Why does support material cost more than the support percentage suggests?

Three factors compound: the percentage applies to model weight only; support interfaces use dense settings so actual filament use often exceeds the slicer percentage; and support removal sometimes damages the part leading to reprints. Combined with a failure factor, support-heavy models cost notably more per successful part than the filament weight alone implies. For complex overhangs, reorienting the model to minimise supports is often cheaper than printing with 40% support material.

3D Printing Hub

Q: Why does this calculator show more than my slicer's filament estimate?

Slicers calculate only the filament your model requires — they don't account for support waste, failed prints, or purge lines. The failure factor adds a buffer for the statistical likelihood of a print failing partway through. A 10% failure factor on a 50g model means that over many prints, one partial failure averages out to that cost per print. If your settings are dialled in well, set it to 0%. For new materials, 20–40% is realistic.

Q: At what print weight does a 2kg spool become better value than two 1kg spools?

Almost always, if you're confident you'll use the full 2kg of the same material. Bulk spools typically save 15–25% per kilogram. For materials you print frequently — usually PLA and your primary functional material — always buy 2kg. For specialty materials used occasionally (TPU, ASA), 1kg is safer given the storage commitment.

Q: Why does nylon need 12+ hours to dry when ABS only needs 2–4?

Nylon is hygroscopic — its molecular structure actively absorbs water into the polymer chain, not just onto the surface. This requires more energy and time to drive out. ABS absorbs far less moisture due to its less polar chemical structure. Nylon can reabsorb problematic moisture within an hour of opening in a humid room, which is why filament dryers that keep the spool warm during printing make a significant difference for nylon specifically.

Q: Can I print at 0.3mm layer height with a 0.4mm nozzle?

Yes — 0.3mm is within the safe range. The rule is maximum layer height should not exceed 75% of nozzle diameter. For a 0.4mm nozzle, that is 0.30mm. Printing right at the limit works but leaves less margin for first-layer variation. Many slicers default to 0.28mm for 'draft quality' on 0.4mm nozzles to stay slightly under the limit while remaining fast.

Filament guide, nozzle reference, print cost calculator, volumetric flow limits, and drying cheat sheet — practical FDM tools for makers.

Compare Filaments Choose a Nozzle Check Flow Limits Calculate Print Cost Drying Reference

Last updated: May 2026

Filament Materials at a Glance

Use the quick selector to find your material, then check the comparison table for properties and the settings cheat sheet for starting values.

Quick Material Selector

Primary Need	Best Material	Why
First prints / learning	PLA	Easiest to print, no enclosure, cheapest
Strong functional parts	PETG	2–3× stronger than PLA, reliable, not too hard
Heat resistance (>80°C)	ABS	Up to 90°C sustained, professional grade
Outdoor / UV-exposed parts	ASA	No UV yellowing, weatherproof for years
Flexibility / gaskets / seals	TPU	Rubber-like, impact-absorbing, compresses and returns
Maximum strength	Nylon	Strongest common FDM material, engineering-grade
Rapid cheap prototypes	PLA	Fastest print speed, lowest cost per gram
Multi-color / decorative	PLA	Best color variety, easiest post-processing

Material Properties Comparison

Badges show practical difficulty — not a judgment. Expert-only materials are simply less forgiving of settings drift.

Material	Difficulty	Warping Risk	Moisture Sensitivity	Nozzle Temp	Bed Temp	Enclosure
PLA	Beginner	Low	Low	200–220°C	50–60°C	No
PETG	Intermediate	Low	Medium	240–260°C	75–85°C	No
ABS	Advanced	High	Low	230–250°C	100–110°C	Required
ASA	Advanced	High	Low	240–260°C	100–110°C	Required
TPU	Expert	Medium	High	210–235°C	60–70°C	No
Nylon	Expert	Medium	Extreme	250–280°C	80–90°C	Recommended

→ Full materials comparison: strength, UV resistance, heat resistance, print speed & cost

Recommended Starting Settings

First-print safe values. Dial in from here — these are calibration starting points, not final settings.

Material	Nozzle Temp	Bed Temp	Fan Speed	First Layer Speed	Key Starting Tip
PLA	200–215°C	55°C	50–100%	25 mm/s	High fan helps bridging; low fan hurts layer bonds
PETG	235–245°C	80°C	15–25%	20 mm/s	Low fan = stronger layers; too much cooling = weak bonds
ABS	240–250°C	105°C	0%	20 mm/s	Enclosure required; no cooling fan; slow first layers
ASA	245–255°C	105°C	0%	20 mm/s	Same as ABS but slower overall — don't rush it
TPU	220–230°C	65°C	30–40%	15 mm/s	Zero or minimal retraction; direct drive strongly preferred
Nylon	250–270°C	85°C	10–20%	20 mm/s	Dry 12h+ before printing; all-metal hotend required

Common First-Print Mistakes

PLA: Nozzle temperature too high (>225°C) → excessive stringing. Damp spool → bubbling surfaces and weak layer bonds.
PETG: Nozzle too close to bed → first layer blobs and stringing. Too much part-cooling fan → weak layer adhesion on perimeters.
ABS: Printing without enclosure → warping and delamination failure. Ignoring fumes — ABS requires proper ventilation.
ASA: Same enclosure requirement as ABS, but print speed must be slower. Treating it at ABS speed wastes the spool.
TPU: Any significant retraction → filament buckling and clogging. Too high a speed → extruder grinding and skipping.
Nylon: Printing without drying → severe warping, layer separation, and dimensional inaccuracy even on small parts.

Pro tip

Print orientation affects strength more than infill percentage. A flat-printed part at 15% infill often fails where a vertically-oriented part at the same infill holds under the same load. Before increasing infill, check whether reorienting the part solves the problem first.

Nozzle Selection Guide

Nozzle diameter controls the trade-off between detail and speed. For most FDM work, 0.4mm is the right starting point — change only when you have a specific reason.

Diameter at Scale

Circles are proportional to actual nozzle diameter relative to each other.

Pro tip

Upgrading from 0.4mm to 0.6mm nozzle reduces print time by 30–50% on functional parts — more than doubling print speed would achieve. The larger nozzle deposits more material per pass, so you run fewer perimeter and infill passes for the same volume. Detail suffers slightly; strength stays the same or improves.

Nozzle Selection Matrix

Nozzle	Best For	Min Layer Height	Max Layer Height	Speed Potential	Detail Level
0.2 mm	Miniatures, precision engineering, dental/jewellery models	0.05 mm	0.15 mm	Slow — flow limits dominate	Highest
0.4 mm	Everything — universal standard nozzle	0.10 mm	0.30 mm	Medium-fast	High
0.6 mm	Functional parts, structural prints, faster prototyping	0.15 mm	0.45 mm	Fast	Good
0.8 mm	Large structural prints, draft objects, infill-dominant parts	0.20 mm	0.60 mm	Very fast	Moderate

Layer height rule: max layer height ≤ 75% of nozzle diameter. A 0.4mm nozzle: maximum practical layer height is 0.30mm, not 0.40mm.

→ Detailed nozzle size chart with temperature and material combinations · → 0.4mm vs 0.6mm comparison

Volumetric Flow Reference

Volumetric flow (mm³/s) is the actual rate at which your hotend melts and extrudes plastic. It's the real speed limit of your printer — not the mm/s value in your slicer. When you exceed the hotend's maximum flow rate, the extruder can't melt material fast enough, and quality degrades immediately.

Formula: flow (mm³/s) = layer height × line width × print speed

Hotend Flow Limits Reference

These are practical upper limits under typical sustained printing conditions. Short bursts can exceed these; sustained printing at these rates will show symptoms.

Hotend Type	Max Safe Flow	Common Printers	Notes
Stock brass 0.4mm	8–12 mm³/s	Ender 3 family, budget printers	Conservative limit; sustained high flow degrades fast
All-metal 0.4mm	12–15 mm³/s	Prusa MK4, Bambu A1	Better heat break; handles sustained flow more cleanly
Bambu hardened 0.4mm	18–24 mm³/s	Bambu P1S, X1C, X1E	Designed for high-speed printing; optimised heat zone
High-flow 0.6mm+ (Volcano style)	25–35 mm³/s	Volcano, CHC Pro, E3D Revo HF	Requires larger nozzle + layer heights to utilise

Symptoms of Excessive Volumetric Flow

If you see any of these, reduce print speed or check flow rate before changing other settings.

Underextrusion — sparse infill lines, walls thinner than specified, visible gaps between perimeters
Weak infill — infill lines don't fuse to perimeters; part breaks along infill boundaries
Top layer gaps — surface looks stringy or holey even at high infill percentages
Extruder clicking — stepper motor skipping due to back-pressure overcoming grip
Inconsistent surface finish — alternating matte and glossy bands correlating to speed changes
Matte patches on glossy filament — classic sign of momentary under-temperature extrusion at high speed

Pro tip

Wet PETG usually looks like overextrusion — stringing, blobs, and inconsistent surfaces on parts you've printed perfectly before. Before spending an hour debugging retraction and temperature settings, dry the spool at 65°C for 4–6 hours. This solves the majority of "mystery PETG problems" that appear after the spool has been sitting on the shelf.

→ Volumetric flow calculator — enter nozzle size, layer height, line width, and speed to calculate mm³/s

Filament Drying Reference

Dry filament before printing if you've noticed symptoms below, or if the spool has been sitting open in a humid environment. When in doubt, dry first — it takes a few hours and eliminates the most common category of print problems.

Material	Drying Temp	Drying Time	Moisture Symptoms	Sensitivity
PLA	45–50°C	4–6 h	Bubbles, weak layers, slight stringing increase	Low
PETG	65°C	4–6 h	Heavy stringing, blobs, inconsistent surface finish	Medium
ABS	80°C	2–4 h	Weak inter-layer bonds, slightly increased odour	Low
ASA	80°C	4–6 h	Same as ABS; warping slightly worse	Low
TPU	50°C	4–6 h	Blobbing, inconsistent extrusion, surface texture loss	High
Nylon	80°C	12–16 h	Severe warping, layer separation, dimensional inaccuracy	Extreme

Drying temperatures are for food dehydrators or dedicated filament dryers. Standard kitchen ovens often run hotter than displayed — verify with a thermometer before drying PLA (melts at ~60°C).

Pro tip

Store filament in sealed containers with silica gel desiccant — not on an open shelf. In humid climates (above 60% RH), an open 1kg spool absorbs meaningful moisture within hours, not days. 50g of silica gel in a sealed bag or airtight container keeps filament dry for months. Cheap vacuum bags with a hand pump also work well for long-term storage.

Realistic Print Cost Calculator

Calculates the actual cost of a print including support material waste and a failure buffer — not just the raw filament weight. Enter your spool details and print parameters to get a realistic total.

Spool weight (g)

Spool price ($)

Model weight (g)

Support material (%)

Failure factor (%)

Price / gram —

Material cost —

Support / waste —

Failure buffer —

Spool usage —

Filament length —

Enter spool details and model weight to calculate realistic print cost.

Filament length estimated using PLA-equivalent density (1.24 g/cm³, 1.75mm diameter). Use the density calculator for other materials.

→ Simple $/kg spool price comparison · → Weight ↔ length converter for partial spools

Density & Weight Reference

Filament density determines how many meters you get per kilogram. Materials with lower density give more length for the same weight — which affects both print cost estimates and slicer weight predictions. Density also matters when converting between slicer-reported grams and actual spool usage.

Material	Density	~Meters per 1 kg spool	Typical Use Context
PLA	1.24 g/cm³	~335 m	Standard reference — most slicer defaults use this
PETG	1.27 g/cm³	~328 m	Close to PLA; slightly shorter per kg
ABS	1.05 g/cm³	~397 m	Lower density = more length; lighter printed parts
ASA	1.07 g/cm³	~390 m	Similar to ABS; outdoor parts are lighter than PLA
TPU (Shore 95A)	1.20 g/cm³	~347 m	Heavier than ABS; flexible parts weigh more
Nylon (PA12)	1.02 g/cm³	~408 m	Lightest common material; most meters per kg

Calculated for 1.75mm diameter filament: length = 1000 ÷ (density × π × 0.875²). Values vary slightly by brand formulation.

Why Density Matters for Cost Estimates

Slicers report filament usage by weight (grams), but your actual spool is sold by weight too — so cost calculations are weight-based regardless of material. However, if you're comparing meters-remaining on a partial spool, density tells you how many grams remain from a length measurement, or vice versa.

The print cost calculator above uses PLA density as default. If you're printing ABS at 1.05 g/cm³, the same volume of material weighs less — so the cost estimate will be slightly lower in reality. For precise calculations, use the dedicated calculator.

Pro tip

To check how much filament is left on a partial spool: weigh the spool with filament, then subtract the spool's tare weight (usually printed on the label, or 150–250g for standard 1kg plastic spools). The difference is your remaining filament weight. Then use the weight-to-length calculator to find out if you have enough for your next print.

→ Filament density & weight calculator · → Weight ↔ length converter

Maker Workflows

Common 3D printing scenarios with links to the specific references and tools you need — in the order you actually need them.

Fast Functional PETG Prints

Strong parts, fast turnaround, maximum reliability. The most common practical printing workflow.

PETG Properties & Settings — starting temperatures, fan settings, and the most common PETG mistakes on this page
Nozzle Selection: 0.4mm vs 0.6mm — 0.6mm cuts print time significantly for functional parts without sacrificing strength
Flow Rate Check — PETG benefits most from staying within your hotend's sustained flow limit
Print Time Estimator — estimate duration before committing to a 10-hour print
Filament Cost $/kg — compare PETG brands by cost per kilogram before buying

Miniatures & Detail Work

Maximum resolution for miniatures, display models, and precision engineering parts.

0.2mm Nozzle Reference — layer heights, speed limits, and what to expect vs 0.4mm
PLA for Detail Work — PLA gives the best colour variety and easiest finishing for display pieces
Layer Height Guide — choosing 0.08mm vs 0.12mm layer heights for miniature quality
PLA Drying Reference — PLA has low moisture sensitivity but drying before detailed prints reduces surface artefacts

Large Structural / Outdoor Parts

Parts that need to survive outdoors, under load, or in hot environments.

ASA & ABS Properties — enclosure requirements, temperature ranges, and why ASA beats ABS for outdoor use
0.6mm or 0.8mm Nozzle — large structural parts benefit from larger nozzles; fewer passes = faster and often stronger
ASA/ABS Drying Reference — low moisture sensitivity, but drying reduces odour and improves layer adhesion
Print Cost for Long Runs — large prints with 35%+ support can cost significantly more than the raw filament weight suggests
Full Materials Comparison — UV resistance, heat resistance, and impact properties for material selection

Flexible TPU Printing

Phone cases, gaskets, seals, flexible hinges — TPU requires a fundamentally different approach to settings.

TPU Settings & Mistakes — retraction settings, direct drive requirement, and the most common failure modes
TPU Drying: High Priority — TPU absorbs moisture quickly; always dry before printing flexible parts
TPU Flow Limits — TPU requires lower volumetric flow than rigid materials; slow speed is mandatory
Cost Estimation — TPU costs 2–3× more per kg than PLA/PETG; failure factor matters more here

Related Utility Ecosystem

Calculations makers often need alongside 3D printing work.

Watts / Volts / Amps Calculator — printer power consumption, heated bed wattage, PSU sizing
Battery Life Calculator — for portable printer setups or battery-powered enclosure fans
°C to °F Converter — Fahrenheit printer specs from US-based resources
kg to lbs Converter — filament spools listed in different weight units

FAQ

Why does this calculator show more than my slicer's filament estimate?

Slicers calculate only the filament your model actually requires — they don't account for support material waste, failed prints, or purge lines. The failure factor in this calculator adds a buffer for the statistical likelihood of a print failing partway through. A 10% failure factor on a 50g model doesn't mean you'll waste 5g every time — it means that over 10 prints, one partial failure averages out to that cost per print. If you've dialled in your settings well, set it to 0%. If you're learning or using a new material, 20–40% is realistic.

What's the safe volumetric flow limit for a standard brass 0.4mm nozzle?

8–12 mm³/s for sustained printing. You can push to 14–15 mm³/s in short bursts, but sustained printing above 12 mm³/s on a stock brass hotend produces underextrusion symptoms even if your slicer doesn't flag it. Calculate your actual flow rate: multiply your layer height × line width × print speed. At 0.2mm layer, 0.45mm line width, and 100 mm/s speed: 0.2 × 0.45 × 100 = 9 mm³/s — right at the limit. Reduce speed or layer height, not just temperature, to stay within the hotend's capability.

At what print weight does a 2kg spool become a better buy than two 1kg spools?

Almost always — if you're confident you'll use the full 2kg of the same material. The savings are typically 15–25% per kilogram for bulk spools. The trade-off is commitment: if you buy 2kg of PETG and then switch materials, you have a large partial spool to store. For materials you print frequently (usually PLA and your primary functional material), always buy 2kg. For specialty materials used occasionally (TPU, ASA), 1kg is the safer choice. Use the filament cost calculator with both spool configurations to compare the $/kg difference for your specific brand.

Why does nylon need 12+ hours to dry when ABS only needs 2–4?

Nylon (polyamide) is hygroscopic — its molecular structure actively absorbs water into the polymer chain, not just onto the surface. This absorbed moisture bonds more deeply and requires more energy and time to drive out. ABS absorbs far less moisture because its chemical structure is less polar. With nylon, even a "just dried" spool can absorb enough moisture to cause problems within an hour of opening in a humid room. This is why dedicated filament dryers that keep the spool warm during printing (rather than just pre-drying) make a significant difference specifically for nylon.

Can I print at 0.3mm layer height with a 0.4mm nozzle?

Yes — 0.3mm is within the safe range. The rule is that maximum layer height should not exceed 75% of nozzle diameter. For a 0.4mm nozzle, that's 0.30mm. Printing right at the limit works but gives you less margin for first-layer variation. Many slicers use 0.28mm as the "draft quality" setting for 0.4mm nozzles for this reason — it stays under the limit while still being fast. Layer heights above 0.30mm on a 0.4mm nozzle produce poor layer adhesion and dimensional inaccuracy because the nozzle can't properly squish the bead.

Why does support material cost more than just the support percentage suggests?

Three factors compound: the support percentage applies to model weight, not spool weight, so a 10% support on a 100g model is 10g of extra filament at full spool price. Support interfaces are typically printed slowly with dense settings — so the actual filament used is often higher than the slicer's percentage reports. Finally, support removal sometimes damages the part, leading to reprints. When combined with a failure factor, support-heavy models cost noticeably more per successful part than the filament weight alone implies. For parts with complex overhangs, it's often cheaper to reorient the model to minimise supports than to print with 40% support material.