OrcaSlicer Settings Guide: Every Tab Explained

Introduction

OrcaSlicer is an open-source slicer created by SoftFever. It is a fork of Bambu Studio, which in turn descends from PrusaSlicer, and it focuses on calibration tools, Klipper integration and detailed control over print quality. This guide walks through the main process, filament and printer settings, the built-in calibration tests, and the problems they fix. Setting names and menu paths were checked against the OrcaSlicer wiki and the V2.4.2 release notes; see the version note at the end.

Quick start

1. Install OrcaSlicer, choose your printer, nozzle and filament in the setup wizard, then switch the option mode to Expert to see every setting described below. The modes are Simple, Advanced and Expert.
2. On a Klipper printer, set G-code flavor to Klipper under Printer settings. With that flavor, Klipper's Exclude Objects feature works natively.
3. Start line width at 100% of the nozzle diameter. The wiki suggests 105-120% for the outer wall.
4. When external finish matters most, use the Inner/Outer/Inner walls printing order (it needs at least 3 walls).
5. Calibrate each new filament in the order given in the calibration section, save the filament profile, then start a new project to leave calibration mode.

Step 1: Installation and First Launch

1. Download OrcaSlicer from the project's GitHub releases page (github.com/OrcaSlicer/OrcaSlicer) for Windows, macOS or Linux.
2. Install and launch. The setup wizard appears.
3. Select your printer. The list includes many Voron, Rat Rig, Creality, Prusa and Bambu models, plus generic and custom options.
4. Select your nozzle size and filament type.

Community-maintained profiles for some printers are more thoroughly tuned than others, so check accelerations and retraction against your own printer's documentation.

Step 2: The Interface

Top tabs:

• Prepare: model placement, orientation, supports and slicing
• Preview: layer-by-layer G-code visualization
• Device: printer monitoring for supported hosts, including Klipper through Moonraker, OctoPrint and Bambu printers
• Project: 3MF project handling and multi-plate projects
• Calibration: the built-in calibration tests

Prepare view, left toolbar (the exact tools vary by version): Add, Add Plate, Arrange, Auto-Orient, Split, Cut, Measure, Seam painting, Support painting, Fuzzy skin painting and Variable Layer Height.

Right panel: the process settings live here. The option mode toggle has three levels:

• Simple: essential settings only
• Advanced: extended settings for quality tuning
• Expert: every setting exposed

A Developer mode can be enabled in Preferences.

Step 3: Quality Tab

Layer height. A common rule is 25-80% of the nozzle diameter. Smaller layers give finer detail and longer print times; larger layers print faster and show more steps. 0.2 mm is the usual balanced default for a 0.4 mm nozzle.

First layer height. Usually a little thicker than the other layers for adhesion, for example 0.2-0.24 mm on a 0.4 mm nozzle.

Line width. Start at 100% of the nozzle diameter. The wiki suggests 105-120% for the outer wall. The 100% starting point applies to the Classic wall generator, because Arachne varies line width on its own.

Wall generator.

• Classic: fixed line width, fast and predictable. Thin walls can leave gaps.
• Arachne: variable line width that adapts to thin walls and small features.

Wall loops. More loops add strength and print time. Three is a common balance for general parts, with four or more for parts under load.

Walls printing order (Quality > Wall and surfaces).

• Inner/Outer: best for overhangs, with slightly lower outer-surface quality.
• Inner/Outer/Inner: best external finish and accuracy. Needs at least 3 walls and is weaker on overhangs.
• Outer/Inner: similar external quality but less consistent Z seams. The wiki recommends Inner/Outer/Inner over it in most cases.

Top and bottom solid layers. More layers make a stronger, more watertight surface. Monotonic is a common top-surface pattern for smooth visible tops, since it fills in one direction.

Ironing. A final slow pass that smooths top surfaces. It can be limited to the topmost surface, all top surfaces or all solid layers. Ironing every solid layer adds a lot of time, so enable it only for visible tops.

Seam position. The options are Aligned, Aligned Back, Nearest, Back and Random.

• Nearest: shortest travel, but the seam wanders.
• Aligned: keeps seams in one vertical line, predictable but visible.
• Back: puts seams at the back (Y max), useful for pieces viewed from the front.
• Random: avoids a single visible line but leaves scattered bumps.

Scarf joint seams (Quality > Seam). Instead of a hard vertical seam, the loop start and end overlap diagonally. Settings include type (Contour or Contour and hole), conditional scarf joint, scarf length, steps and speed.

Precision.

• X-Y compensation: positive values enlarge contours or holes and negative values shrink them. Contour and hole compensation are separate settings.
• Elephant foot compensation: shrinks the first layers' outline to counter first-layer squish, tapering over a set number of layers. Check the sign convention in your installed version.
• Arc fitting: converts short line segments to G2/G3 arcs. This changes how the toolpath is encoded and can shrink G-code files, but it is not a print-quality setting. Klipper needs arc support enabled, and Marlin needs ARC_SUPPORT compiled in.

Bridging and overhangs.

• Thick bridges: when enabled, bridge line height equals the nozzle diameter. This improves strength and allows longer spans but can give a rougher finish. It is recommended for internal bridges.
• Detect overhang wall: measures wall overhang against line width and varies speed. At 100% overhang, the bridge settings apply.
• Slow down for curled perimeters: off by default since 2.4.0.
• Avoid crossing walls: reroutes travel moves to stay inside the part to reduce stringing and blemishes. It is not Klipper-specific, it is incompatible with timelapse mode, and it has a maximum detour length setting.

Step 4: Strength Tab

Sparse infill density. Low values (10-15%) suit light, fast prints. Moderate values (20-25%) suit most parts. Higher values add strength at the cost of time and material.

Sparse infill pattern. The wiki lists 26 patterns. Common choices:

• Gyroid: equal strength in all directions, a popular all-round choice.
• Adaptive cubic: a variant of cubic that is denser near the surfaces that need it and saves material elsewhere.
• Grid, triangles and cubic: fast patterns with decent strength.
• Lightning: minimal material, for support under top layers on display parts.
• Line: fastest and weakest.

Newer versions add patterns such as TPMS-D, TPMS-FK, cross hatch and lateral lattice, plus multiline infill.

Infill/wall overlap. The wiki recommends about 10-15% (a percentage of sparse infill line width) to limit over-extrusion and rough surfaces.

Step 5: Speed Tab

Safe speeds depend on your printer, hotend and filament, so use your printer profile as the baseline and tune from there. General principles:

• Outer walls: slower for a better visible surface. Inner walls can run faster.
• Infill: hidden, so it can run fast, limited by acceleration and the hotend's volumetric flow.
• Top and bottom surfaces: slower for a smooth, well-bonded finish.
• First layer: slow, since it is critical for adhesion.
• Travel: as fast as your machine handles without missed steps.

Acceleration. Use lower accelerations on outer walls and top surfaces for quality, and higher ones on infill. Jerk maps to Klipper's square corner velocity, and junction deviation is Marlin 2's method for the same purpose. Both control how sharply the toolhead changes direction; higher values corner faster with more vibration.

Step 6: Support Tab

Enable support toggles support generation.

Support types. Tree supports branch out from the build plate or the model with minimal contact. Normal supports are traditional vertical supports (grid or snug). Tree supports can also be limited to areas you paint. Style names vary by version, so check the list in your installed release.

Tree support settings. Branch angle, branch distance, tip diameter, branch diameter, double-wall branch diameter and trunk diameter control how the branches grow. Thinner tips remove more easily but support less. Defaults come with the presets, so change one at a time.

Support interface. A dense layer between the support and the model improves surface quality. More interface layers give a better surface but are harder to remove. Top and bottom Z distance set the gap to the model: a smaller gap gives a better surface but harder removal.

Support painting. Use the support painting tool in the left toolbar to paint areas that should have supports (enforcers) and areas that should not (blockers). This is the most precise way to control supports.

Overhang threshold. Supports are generated for overhangs steeper than this angle. The right value depends on the material and cooling, so test with an overhang print.

Support on build plate only. When enabled, supports grow only from the build plate, which avoids marking the model. Disable it when overhangs can't be reached from the plate.

Step 7: Filament Tab

Nozzle and bed temperature. Start from the range printed on the filament's spool or the maker's data sheet, then tune with the temperature tower. Typical starting points: PLA 200-220 C nozzle and 50-60 C bed; PETG 230-250 C nozzle and 70-80 C bed; ABS and ASA 240-260 C nozzle and 100-110 C bed in an enclosure.

Flow ratio. Defaults to 1.0. The wiki's recommended range is 0.95 to 1.05. Calibrate per filament rather than adjusting it by guesswork.

Pressure advance (K factor). Corrects bulging corners and weak line starts. The right value varies by printer, hotend and filament, so calibrate it instead of using a typical range.

Max volumetric speed. The volume of plastic per second your hotend can melt. The slicer uses it to cap print speed automatically. Find it with the calibration test, then reduce the result by 10-20% before using it.

Retraction. Retraction length and Z-hop live in Printer settings > Extruder, with per-filament overrides in the filament tab under Setting overrides. Direct-drive extruders usually need much shorter retractions than Bowden setups; find the value with the retraction test.

Cooling. Fan speed scales between minimum and maximum thresholds as layer time drops, and "Slow printing down for better layer cooling" sets a minimum print speed. Separate overhang and bridge fan speeds are available. PLA generally wants strong cooling; ABS and ASA generally want little or none; PETG falls in between.

Step 8: Calibration Tools

The Calibration menu has built-in tests for temperature, max volumetric speed, pressure advance, flow ratio, retraction, cornering, input shaping, VFA, tolerance and adaptive pressure advance. After a calibration, create a new project to leave calibration mode.

Recommended calibration order

The wiki lists the tests in this order, because earlier results affect later ones:

1. Temperature (temperature tower)
2. Max volumetric speed
3. Pressure advance
4. Flow ratio
5. Retraction
6. Cornering
7. Input shaping
8. VFA

Tolerance calibration is listed separately and helps when parts must fit together. Other guides order a few steps differently, so treat this as a sensible default.

Temperature tower. Prints a tower with temperature changes at different heights. Pick the temperature with the best bridging, overhangs, surface finish and least stringing.

Max volumetric speed. Prints a test that ramps up volumetric flow. The wiki defaults are start 5, end 20 and step 0.5 mm3/s. The result is start + (height x step). Brand and color change the result, so reduce it by 10-20% before using it.

Pressure advance. Three methods are available: Tower, Pattern and Line. Tower does not depend on first-layer quality; Line does. Marlin needs Linear Advance enabled, and belt printers get the Tower method only. Adaptive Pressure Advance is a separate, Klipper-only calibration.

Flow ratio. Use Calibration > Flow ratio > YOLO (recommended). It prints 11 blocks; pick the one with the best top surface and set the new ratio to the old ratio plus or minus the block's modifier. The older Pass 1 (9 blocks) and Pass 2 (10 blocks) tests use the old ratio multiplied by (100 + modifier) / 100. Bambu Lab users should not select the printer's own "Flow calibration" option.

Retraction. Prints one tower with notches at different retraction lengths. Defaults are 0 to 2 mm in 0.1 mm steps for direct drive; for Bowden, the wiki suggests 1 to 6 mm in 0.2 mm steps. Find the height with the least stringing and read the value from the Calib_Retraction_tower comment in the G-code.

VFA. A speed test that shows vertical fine artifacts, the faint vertical banding some printers produce at particular speeds.

Step 9: Klipper Features

• Moonraker host: the Device tab can connect to a Klipper printer through Moonraker to upload G-code and monitor the printer. Recent versions add a dedicated Moonraker host type next to the Octo/Klipper type.
• Label objects and Exclude objects (Others > G-code output): tag each object in the G-code so Klipper's exclude_object feature can skip a failed part mid-print. Setting the G-code flavor to Klipper is enough on the Klipper side.
• Pressure advance is set in the filament profile and calibrated with the tests above.

Multi-Color Printing

If you use an AMS, ACE Pro or a similar multi-filament unit, a few pieces are worth knowing:

1. Color painting: import the model, use the color painting tool and paint regions; each distinct color maps to a filament slot.
2. Flush volumes: these set how much filament is purged during a color change. Too little causes contamination and too much wastes filament and time. Different color and material pairs need different amounts, so tune them per combination.
3. Wipe tower: purged filament goes here. Move it to a bed corner and shrink it only as far as purging stays complete.

Step 10: Other Useful Features

• Brim: the "mouse ears" brim type adds brim only at sharp corners prone to lifting, and there is a separate painting tool to place them by hand.
• Fuzzy skin: adds a textured matte surface, handy for grips and for hiding layer lines. Fuzzy skin can be painted on selected areas.
• Variable layer height: thinner layers on curved or detailed areas and thicker layers on plain walls.
• Modifiers: add a modifier shape to a model to give that region different settings, for example more walls or denser infill, without slowing the whole print.
• G-code preview: step through the sliced result layer by layer before committing filament.

Step 11: Export and Print

1. Click Slice (Ctrl+R).
2. Use Preview to inspect the result.
3. Click Print to send the job to a connected printer, or Export G-code to save the file.

Save the project as .3mf to keep models, settings and plate arrangement together.

Troubleshooting common problems

• Stringing: run the retraction test. If stringing persists near the top of the tower, dry the filament and check the nozzle for leaks.
• Bulging corners or blobs at line starts: run a pressure advance calibration. On Marlin, enable Linear Advance in firmware first.
• Gaps or under-extrusion at high speed: run the max volumetric speed test and set the limit 10-20% below the result.
• Rough top surface or wrong wall thickness: run the flow ratio test.
• Sagging bridges: adjust the bridge flow ratio. Thick bridges give stronger but rougher bridging.
• Flared first layer (elephant foot): use elephant foot compensation under Quality > Precision.
• Infill showing through outer walls: lower the infill/wall overlap (about 10-15%).
• Parts too tight or too loose: adjust X-Y compensation; positive values enlarge, negative values shrink.
• Curling overhangs: enable Detect overhang wall and use the overhang and bridge fan speeds.
• Vertical banding: run the VFA and input shaping tests and check belts and frame.

Tips

• Calibrate each new filament brand, since temperature, flow and pressure advance all vary.
• Use paint-on supports for the cases where auto supports mark the model.
• Keep separate process presets for quality and speed.
• Check the preview before every print.

Version note

Setting names, menu paths and defaults in this guide were checked against the OrcaSlicer wiki and the V2.4.2 release notes. Names and defaults can differ in older or newer versions, and speeds, temperatures and pressure advance values depend on your printer and filament. The wiki is at orcaslicer.com/wiki.