Hi new user. I want to calibrate some filaments on an X1C. But would appreciate a broad guideline on how far to go. I see examples of filament calibration that use Filament brand, type of plate, filament colour, Filament type etc.
Obviously the filament Brand and type is important, but is it necessary to expand the calibrations to include the type of plate (textured/smooth) and the filament colour?
I’m thinking isn’t it enough to calibrate by Brand + Type but assume all colours for this filament print the same and can use one calibration setting? Also, can I just calibrate everything on the smooth plate and use this calibration for textured plate.
I’m not trying to be lazy, but if possible would like to use the least amount of calibrations. I would appreciate comments from someone with more experience.
Then there is the question of which to use. ie. Bambu Studio, or OrcaSlicer, or perhaps use OrcaSlicer to do the calibration (more options?) and then put the results into Bambu Studio.
I have a tendency to want to stick with Studio, but have read that there is no way to back up the Calibration values.
Thanks, I am open to any suggestions, I just want to try to avoid going down the wrong path.
I’ll try to answer your questions in order and hopefully the community will chime in with additional data.
Wondering how detailed the calibration should be (brand, type, plate type, color).
One only needs to identify brand and technology. However, some filament makers are identical and therefore those profiles can be used on both. (Click on this post for one example)
Considering whether it’s necessary to calibrate for different plate types (textured/smooth) and filament colors.
Plate? No. Colors? Maybe. I have two colors of CC3D PC filament as an example, one clear and one Black, although the profile I tuned-in works for both, there was enough difference in the Black version where creating a more “Dialed-in” profile got me better results. The question comes down to, what is your time worth spending the extra time calibrating. In my case, it was worth it.
Questioning if calibrating by brand and type alone is sufficient for all colors.
Same answer as question 2.
Curious if a calibration done on a smooth plate can be used for a textured plate.
Plate is not affected by filament calibration although the filament profile allows for different heat settings based on plate. Don’t confuse this with calibration.
Aiming to minimize the number of calibrations.
There are few shortcuts in 3D printing. Often we will see posts here where someone will go to great lengths to save a percent or two on outcome. Truth be told, I am guilty of this myself but sometimes getting the printer to go to 11 is its own reward.
Debating between using Bambu Studio or OrcaSlicer for calibration.
This isn’t even worth questioning. Orca Slicer hands-down. First, the two slicers can coexist on the same machine so there is no down-side. Second, Bambu doesn’t have filament calibration tools baked in so it’s no-contest.
Leaning towards Bambu Studio but concerned about the inability to back up calibration values.
This is a matter of personal preference, but I abandoned Bambu Studio when they force-fed us the MakerWorld feeds. Since then, Orca has leapfrogged by adding too many quality-of-life features to discuss here. Clearly, Bambu is uninterested in this aspect of their product and is on a “boil the frog” trajectory, slowly introducing advertising into the Studio feed. One of the most basic differences between the two is the ability to change the default opening page to “Prepare.” Studio forces you to the MakerWorld propaganda page. I expect forced ads to follow next.
Suggestions
At first, you may find filament calibration very time-consuming and wonder whether it’s worth the effort—at least, I did until one day it all clicked. In my case, I refuse to support Bambu’s poor customer service policies and overpriced filaments. Pretty AMS-friendly spools only go so far, and as a P1P user without AMS, they are useless to me. The satisfaction of being able to take almost any filament from Amazon and make it perform better than Bambu’s at one-third the cost is empowering.
If I may suggest at least one YouTube video in particular that I feel does a concise job on calibration, it is this one from Butter Pocket prints. There are others on YouTube but this one does a good job covering the basics of filament tuning using Orca.
And of course, don’t neglect the Orca Slicer Wiki tutorial page which is another great source
And last, if I haven’t convinced anyone to switch to Orca. I’ll leave these two screen shots.
I test every new-to-me material, brand, and color. A different color means the manufacturer has used different ingredients and that means the filament may print differently. Using one profile for all colors might produce acceptable results, but I cannot know if I have the best print without testing.
I use OrcaSlicer for most calibrations because it has most of the tests I need in one place.
At the very least, I test for best nozzle temperature, flow ratio, and pressure advance.
Sometimes I test for max volumetric flow, especially if I will be printing large models with that filament and print time will be significant.
@Olias@lkraus Guys, thank you very much for the excellent and enlightening replies. I never expected to receive so much detail. It will help me greatly. I will start by following the YouTube Orca slicer manual tuning and see how I get on. One aspect that was bothering me is that I am getting very accurate internal dimensions, but external ones are all too small. For the time being, I will stick with one filament calibration to get a good handle on the procedure and go from there. Guys, thanks again!
Getting accurate dimensions both inside and outside can be a struggle. OrcaSlicer helps with a shrinkage setting in the filament profile that Studio does not offer.
Thanks for this pointer. I had also found the precision setting for X-Y hole and contour compensation. But I will to do filament calibration before trying to optimize the dimensions. So many variables…
Since I started 3D printing I always had to calibrate my filaments and I stick with that on my P1S.
There is many ways of getting the results but not all work out the same.
For example:
In most cases it really is enough to just get the flow ratio and k-factor done.
And if you did the later for a lot of spools you quickly realise that unless it is a quite different filament that the same values keep working fine.
A tiny bit up or down here and there but that’s it - nothing that would totally ruin your print.
You can get away with just a few base filament profiles you keep copying/renaming.
And most people won’t complain about the quality of their prints this way.
If you need to make moulds or other items where the surface quality matters it might be a different story…
Nozzle temp, speed, flow rate, pressure advance - or square of vital variables.
Change any of them and the extrusion is affected.
Since our prints usually keep changing speed and flow rates a ‘total’ calibration seems unrequired…
I see it this way:
If my slicer and machine are unable to print with a constant flow rate and speed than ANY filament related factor WILL get worse OR better depending on the needs of the model.
But how do you know the affect you see comes from the slicing/machine or from calibration issues ??
Take ‘just’ the extrusion temp…
You have it all honed in and prints come out fine?
Try a test print to check bridging, stringing and fine details.
Comes out great?
Now try again by printing it at a much slower or faster speed…
If temp and speed won’t match things like bridges, overhangs or pointy things just won’t work as expected.
But if the vital parameters of the filament are properly calibrated you mainly only have to worry about the speed and how it might affect line widths and bonds.
Thank you for the guidance and things to think about. My first machine was a Flsun Q5 and it was an excellent 1st printer. But it never had the performance to really push things. However, it did make decent prints. Now with the X1C, I can see that it can do some serious printing. In fact, now I can see what a first layer should look like I understand what you are saying with regard to so many variables, each one affecting the stream of molten plastic. On the advice from this thread I have just installed Orcaslicer beta. I had to do this so that Bambu PETG-HF filament showed up. I have just completed my first calibration using this filament. I notice that in Orcaslicer there is a Beta function called "Enable adaptive pressure advance (beta). I am wondering if this is worth trying? I wonder what shaped model would be the most demanding in order to compare with this Beta mode against the Fixed Pressure advance (the one that I have just Calibrated!).
I would stick with the normal stuff, do some prints, hone the settings and only then try to see whether or not the new feature provides improvement.
Beta usually means you have to expect some bugs here and there.
I agree, but on this occasion I had to in order to use the Bambu PETG-HF filament. It wasn’t available in the stable version. I tried to copy this filament profile over from BS, but didn’t succeed.
I understand what you are saying with regard to so many variables, each one affecting the stream of molten plastic. On the advice from this thread I have just installed Orcaslicer beta. I had to do this so that Bambu PETG-HF filament showed up. I have just completed my first calibration using this filament. I notice that in Orcaslicer there is a Beta function called "Enable adaptive pressure advance (beta). I am wondering if this is worth trying? I wonder what shaped model would be the most demanding in order to compare with this Beta mode against the Fixed Pressure advance (the one that I have just Calibrated!).