Doing it Wrong!?! Orca Slicer Flow Rate and the Right Way to Calculate It
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Stop Making These Flow Rate Errors in Orca Slicer! Here's How to Do It Right
Do you think your flow rate settings in Orca Slicer are on point? Think again! This video from Minimal 3DP reveals common mistakes and guides you through the right way to calculate the flow rate for successful prints.
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You don't mention anything about visual inspection. If you pause the video at 5:38 you can clearly see that you're under extruding while looking at the -10 test piece. There are gaps between the lines. Not only does the piece need to feel smooth but you don't want any gaps between the lines. I appreciate the video though, and I'll still give a thumbs up, but you may want to take a second look at how you're calibrating your flow rates.
I think you are correct. I should have stressed visual inspection more.
I've found that you will get better results if you choose one option higher than the smoothest on Pass 1. For instance, you chose -10 on your first pass. I would have chosen -5 if I had the same results. This is because it would put your smoothest Pass 1 result (-10) dead center in the data set. This way 0 on Pass 2 actually represents -5, and -9 on Pass 2 actually represents -14. By doing this you can see the values above and below what your smoothest result on Pass 1 was and make a more precisely informed decision. The written instructions under the OrcaSlicer tutorial actually have a short section of text that recommends doing this.
That's great advice. I will do that next time.
touch is a fast way to eliminate excessively high flow rates...but...assuming you pick your choice in pass1 by touch, i recommend you re-inspect with a magnifying glass, microscope, or your mobile phone camera in macro mode+ optical zoom.
what feels smooth may also actually be under-extruding. with magnification you may still find gaps and holes between the top solid lines on the one you selected purely by touch. if you do pick that for pass2, then the entire pass 2 will also have gaps (nothing in pass 2 has a higher flow rate than indicated in the profile setting) and it will be a wasted 30-60mins. you will be surprised how magnification can help, especially in pass2 when you will have 3 or 4 swatches which are indistinguishable by touch or naked eye yet magnification sees holes in three out of four of them. you do not want to have gaps in the top solid because that is a part that will never be waterproof regardless of number of solid layers.
another tip is that you do not have to print all the swatches generated by the calibration tool. you can go into object manager and uncheck those you think will not be necessary. this will be useful when you come back and redo calibrations for other colors from the same material manufacturer (there is variation due to pigments).
finally...true flow rate is very sensitive to print speed. whatever top solid speed you print at for the calibration, you will underextrude if you subsequently print faster, and overextrude if you print slower. the discrepancy will be very minute if the volumetric flow rate is well below your maximum (50% ish) determined in the volumetric flow rate test in Orca but severe if you are close to the limit.
Thanks for all the great info.
@@suivzmoi I hadn’t thought about using magnifying glass before. I started using the magnifying feature on my iPhone and it’s made a huge difference! Thanks for that tip!
Guessing the print speed issue gets even worse when trying to calibrate high speed printers & high speed filament. What would be the best approach to use when trying to calibrate filament in this situation? Should you run the tests at higher speeds (closer to your max VFR) so the results are closer to how you would actually use the filament? In general, I see this issue across all the tests. Is the best approach to follow the calibration sequence given in the Calibrate menu (ie Temp, Flow Rate, Pressure Advance, Retraction, Advanced->Max Flow Rate, Advanced->VFA) ? And should you apply your changes to the filament profile you're building as you go, so each test in sequence carries what you've learned so far in your calibration travels? Lastly, I'm testing on a Bambu A1 and am wondering if Dynamic Flow Calibration (which is done at the start of each print) is Ok to run on all the calibration tests or would it be better to disable that (for all or only some, if so, which tests should you disable it for)?
When doing this on a Bambu A1 should you turn off automatic Flow Dynamics Calibration before you print? Not sure if keeping FDC enabled will reduce the effectiveness of this test. I just printed this on the A1 with FDC ON and really all the test pieces are pretty much the same (some very minor differences but hard to pick the "smoothest"). Going to print again with it off to see. But in general, should you reduce any automatic calibrations when doing these tests? And is it best to follow the set of calibrations from top to bottom or can they be done in any order? Also, if doing the tests top to bottom, should you modify your filament profile (based on each result) as you work through the tests?
It is possible to delete some models to save filament before printing on first pass.
I have not tried that yet but I will in the future. I appreciate the feedback.
yes you can do that in Orca. in the objects manager you simply uncheck the ones you don't need. if you did your rotation distance correctly, you probably do not need the -20. you'll know which ones you don't need after doing flow cal on system a few times.
I do this now. I know that 20 and -20 especially are basically never right so they get taken off.
hi mate just recently switched to orcaslicer and im slowly wrapping my head around it, i subd to your channel because your videos are easy to understand so i really appreciate it. ive been going through the calibration videos and all going well, one thing im struggling with is under extrusion after seams ive calibrated flow, pressure advance what else should i do?
For under extrusion, take a look at the gap and overlap settings. Those might help. Let me know if it helps.
@@minimal3dp thanks for the reply, I've just stumbled on it after fiddling around, because I'm printing wings etc at 230deg with pla+ I had to make my retraction distance 5mm from 0.6mm I guess because it's more viscose.... I guess but all is well now, man I love orcaslicer though!!!
Thanks mate always good to learn from you.
I appreciate it
Tks about your Spreadsheet
Hope you find it helpful.
Great info! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Thank you for the video. I've just started using Orca and these are very helpful.
I have a question though.
I have 2 of the same printers and have been through the e step calibration on each of the extruders. Once a new flow calibrations figure figure has been established for each machine can I then apply the figure to the existing e step value and then reset the flow rate in the slicer back to 1? This would help me enormously as I would have one profile for both machines.
I am not sure I totally understand the question.
i hope i get your question right. The flowrate is dependent on the used material , the e-steps are the length the "cold" material is promoted by the extruder. So different filament with different temperature could have different flowrates. It would be bad if you adjust the flowrate with e-steps, then change the filament and all hell breaks out 🙂
I have quick question, if i go on feel alone then i have noticed that there is under extrusion on the top surface, but the surface finish is the smoothest, if i pick one with correct extrusion on the top layer, then i have rough scared edges, would you pick the under extruded one and then fix the under extrusion or the one with correct extrusion and fix the edges.
I would go with the one that looks the best. I think in my video, I did not stress visual inspection enough as a key component.
Do flow rates need to be adjusted for different nozzle sizes or is it only dependant on filament type once set?
I would do each filament and nozzle. With out testing, I believe different nozzle diameters will impact PA.
@@minimal3dp I've gotten ok results with pressure advance calibrated for 0.6mm nozzle, while actually using a 0.4mm, though almost certainly not as good if I properly calibrated it. Flowrate was much more off, though still usable in a pinch. Of course ymmv.
But what if we select "Precise wall" in the settings of OrcaSlicer? Won't that fix the problem with walls overlapping and give us a more accurate reading when printing the cube with 2 walls?
I did another video on precise walls. I think it should improve the overlap, but I don't think it will totally cure the issue.
what if my best score was +5? Still doing test 2?
I would. The second pass is to dial it in 95% at pass 1, 95.xx% after pass 2.
Just use one wall on the cube. Problem solved. No need to waste all that filament
You deserve a better mic.
Thanks for the video.
I am saving for some better equipment. I am also trying to get some help with the sound settings
I appreciate it
@@minimal3dplook into JLI. I used an opa Alice and built one that sounds much better than what I paid. I got almost everything from them and an Amazon condenser microphone kit for the body.
What is the formular on your spreadsheets for the flow rate?
Measure all 4 sides, add all 4 sides together and divide the result by 4. Divide the result by the desired value and multiply the result by 100. Then you have the current flow in %. Example: we want a wall thickness of 0.714 mm, side 1 = 0.76, side 2 = 0.76, side 3 = 0.77 and side 5 = 0.775. 0.76+0.76+0.77+0.775=0.76625 : 0.714 = 1.0732 x 100 = 107.32% Now we know that our current flow rate is 107.32%. Example flow rate = 0.95 : 1.0732 = 0.8852 = new flow rate = 0.89 but use 0.8 not 0.714 u will under extrude.
Great video. You need to get your z-offset set perfect before doing the flow test as z-offset greatly affects the end result.
The z offset doesn't affect this test very much, if at all. This particular calibration has a few layers of infill to reduce the effect of the z offset. If you have the z offset fade set really high, it might affect the top layer.
Thanks for the great reply.