Understand the terms.
Print with more confidence.
From Partial Clog to IDEX: practical explanations of 3D-printing, slicer, calibration, hardware and multi-material terms used throughout LayerCompass.
Partial Clog
A partial blockage: filament still exits the nozzle, but flow becomes inconsistent or collapses at higher demand.
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Heat Creep
Heat travels too far up the hotend and softens filament above the intended melt zone.
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Warping
Corners or edges lift from the build plate as the part shrinks and develops thermal stress.
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Stringing
Fine strands form between separated areas when molten plastic leaks during travel moves.
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VFA – Vertical Fine Artifacts
Fine, regularly repeating vertical patterns on smooth outer walls.
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Ringing / Ghosting
Decaying waves that appear after corners, edges or abrupt direction changes.
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Pressure Advance
Compensates for pressure buildup and release in the extrusion system during acceleration and deceleration.
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Max Volumetric Speed
The maximum stable material throughput of a specific filament, nozzle and hotend setup, measured in mm³/s.
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Bridging
Printing a strand across open space between two supported points without support directly underneath.
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Arachne
A wall generator that adapts extrusion width to the model geometry.
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Layer Height
The height of one printed layer — a major trade-off between detail, print time, strength behavior and surface appearance.
Explain this term →Purge / Flushing
Intentional extrusion during a color or material change to displace the previous filament from a shared melt path.
Explain this term →Prime Tower
An auxiliary printed structure used to stabilize extrusion after a color, material or tool change.
Explain this term →Flush into Infill
Redirects part of the required transition purge into model infill instead of sending all of it to external waste.
Explain this term →Modifier Mesh
A helper volume that overrides slicer settings only inside a defined region of a model.
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IDEX
Independent Dual Extruder: two independently moving print heads sharing the same X axis.
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Toolchanger
A printer system that automatically parks and swaps complete tools or printheads.
Explain this term →Adaptive Layer Height
Variable layer height within one model: finer on detailed slopes, coarser where geometry is less sensitive.
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Hull Line / Benchy Hull Line
A horizontal bulge or line at a specific height, often tied to geometry, density or layer-time transitions.
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Bed Mesh
A measured map of build-plate height variation that the printer can compensate for during printing.
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Ironing
A finishing pass on flat top surfaces where the hot nozzle smooths the surface with very low additional flow.
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Ironing Inset
A distance that keeps the ironing toolpath away from the outer contour to reduce edge smearing.
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Topmost Surface
Only the highest visible top surface of a model, often used as the selective target for ironing.
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Monotonic Top Surface
A top-surface line order that prints adjacent lines in a consistent sequence for a more even visible finish.
Explain this term →Annealing
Controlled heat treatment of a printed polymer part after printing.
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Layer Shift
One or more layers are printed sideways from the correct position and the rest of the print continues offset.
Explain this term →Diagnostics can link directly into the glossary so you can understand the concept without losing your troubleshooting path.