10. The 3D Printing Glossary
My wish is to keep this page a living document that gets frequently updated over time.
A
ABS: Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene. One of the first materials to be used for 3D printing.
B
Brim: A 3D printing brim is a layer of material that extends along the print bed from the edges of a 3D print. Brims help to improve bed adhesion and to prevent warping. That’s because it’s easy to remove, wastes less material, and doesn’t affect the bottom layer finish of the print. Also known as Sidewalk. A brim only extends outward from the perimeter of an object, it has no contact with the object’s underside.
C
Combing: Combing is the act of avoiding holes in the print for the head to travel over. If combing is disabled the printer head moves straight from the start point to the endpoint and it will always retract.
CAD: Computer-Aided Design
Coasting: When retraction begins, there may be some leftover filament in the hot end that can ooze out and create defects at the ends of perimeters. Coasting tells your extruder to stop printing a specified distance before a non-print move. This allows any leftover filament to be cleared before retraction sets in. If your coasting distance is set to 5 mm then your nozzle will not extrude filament for the last 5mm before the end of a perimeter and leftover filament in the hot end will be carried for the last 5mm. More here and here.
D
Draft: A 3D printed raft is basically a throwaway horizontal surface that sits under your object. It’s made up of a predetermined number of layers, with a specific infill percentage, that extends a specific distance away from the sides of your object. The primary purpose of a raft is to help with bed adhesion.
E
E-Steps: E steps denote the number that tells your extruder how far it needs to turn in order to extrude a given amount of filament.
Extruder Calibration: The process of calibrating the extruder in order to ensure it is pushing exactly the right amount of filament through the hot end during a print.
Extruder Skipping: A skipping/ticking feeder may occur when the feeder motor experiences too much friction whilst pushing material forward.
F
FFD/FDM: Fused filament fabrication (FFF), also known under the trademarked term fused deposition modeling (FDM), sometimes also called filament freeform fabrication, is a 3D printing process that uses a continuous filament of a thermoplastic material.
G
Ghosting: Ghosting is when lines or features on a 3D print seem to repeat themselves across the surface of the model. Also known as ringing or rippling.
H
I
J
K
L
M
M
N
O
Over Extrusion: Over-extrusion occurs when your 3D printer extrudes too much material.
P
PLA: Polylactic Acid, commonly known as PLA, is one of the most popular materials used in desktop 3D printing.
Q
R
Raft: A Raft is a horizontal latticework of filament that is located underneath your part. Your 3D printed part will be printed on top of this raft, instead of directly on the build platform surface.
S
Stringing: Stringing (otherwise known as oozing, whiskers, or “hairy” prints) occurs when small strings of plastic are left behind on a 3D printed model.
Skirt: A skirt is an outline that surrounds your part but does not touch the part. The skirt is extruded on the print bed before starting to print your model. Skirts serve a useful purpose because they help prime your extruder and establish a smooth flow of filament.
STL: STL (an abbreviation of “stereolithography”) is a file format native to the stereolithography CAD software created by 3D Systems. This file format is supported by many other software packages; it is widely used for rapid prototyping, 3D printing, and computer-aided manufacturing.
SLA: Stereolithography (SLA or SL; also known as stereolithography apparatus, optical fabrication, photo-solidification, or resin printing) is a form of 3D printing technology used for creating models, prototypes, patterns, and production parts in a layer by layer fashion.
T
U
Under Extrusion: Under-extrusion occurs when too little filament is extruded during a print.
V
W
Warping: A 3D printer warping problem typically occurs when an object is cooling unevenly after printing. This problem occurs because the temperature differences between layers of extruded plastic are too big.
X
Y
Z
Z-hop: ‘Z-hop when retracted’ is a setting in Cura. With this setting, the build plate will move down by the set value when a retraction is performed, allowing the print head to travel over the print without the nozzle touching it. This prevents the nozzle from hitting the object or leaving “blobs” or scratches on the print surface.
Z Offset: The Z-axis offset, or Z-offset for short, is the distance from the top of the heated bed (defined as “zero”) to the tip of the hot end nozzle.
This number will always be a negative value — the closer your Z-offset is to zero, the further away from the print surface the hot end nozzle will be moved. The bigger the negative value, the further up the nozzle will go and vice versa.
