Glossary

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene — durable, heat-resistant (~100°C), and post-processable with acetone smoothing. Requires an enclosed printer due to warping and ABS fumes. Largely replaced by ASA for outdoor use.

See also: ASA, PETG, Enclosed Printer

Bambu Lab's Automatic Material System — a 4-spool filament changer enabling multi-color and multi-material prints on supported Bambu printers.

See also: MMU, multi-material

Acrylonitrile styrene acrylate — UV-stable alternative to ABS with similar mechanical properties. Best choice for outdoor parts that need to survive sun exposure.

See also: ABS, uv-resistance

Process of ensuring the print bed is parallel to the nozzle's XY motion. Modern printers use automatic probes (inductive, capacitive, or strain gauge); older printers rely on manual paper-feel adjustment.

See also: Z-Offset, First Layer

Kinematic configuration where the print bed moves on the Y axis. Lower cost than CoreXY; speed-limited because the bed and print mass must be accelerated together.

See also: CoreXY

PTFE tube that routes filament from a remote extruder to the hotend. Reduces print head mass for faster acceleration; complicates flexible filament and retraction tuning.

See also: Direct Drive

Single-layer skirt printed in contact with the model's outline to increase first-layer surface area and resist warping. Removed after printing.

See also: Raft, Warping

Kinematic system where two motors drive X and Y axes via a crossed belt arrangement, keeping the gantry stationary in Z. Enables fast acceleration without moving the print bed. Used by Bambu X1/P1, Voron 2, V-Core, and most modern enclosed printers.

See also: Bed Slinger, kinematics

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

See also: Bowden Tube, TPU

A flared, bulging first few layers caused by excessive bed heat or over-squished z-offset. Compensated for in slicers via the 'elephant foot compensation' setting.

See also: First Layer, Z-Offset

Printer with a sealed chamber that retains heat. Required for warping-prone materials (ABS, ASA, PC, nylon). Enables higher chamber temperatures for better layer adhesion.

See also: ABS, Warping

Fused Deposition Modeling — the most common 3D printing process for hobbyists. A heated nozzle extrudes molten thermoplastic filament along a path, building the part layer by layer. Also called FFF (fused filament fabrication) to avoid trademark conflict with Stratasys.

See also: FFF, Resin Printing, Layer Height

Fused Filament Fabrication — generic term for the same process as FDM, used to avoid Stratasys's FDM trademark. Functionally identical.

See also: FDM

Heated enclosure for drying hygroscopic filament. Common models: Sunlu S2/S4, Polymaker PolyDryer, Eibos Cyclopes. Operating temperature ranges from 40°C (PLA) to 80°C (nylon).

See also: Wet Filament

The bottom-most printed layer that anchors the entire print to the build surface. Often printed slower and slightly squished to maximize adhesion.

See also: Z-Offset, Bed Leveling, Elephant's Foot

The text-based machine control language a slicer produces. Each line tells the printer to move, extrude, change temperature, or run a control command. Marlin and Klipper accept compatible dialects.

See also: Slicer, Klipper

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

See also: Heatbreak, extruder-skipping

Thin-walled metal tube between the heatsink and the heater block. Designed to localize melting at the nozzle and prevent heat creep up the filament.

See also: Heat Creep, Hotend

The heated nozzle assembly that melts filament. Components: heater block, heater cartridge, thermistor, heatbreak, and nozzle.

See also: Nozzle Diameter, Heatbreak

Percentage of solid material inside the printed shell. Lower densities save filament and time but reduce strength. 15–20% is typical for cosmetic parts; 40–60%+ for functional.

See also: Wall Line Count, Infill Pattern

Geometric pattern used to fill the interior of a part. Grid, gyroid, cubic, lightning, and honeycomb are common. Pattern choice affects strength, weight, and print time more than density alone.

See also: Infill Density

Firmware feature that pre-cancels mechanical resonance by injecting compensating accelerations into the motion plan. Originally a Klipper feature; now standard on Bambu and newer Prusa firmware.

See also: Ringing, Vibration Compensation

Slicer feature that passes the heated nozzle over the top layer at zero extrusion to smooth visible top surfaces. Adds significant print time; only effective on flat top surfaces.

See also: Top Layer

Open-source 3D printer firmware that runs motion planning on a separate computer (typically a Raspberry Pi). Enables high-performance features on otherwise modest hardware.

See also: Pressure Advance, Input Shaping

Vertical thickness of each printed layer, in millimeters. Common FDM ranges are 0.08–0.32mm. Smaller heights reveal more detail but multiply print time linearly.

See also: layer-time, z-resolution

Horizontal width of an extruded line. Usually set 20–60% wider than the nozzle diameter. Larger line widths print faster and produce stronger parts; narrower widths reveal more surface detail.

See also: Nozzle Diameter, Wall Line Count

Marlin's name for pressure advance — same concept, slightly different implementation. Tuned with a calibration print where K-value increases across stripes.

See also: Pressure Advance

Removable spring steel sheet held in place by a heated magnetic carrier. Allows flexing the sheet to release stuck prints. Now standard on most consumer FDM printers.

See also: PEI Sheet

Most common open-source firmware running on the printer's mainboard directly. Configured at compile time; less flexible than Klipper but simpler to maintain.

See also: Klipper

Slicer-side limit that caps any print speed × layer × line width product to a safe volumetric flow. The single most important speed tuning parameter.

See also: Volumetric Flow Rate

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

See also: AMS, multi-material

Masked stereolithography — a resin printing approach that uses an LCD panel to mask UV light from a flat panel light source, curing an entire layer at once. The dominant consumer resin technology.

See also: Resin Printing, SLA

Diameter of the nozzle's extrusion orifice. 0.4mm is the standard; 0.6 and 0.8mm increase speed and strength at the cost of detail; 0.2 and 0.25mm produce finer detail at very slow speeds.

See also: Line Width, Layer Height

A portion of a printed feature that extends outward beyond the layer below. Successful unsupported overhang angles range from 45° (poorly tuned) to 70°+ (well-tuned with good cooling).

See also: Support Material, Part Cooling

Fan(s) that blow ambient air onto the just-extruded plastic. Enables clean overhangs and crisp small features in PLA and PETG; reduced or disabled for ABS/ASA to prevent warping.

See also: Overhang, Warping

Spring steel build plate coated in polyetherimide. Smooth or textured. Most common build surface in modern printers; PLA and PETG release on cooling without adhesive.

See also: build-surface, Magnetic Bed

Glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate — tougher than PLA, with better impact and temperature resistance (up to ~70°C). Print temperature 220–245°C. Mildly hygroscopic.

See also: PLA, ABS, Wet Filament

Bulging or holes in the top surface caused by insufficient top-layer count or inadequate cooling. Add more top layers and verify part cooling fan operation.

See also: Top Layer, Part Cooling

Polylactic acid — the most common FDM filament. Easy to print, low warping, biodegradable feedstock. Print temperature 190–220°C. Soft above ~55°C, making it unsuitable for hot environments.

See also: PETG, ABS, ASA

Klipper / Marlin feature (also called linear advance) that pre-emptively adjusts extruder pressure to compensate for filament compressibility. Reduces bulging at corners and the start of extrusion lines.

See also: Linear Advance, Retraction

Sacrificial thick base layer printed below the model. Used for adhesion to difficult surfaces or to compensate for uneven beds. Adds material cost and post-processing.

See also: Brim

Photopolymer-based 3D printing using either SLA (laser) or MSLA (LCD masked light). Cures liquid resin layer by layer for higher detail than FDM but with shorter post-process workflow constraints.

See also: MSLA, SLA, FDM

Pulling filament back into the extruder during a non-print move to relieve nozzle pressure and prevent stringing. Distance (mm) and speed (mm/s) are the two main tunable parameters.

See also: Stringing, Pressure Advance

Repeated ghosting or echo patterns visible on print walls after a sharp corner. Caused by mechanical resonance. Mitigated by lowering print acceleration or enabling input shaping.

See also: Input Shaping, Vibration Compensation

Stereolithography — original resin printing technology using a steered laser to cure resin point by point. Slower than MSLA but historically associated with higher dimensional accuracy.

See also: MSLA, Resin Printing

Software that converts a 3D model (STL/3MF/STEP) into printer-readable G-code. Slicers handle path planning, support generation, infill, and machine-specific G-code dialects.

See also: G-code, orca-slicer, bambu-studio

Support material made of water-soluble PVA or breakaway HIPS that dissolves in solvent rather than requiring mechanical removal. Requires a multi-material setup.

See also: Support Material, MMU, AMS

Thin filament strands left between separated features during travel moves. Caused by inadequate retraction, too-high temperature, or wet filament.

See also: Retraction, Wet Filament

Removable scaffolding printed beneath overhangs above a printer's max unsupported angle (typically 45°). Modern slicers offer tree, normal, and organic support patterns.

See also: Overhang, Soluble Support

Solid horizontal layer(s) at the top of a print. Common counts: 4–5. Insufficient top layers cause pillowing — visible infill pattern poking through.

See also: Pillowing, Ironing

Thermoplastic polyurethane — flexible rubber-like filament. Shore A 85–98 hardness common for FDM. Requires slow print speeds (15–30mm/s) and direct-drive or constrained Bowden setup.

See also: Direct Drive, Bowden Tube

Marketing-friendly name for input shaping, especially in Bambu Lab documentation.

See also: Input Shaping

Filament throughput in mm³/s. The hotend's maximum sustainable volumetric flow determines the practical upper limit of print speed. Standard hotends: 11–15 mm³/s; high-flow hotends: 25–40 mm³/s.

See also: Hotend, Max Volumetric Speed

Number of perimeter shells the slicer prints before infill. 2 walls is the default for cosmetic prints; 4–6 walls is recommended for functional or load-bearing parts.

See also: Line Width, Infill Density

Lifting or curling of a printed part as it cools and contracts. Most severe with ABS and large flat-bottomed parts. Mitigated by enclosure, heated bed, brim, and reduced part cooling.

See also: Enclosed Printer, Brim

Filament that has absorbed atmospheric moisture. Symptoms: popping/crackling at the nozzle, weak interlayer bonding, surface defects, stringing. Dried in a filament dryer or food dehydrator at ~50°C for 6–12 hours.

See also: Stringing, Filament Dryer

The distance between the nozzle tip and the print surface at z=0. Negative offsets bring the nozzle closer; positive offsets move it away. Critical for first-layer adhesion.

See also: First Layer, Bed Leveling