width.

See also: E-Steps, Extrusion Multiplier

Alternative Klipper web UI emphasizing information density.

See also: Mainsail

Text-based machine control language. Each line tells the printer to move, extrude, set temperature, or run a command.

See also: Slicer, Klipper

Filament softening above the intended melt zone. Causes extruder skipping after long retractions or pauses. Mitigated by good heatsink fans and correct heatbreak geometry.

See also: Heatbreak, Hotend

Thin-walled metal tube isolating the heater block from the upstream heatsink. Geometry determines heat-creep resistance.

See also: Heat Creep, Hotend

Heated nozzle assembly: heater block, cartridge, thermistor, heatbreak, nozzle.

See also: All-Metal Hotend, Heatbreak

Percentage of solid material in the print interior. 15–20% cosmetic; 40–60%+ structural.

See also: Infill Pattern, Wall Line Count

Geometric pattern filling the interior. Grid, gyroid, cubic, lightning, honeycomb. Choice affects strength and time more than density alone.

See also: Infill Density

Firmware feature that pre-cancels mechanical resonance by injecting compensating accelerations. Required to print fast without ghosting.

See also: Ringing, Vibration Compensation

Slicer feature passing the nozzle over the top layer at zero extrusion to smooth visible surfaces.

See also: Top Layer

Marlin term for instantaneous velocity change at corners. Higher jerk reduces print time but increases ringing and mechanical stress.

See also: Acceleration

Open-source firmware that runs motion planning on a separate computer. Enables high-performance features on modest mainboards.

See also: Mainsail, Input Shaping

Vertical thickness per layer in mm. Common FDM range 0.08–0.32mm. Smaller heights reveal more detail at proportionally longer print time.

See also: Line Width

Visible horizontal offset between layers caused by missed steps — usually a stepper driver thermal trip, loose belt, or excessive acceleration.

See also: Acceleration, belt-tension

Horizontal extrusion width. Typically 1.0–1.5× nozzle diameter. Wider lines print faster and stronger; narrower lines reveal more surface detail.

See also: Nozzle Diameter, Wall Line Count

Marlin's pressure advance equivalent. Tuned with a calibration print where K-value sweeps across stripes.

See also: Pressure Advance

Klipper web UI — print management, temperature graphs, macros.

See also: Klipper, Fluidd

Most common stock printer firmware. Compile-time configuration; simpler to maintain than Klipper but less flexible.

See also: Klipper

Slicer-side cap on instantaneous flow. The single most useful tuning parameter for high-speed prints.

See also: Volumetric Flow

Prusa's Multi-Material Upgrade. Latest revision is MMU3 for the MK4 / XL.

See also: AMS

Masked stereolithography — LCD-masked UV light cures whole layers at once. Dominant consumer resin technology.

See also: Resin Printing

Nozzle orifice diameter. 0.4mm is standard; 0.6–0.8mm for speed and strength; 0.2–0.25mm for fine detail.

See also: Layer Height, Line Width

Polyamide filament — high strength and abrasion resistance. Extremely hygroscopic; must be dried before and during printing. Print 240–270°C.

See also: Wet Filament, Filament Dryer

Fans blowing ambient air on freshly extruded plastic. Enables clean overhangs for PLA/PETG; reduced for ABS/ASA.

See also: overhang, Warping

Spring steel build plate coated in polyetherimide. Smooth or textured surface. Standard on most modern printers.

See also: Build Surface

Glycol-modified PET — tougher than PLA with higher impact and heat resistance (~70°C). Print 220–245°C. Mildly hygroscopic.

See also: PLA, Wet Filament

Bulging or holes in the top surface from inadequate top layers or poor cooling. Add top layers and verify fan operation.

See also: Top Layer, Part Cooling

Polylactic acid — easy-printing biodegradable filament. Print temperature 190–220°C. Glass transition ~55°C limits use in hot environments.

See also: PETG, ABS, ASA

PC — very high strength and heat resistance (~120°C+). Requires high nozzle temperature (270–310°C), enclosed chamber, and hardened steel hotend.

See also: Enclosed Printer, All-Metal Hotend

Klipper feature that adjusts extruder pressure ahead of speed changes to compensate for filament compressibility. Eliminates bulging at corners.

See also: Linear Advance, Calibration Tower

Sacrificial thick base layer beneath the model. Used for adhesion to difficult surfaces.

See also: Brim

Photopolymer 3D printing — SLA or MSLA. Cures liquid resin layer by layer with UV light. Higher detail than FDM at the cost of post-process workflow constraints.

See also: MSLA, sla, FDM

Pulling filament back into the extruder during travel moves to relieve nozzle pressure. Distance and speed are the two tunable parameters.

See also: Stringing

Calibration print with retraction distance increasing across sections — used to dial in stringing-free retraction without overshooting.

See also: Calibration Tower, Retraction, Stringing

Echo patterns on print walls after corners — mechanical resonance. Reduced by lowering acceleration or enabling input shaping.

See also: Input Shaping

Software that converts a 3D model to printer G-code: path planning, supports, infill, machine-specific dialect.

See also: G-code

PVA or HIPS support that dissolves in solvent. Requires multi-material setup.

See also: Support Material, AMS, MMU

Thin filament strands between separated print features. Caused by inadequate retraction, too-high temperature, or wet filament.

See also: Retraction, Wet Filament

Removable scaffolding for overhangs above the printer's max unsupported angle (~45°). Modern slicers offer tree, normal, and organic patterns.

See also: overhang, Soluble Support

Tower-shaped calibration print with temperature decreasing in 5°C steps from base to top. Used to find optimal print temperature for a specific filament spool.

See also: Calibration Tower

Solid horizontal layer at the print's top. Insufficient count causes pillowing.

See also: Pillowing, Ironing

Thermoplastic polyurethane — flexible. Shore A 85–98 common. Requires slow speeds (15–30mm/s) and direct-drive extrusion for reliable flow.

See also: Direct Drive

Bambu Lab's name for input shaping.

See also: Input Shaping

Filament throughput in mm³/s. The hotend's max sustainable flow caps practical print speed. Standard hotends 11–15 mm³/s; high-flow 25–40 mm³/s.

See also: Max Volumetric Speed, Hotend

Number of perimeter passes before infill. 2 for cosmetic; 4–6 for structural.

See also: Line Width

Lifting or curling of cooling parts. Worst with ABS / ASA. Mitigated by enclosed chamber, heated bed, brim, and reduced part cooling.

See also: Enclosed Printer, Brim

Filament that has absorbed atmospheric moisture. Symptoms: popping at the nozzle, weak interlayer bonding, stringing. Dried at 50–80°C depending on material.

See also: Filament Dryer, Stringing

Vertical distance between nozzle tip and bed at z=0. Negative values bring the nozzle closer. Critical for first-layer adhesion.

See also: First Layer, Bed Leveling