5 Slicer defaults I ALWAYS change  

I got a job at a facility where we prototype and manufacture medical products using FDM and SLA 3d printers. I can honestly say I wouldn't know the slightest bit of what I'm doing at my job if it wasn't for your channel. my very first day on the job, I was tasked with repairing 5 broken ender 3's. I repaired 2 the first day. I literally play with 3d printers for a living now and am in love with my work.

Really helpful video! Quick suggestion: it would have been very interesting for you to show the cube printed once with the default settings, and once with the improved settings at the end.

Another one to save your bacon in case you use variable layer height is minimum shell thickness. If you reduce the layer height of the top of a dome for example, you might only have 3 top layers at 0.1mm which is very thin, but the rest of the print is at 0.2mm so 3 layers is plenty. setting minimum shell thickness to 0.5mm will ensure that if you reduce the layer height anywhere you don't accidentally create holes. Otherwise it changes absolutely nothing, so no hurt in enabling it just in case.

In Cura: The Cubic support can be done in a similar way with essentially any infill using the infill subdivision feature. A separate setting also works on supports that get denser at the top (not roof, the support structure itself). Starting with a version several months back (I think 4.11), seam placement is (finally!) also nicely visible. Seams: nothing like the aligned that I know of, but sharpest corner+smart hiding works quite well most of the time. In some cases, I set my own seam coordinates. Still, seam painting in PS is clearly superior. Settings I changed in Cura: (Ender 3, but most apply anywhere) Infill - grid is fine for visual parts, cubic or gyroid anywhere else. Connect infill lines (for prints that I want strong), sometimes I drop in infill line multiplier too (IMO works better than high infills >30%). Initial layer line width to 150% for materials where adgesion is notoriously poor. Combing - on, but with max comb range 10mm and "not in skin" setting. Regular fan speed from 3. layer (2. is then 50% of set fan speed), minimum layer time 6s. Low jerk on first layer (10, with some materials even 5). Helps prevent ripping of at sharp corners etc. Acceleration tuned down a bit too. Increased travel to 200mm/s, including on first layer. Support density 15% (but depends on project), support roof 100% density concentric, 1mm thick. Z gap 1-2 layers depending on model needs (1 is fine under flat surfaces but can be hard to remove on complex shapes). Support brim on. Support overhang angle 50-60° (but can go to 70° in some cases). Support skin fan speed 100% (cools stuff above support so it can be easier removed, useful when your base speed is not 100%, like PETG etc). Often Conical supports or even tree supports can work wonders, reaching over structures to support stuff above, without building supports on top of parts of the model. Unless brim needed, skirt with just 2 lines. Huh, that was quite a lot :-D

Miss these tips and tricks videos, Thank You, always learning new helpful concepts and approaches here!

Just an fyi for those who may not know, support cubic is now adaptive cubic.

Thanks for these videos. I purchased a Bambu Lab P1S last week and your content is incredibly educational. The printer itself just worked out of the box, but learning about print settings has been so helpful. In one of your previous videos you discussed overhang angle vs layer height and it has saved me so much time and material already. Thanks!

The "ensure vertical thickness" algorithm has changed recently in PrusaSlicer (I think in either 2.6.0 or 2.6.1). Instead of all of the short moves perpendicular to the perimeters, they are now generated parallel to the perimeters. Much less print-induced vibrations.

Really great tips! I love how the advice on this channel is always so practical. The seam in particular is one things I've tried to adjust a few times and was never happy with. Interestingly I've actually never considered setting to "aligned", thinking it would show up and I could just hide it by using random. It's not hidden… now it's much harder to clean up since there are bits sticking out everywhere.

Vertical shell thickness! I’ve been wanting those purple lines to go away. Thanks again Angus.

It's stuff like this that makes this channel the gold standard for 3dprinting videos for me. Keep it up.

WOW!!! What valuable resource for beginners. I recently got a Prusa and have been printing a week now and this is exactly the material I needed to take it to the next level of my fast track crash (and i mean CRASH!) course through the basics. Can't wait to see the difference! I especially love the explanations as to "why". Great job and thank you VERY much!

I can't adequately express how helpful your videos have been! I've been trying to figure out what the white dots are, and how to get rid of them, since I began printing.

Thank you for this, and all your videos. I've been printing for about a year now, and have learned everything I know only from RU-vid since I'm not part of a local community of print enthusiasts. Thanks a ton!

Love it!! I agree with so many of these, including the vertical shell thickness, HOWEVER there are times where the vertical shell thickness is worth it. Models that are more anatomical tend to benefit to leave it enabled so you do not lose detail near the head. Great vid with helpful tips!

I really appreciate you explaining why you choose your settings, it helps understand why and when these settings are better

The seam in cura recently is really cool. Its called smart hiding and it aligned for the sphere like in your example but instead of protruding outward in goes in like a nice zipper and I find it a step better and smoother. Thanks again for your tips.

Im REALLY surprised. I finally bought feeler gauges (after blindly using whatever is preset from facrory in sparkplug world

These “Tips” videos are sooo appreciated and extremely under rated. Thank you so much for all your help

This has been the single most useful 3D printing video I’ve ever seen. Seriously! Thank you so much!

Instead of a third perimeter I like to use Cura's "Connect Infill Lines" feature (probably available in other slicers). This greatly strengthens infill by linking sections together where they connect to walls, reduces the number of retractions you need to make, and provides a modest improvement to wall strength without printing a full third perimeter. For a similar reason I also use the zig-zag top/bottom pattern instead of lines; I don't have the equipment to measure improved mechanical strength, but logically it should be more robust to have a single undivided line of extrusion rather than many separate ones. Another option is Cura's "Alternate Extra Wall" feature, which adds an extra wall every second layer. I don't imagine this is very useful on its own, but combined with "Connect Infill Lines" it uniquely sandwiches infill and perimeters together, noticeably improving strength. On some occasions I've used these two features together and only used a single regular external perimeter. For my parts at least, this is obviously stronger in the hand than just having regular unconnected infill with 2 perimeters, while printing much faster and using less filament. Cosmetically it won't be as attractive though since the infill will show through. To both make my seams less noticeable and improve print speed, I print external walls narrower (and a bit more slowly), say 0.44mm for a 0.4mm nozzle, and internal ones wider depending on desired strength. 0.8mm or even 1mm is fine for a 0.4mm nozzle. This technique doesn't harm external appearance in any way I've been able to notice. Printing wider than your nozzle opening (but no wider than the nozzle tip) is a good way to improve layer adhesion and strength, as it sandwiches the plastic together across a wider surface and forms a *much* stronger bond to the previous layer. Wider infill can also a good idea for reducing print time without sacrificing strength but it's not always practical, it depends on the structure of the part you're printing. Sometimes you want lots of small supports in thin spots, while other times you have a big space to fill and printing wide infill has no downside. If you use a low infill percentage this may not be beneficial as it greatly increases the gap between infill lines. Before using wider extrusion you should check to see how fast your hotend is capable of melting filament or else you could have hidden underextrusion in your internal walls. Also when using wider top/bottom lines, I recommend specifying a custom top skin line width and selecting 2 "top surface skin layers". In Cura this is an experimental feature and I use 0.4mm. It greatly improves surface finish, ensuring the top of prints are as flat as possible with virtually no blobbing. I don't use it very often since it leads to an inconsistent and unattractive surface finish with glossy filament, but if that doesn't matter I like to use Adaptive Layers. I normally use 0.24mm base height with 0.08mm variation in both directions, so when I'm printing an angle or a curve it's smoother (0.16 layer height), but if I'm printing a flat section it's much faster (0.32 layer height).

I always come back to your videos, well explained, easy to follow and most importantly actually useful. Great job

Dear Angus, you are so kind regarding empowering us with technology. Thank you. Also I am a 3 perimeter person.

I've been printing for about 1 year and it's amazing (insane) the amount of i fo I get to pick up on on a daily basis. This was very helpful! 🎉❤😊

Thanks for the little detailes. Very helpful.

With seams, doing aligned on something with threads will cause binding. If printing something threaded use random.

Everything is well explained. Thanks for sharing such effective video👍👍

Your videos are very helpful. It has made my introduction to 3d printing much less painful. Thank you.

Great tips for general printing. I generally use 3-4 perimeters, and I always find myself adjusting the default speeds! Some of this info will likely need updating when the new public version of PrusaSlicer comes out. I think it will be a game-changer. Thanks for always producing useful content!

good tips. Thanks. Its good to know your preferences as we know they come from experience

I really enjoy your videos and your enthusiasm. Very informative and engaging. Well done! Thanks

Thanks man. Appreciated!

Very educational. That's pretty much my settings on Cura apart from the 3 walls. I've only ever used 2, but after seeing this video I will definitely be changing to 3 walls especially to hide infills.

Great video as always 👍 Great tips. I often used adaptive infill. Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍🙂

I'm considering buying my first printer and this type of video is invaluable. Thanks for taking the time!

Thank you, your fine details are explained very clearly. You're including the why with the what & how which makes it make more sense.

Wow. Just got my printer 2 days ago. Did my first big-ish print (8 hours). Basically just hit print. And after I went back to my slicer and everything you just covered I saw in this print. Huge learning experience here. If I knew any of this I wouldn't have run out of material on it.

This was really helpful. I've been 3D modeling and printing for years, but I've never really focused much on the slicer itself. Thanks for making the video

This is EXACTLY what i am looking for. A to the point explaination of each setthing to take notes for myself. Thx!

Great Tips, Thanks, I'll try them out later 👍

notes for myself 😊 number of walls :4 cubic infil 20% elephant's foor compensation 0.2 alligned seams ensure vertical thickness : disable it

Great video! I'll try out disabling that vertical thickness setting! Thanks for the tips as always Angus 👍

Being fairly new in the 3d printing world, this was absolutely amazing. Cheers.

Great video with very clear explanations. I look forward to seeing the differences on my prints. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing your experience with all of us! this video is really helpful!!

Thanks! Just after a few testprints i am convinced to switch from Cura to Prusa Slicer. It just works so much better for my Printer

These are really good tips. I'm going to have to try disabling "ensure vertical thickness". I usually pull infill down to 15%, and change the bottom layer to 5 for strength and stability. Some adjustments I make in CAD, though. I normally put a shallow radius on the bottom to eliminate elephant's foot and give a consistent finish, at least with PLA. To make the sides stronger, I'll print the sides at a 3mm or so width. That makes for a hollow exterior wall with the infill, and it's quite a bit slower, but it's very light and strong. A bit like making the side walls of a print with balsa core plywood.

Missed this tutorial. Great channel

Great information! Thank you. I enjoy this style of video.

Great tips and great video, now all I have to do is try to remember them and see what happens. I like using 3 parameters and 25 percent infill. It works for me. Thanks for everything 👍

3D noob here - and I appreciate this video. Thanks!

Great video many many thanks for the seam tip !! A lot of your parameters tips are corrected by default in the fork SuperSlicer ! But your video allowed me to learn a lot about all these parameters and will allow me to improve the quality of my prints so thank you very much !

You have become my favorite 3-D mentor.

Amazingly helpful video! Thank you!

As usual thanks for sharing this video and information.

yet another clear, understandable video. Great job and keep it up!

Thank you for sharing your insights 😊

Excellent tutorial on PrusaSlicer.

Thank you for pointing out Seam Placement. I always wondered about these pock marks on my prints.

This was just great and super informative!

This is fantastic info. Thank you.

This video is top quality content, awesome job Angus!!

Appreciate your video as I'm still in the 'try it and see how it prints' camp using prusaslicer.

Oh! Thank you for this, I'm still learning and this has addressed multiple issues I've not known how to even research, lol. Excited to give these changes a try!

This was super useful thanks! Would love to see a part 2 someday!

Dude, this video was insanly helpful. I struggled for months with elephant foots and didn't even know there where a setting to prevent it. Thank you so much for the Other Tipps as well.

Such a helpful video! I just got a 3D Printer, and didn't know about any of these settings. It is very helpful. I am glad that I clicked on it!! 🙂

Excellent video, so much useful information for someone like me that is just learning 3D printing and setup. Thank you!

Amazing video! Wish I'd learned these tricks earlier. Will definitely use them from now on.

Great and well described tips and tricks 👍!

I'll definitely keep a look for the vertical shell one, always interested in saving some time, and since i usually increase perimeters too might be a good idea. It would have been really nice to print both the before and after to show the differences on the actual print other than in the slicer, it would have been interesting to see some measures to show the accuracy isn't really that affected.

This was an excellent lesson. Thank you.

Awesome vid. Thx for sharing 👌🙌

Ironing is one of my favourites for certain prints

super handy video. thanks for sharing. this helps a ton

What I used to be changing the most was the build plate adhesion setting. Maybe just to compensate my bad bed leveling, but there were also some designs that just had a small surface on the build plate. For some time I even printed everything on a raft because I found that was the only setting that would work reliably. I would only recommend that to desperate starters in the field who can't get any print going.

Great Video, will definitely be using some of these on my prints. Also to note about the Seam Placement: PrusaSlicer has a paint on seams setting where you can literally tell it exactly where it should place the seam. That way you can place it on the back of models or in internal corners to hide them much better.

I use the CHEP super fast profile in Cura which is fantastic. And I've always used triangle infill as CNC kitchen found this to be very good for strength

Excellent suggestions…thanks so much

Im late to the 3D printer scene but there is SO much information in this one video. You sir, get a sub.

Thanks, will try these out.

Thanks a lot Angus for sharing this.

You hit the exact ones that I change to, right down to the maintain vertical shell thickness.

thank you verry much for this 5 tricks, you make my day.

Just go my first printer. So much useful info. Thanks!

Moved from Cura to Prusaslicer tnx to you, and I think it has a lot more settings availible

Great Video, thanks for the tips

I like me some Cubic, but man, Gyroid is SO NICE.

This is now required viewing for the Engineering Design course I teach which utilizes the 3D printer lab I’ve built up. Thanks!!!!

Thanks for this info. I am new to 3d printing and this video was helpful and informative.

i love your tech videos. i'd like to share it with my friends who can not access youtube. Thanks.

Wish I had seen this video a year ago! :) I eventually arrived at everything you mention (including the Cubic infill, which is also my favorite!), but it took me quite a while to figure out what exactly the settings do (or that they even exist). Some things I change in addition are: - "Avoid crossing perimeters" as I now print on a Bowden extruder Prusa Mini most of the time, and it really helps with reducing stringing. - "First Layer Speed" - I slow it down a bit from the defaults, I can take the extra couple of minutes in exchange for a more reliable first layer. - First layer filament temperature - I don't know when it changed, but it used to be that the (Prusa Slicer) filament profiles had a temperature couple degrees higher for the first layer (whereas now it's LOWER for PETG?) and now they don't, but I find that worked slightly better for first layer adhesion, so I usually change that too. - "Ironing" SOMETIMES - the print time hit is huge and not all prints benefit, but man, is it magic! It ends up with a top layer that's smoother than the bottom one!

Thanks Angus, this is great. I like Prusa slicer and appreciate you explaining what the features do. This is great list. I haven't used it enough to recommend any setting tweaks.

Thank you for tip #5. I've been curious how to disable those for years!

I alway learn something new with your videos, thanks a lot :)

Been printing for about 1.5 months and only now brave enough to escape the presets. This was a great video, thank you

Really nice video, you sold me on the Prusa Slicer, I used the default my Ender 3 came with, and I fould that by rotating a model 45 degrees from the top down view usually cut a lot of time for the prints

Great insights, thanks for the tips!

thanks, always I learn sonething from your videos Greetings from the Galilee.

Thanks for converting me from Ultimaker to Prusa.. i just love the UI for this slicer.