OrcaSlicer Complete Guide: Profiles, Calibration, and Multi-Color

What OrcaSlicer Is

OrcaSlicer is an open-source fork of Bambu Studio (itself based on PrusaSlicer) with enhanced calibration tools and broad printer support. Supports Bambu machines natively and any FDM printer via custom profiles.

Free at github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer.

The Three-Profile System

Every print uses three profiles simultaneously:

Printer: your machine's capabilities — bed size, max temperatures, start/end G-code macros.

Filament: the material — temperatures, cooling, retraction, pressure advance.

Process: the quality tier — layer height, infill, speed, support settings.

Changes made in the interface are temporary overrides unless you save them back to the profile.

Key Settings Explained

Layer Height

0.2mm is the standard starting point. Range: 0.1mm to ~75% of nozzle diameter.

Variable layer height: right-click model → Variable Layer Height. Assign finer layers to detailed areas and coarser layers to plain walls. Major time savings with no visible quality loss where it matters.

Infill

Density: 15% for display models, 25-40% for functional parts, 60%+ for maximum strength. Very few prints benefit from over 40%.

Pattern: Grid (fast general use), Gyroid (strong isotropic, good for flexible parts), Lightning (very fast, minimal material, visual models only).

Walls

2 walls is minimum. 3-4 for structural parts. Walls carry most of the structural load — adding walls is more effective than adding infill for strength.

Speed

OrcaSlicer separates speed into many sub-categories:

• Outer wall: most visible surface. Keep slow — 40-80mm/s.
• Inner wall: can be 2-3× outer wall speed.
• Infill: fastest. 150-300mm/s on capable printers.
• First layer: 25-40mm/s regardless of other settings.

The Calibration Suite

The Calibration menu contains a full calibration workflow:

Temperature Tower: prints a tower with different temps per zone. Cleanest zone = best temperature.

Flow Rate Calibration: two-step process — rough calibration then fine adjustment. Corrects under or over extrusion.

Pressure Advance: prints a corner pattern at different PA values. Find the sharpest corners.

Max Volumetric Flow: finds the speed limit before quality degrades.

Retraction Test: variable retraction distance/speed tower. Minimum retraction that eliminates stringing.

Run these in order for a new filament. Results save to the filament profile automatically.

Support Painting

Select model → Support Painter tool.

Paint faces green to force supports there. Paint faces red to block supports regardless of overhang angle.

This per-face control is OrcaSlicer's most powerful feature — you can support one overhang while keeping adjacent surfaces completely clean.

Multi-Color with AMS

Assign colors to model faces or regions using Color Painting (paint bucket icon on selected model). Each color maps to a filament slot in the AMS.

OrcaSlicer handles purge volumes and flush tower placement automatically. Adjust flush volumes per color pair in multi-material settings to minimize wasted filament during color changes.