I have done a fair few prints of Polymaker Silk and pretending it’s Bambu Silk seems to give the same results. For ASA Bambu is much better than the Poly settings. Is there a ‘guide’ on when to use makers settings over the default?
To answer your question: No, there is no guide. There are plenty of opinions, but the data is inconsistent, and there’s no repository anyone can treat as authoritative.
The broader problem is that FDM is still a moving target. Even with the same printer and the same filament, results can swing due to ambient moisture and temperature, batch variability from filament makers, and small tuning differences between machines. That makes standardizing filament behavior unrealistic.
On top of that, marketing terms only muddy things further. A good example is PLA+, which has no agreed-upon definition across manufacturers.
And finally, add to that the checkered history of quality inconsistency and changes to formula an spools such as Bambu and recently Elegoo and PolyMaker(Panchroma), and one can see that this is a moving target. I believe in retail, the practice is called “Shelf-Blocking” where one brand proliferates under different names to ensure that no matter what the consumer buys, the odds are higher they will buy at least one of their products.
I posted a rabbit-hole dive I went on trying to determine if there was a real difference between makers. Spoiler alert: There isn’t.
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I always start with the Bambu filament settings that are closest to the filament type I’m using. If the filament came with temperature suggestions that are significantly different I adjust accordingly. Then I do flow and PA manually. Generally, that’s all it takes.
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