3D Printing Glossary: 50 Terms Every Maker Should Know

3D printing has its own language, and when you're new, it can feel like everyone's speaking in code. G-code, infill percentages, retraction distances, Z-offset — it's a lot. I've put together this glossary of 50 terms you'll actually encounter as a maker, with short, practical explanations for each one.

Bookmark this page. You'll come back to it. And if you're just getting started, pair this with our first print checklist to go from confused to confident.

A

ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene): A tough, heat-resistant thermoplastic that prints at 230-250°C. Requires an enclosure due to warping and produces fumes. Stronger than PLA but harder to print.

Adhesion (Bed Adhesion): How well the first layer sticks to the print bed. Poor adhesion causes prints to detach mid-print. Improved with glue stick, hairspray, PEI surfaces, or proper bed leveling.

B

Bed Leveling: The process of ensuring the nozzle maintains consistent distance from the print bed across the entire surface. Can be manual (paper method) or automatic (BLTouch, CR-Touch probes).

Bowden (Bowden Tube / Bowden Extruder): An extruder design where the motor sits on the frame and pushes filament through a PTFE tube to the hotend. Lighter printhead but longer retraction distances (4-7 mm typical).

Bridging: Printing horizontally across a gap with no support underneath. Most printers can bridge 40-60 mm with proper cooling. Longer bridges sag and need support material.

Brim: A thin, flat border printed around the base of a model to increase bed adhesion. Usually 5-10 mm wide, 1 layer tall. Peels off after printing. Great for parts with small footprints.

C

CoreXY: A motion system where two motors work together to move the printhead in X and Y. Faster and more precise than the bed-slinging Cartesian design used in Ender-style printers. Found in Bambu Lab, Voron, and Prusa XL machines.

Cura: Free slicing software by UltiMaker. One of the two most popular slicers alongside PrusaSlicer. Converts 3D models (STL/3MF) into G-code instructions for your printer.

D

Direct Drive (Extruder): An extruder where the motor mounts directly on the printhead, right above the hotend. Shorter filament path means better control, especially for flexible filament (TPU). Heavier printhead than Bowden.

E

Elephant Foot: A bulge at the very bottom of a print where the first layer squishes out wider than designed. Caused by the nozzle being too close to the bed or first-layer temperature too high. Fix with a small Z-offset increase or first-layer horizontal expansion compensation in your slicer.

Extruder: The mechanism that grips and pushes filament. Includes the motor, drive gear, and tension spring. Can be Bowden (remote) or Direct Drive (on the printhead).

F

FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling): The most common consumer 3D printing technology. Melts plastic filament through a heated nozzle and deposits it layer by layer. Also called FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication).

Filament: The plastic wire (usually 1.75 mm diameter) fed into an FDM printer. Common types include PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, and Nylon. Sold in 1 kg spools for $15-40 depending on material.

Firmware: Software running on the printer's mainboard that interprets G-code and controls motors, heaters, and sensors. Marlin and Klipper are the two most common open-source options.

G

G-code: The programming language printers understand. A series of commands like G1 X50 Y30 F3000 (move to position X50 Y30 at 3000 mm/min). Generated by your slicer from a 3D model.

Gyroid: An infill pattern that provides roughly equal strength in all three axes. More isotropic than grid or line patterns. Popular for functional parts where load direction is unpredictable. See our deep dive on gyroid infill.

H

Heated Bed: A build plate that heats to help with adhesion and prevent warping. PLA needs 50-60°C, PETG needs 70-85°C, ABS needs 100-110°C.

I

Infill: The internal structure of a printed part. Expressed as a percentage — 0% is hollow, 100% is solid. Most functional parts use 15-30%. The pattern (grid, gyroid, cubic, etc.) affects strength characteristics.

J

Jerk: The instantaneous speed change the printer can make without acceleration. Higher jerk values mean faster direction changes but more vibration. Typical values: 7-10 mm/s for quality, 15-20 mm/s for speed.

K

Klipper: Open-source printer firmware that offloads motion calculations to a Raspberry Pi. Enables advanced features like input shaping, pressure advance, and higher print speeds than Marlin on the same hardware.

L

Layer Height: The thickness of each printed layer. Standard is 0.2 mm for a 0.4 mm nozzle. Lower (0.08-0.12 mm) gives smoother surfaces but takes longer. Higher (0.28-0.32 mm) prints faster with more visible lines.

Linear Advance (Marlin) / Pressure Advance (Klipper): Firmware-level compensation for the pressure buildup in the filament path. Produces cleaner corners and more consistent line widths by dynamically adjusting extrusion rate during speed changes.

M

Mesh Leveling: Automatic bed leveling that probes a grid of points (typically 3x3 to 7x7) and creates a height map. The firmware compensates for bed warping by adjusting Z-height during printing.

MSLA (Masked Stereolithography): A resin printing technology using an LCD screen to mask UV light. Each layer cures the entire cross-section at once. Faster than laser SLA and the most common consumer resin technology in 2026.

N

Nozzle: The brass (or hardened steel, or ruby-tipped) component where molten filament exits. Standard diameter is 0.4 mm. Smaller (0.2 mm) for detail, larger (0.6-0.8 mm) for speed and strength.

O

OctoPrint: Open-source web interface for controlling 3D printers remotely from a browser. Runs on a Raspberry Pi connected via USB. Adds webcam monitoring, plugin support, and remote start/stop.

Overhang: Any part of a print that extends beyond the layer below it at an angle. Most printers handle 45-50° overhangs without support. Beyond that, the filament sags and you need support material.

P

PLA (Polylactic Acid): The most popular FDM filament. Easy to print (200-220°C), biodegradable, low warping, minimal fumes. Weak to heat (softens at 55-60°C). Best for prototypes, display models, and indoor parts.

PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol-Modified): A popular filament that bridges the gap between PLA and ABS. Stronger and more heat-resistant than PLA, easier to print than ABS. Prints at 230-250°C.

Pressure Advance: See Linear Advance.

R

Raft: A thick, multi-layer platform printed under the model for extreme bed adhesion. Wastes more material than a brim but provides a perfectly flat base. Rarely needed on modern printers with good bed surfaces.

Retraction: Pulling filament backward in the extruder to prevent oozing during travel moves. Bowden setups need 4-7 mm retraction, Direct Drive needs 0.5-2 mm. Too much causes clogs; too little causes stringing.

Resin: Liquid photopolymer used in SLA/MSLA printing. Cured by UV light. Available in standard, tough, flexible, and engineering formulations. Requires careful handling (gloves, ventilation).

S

SLA (Stereolithography): A resin printing technology using a UV laser to trace each layer's cross-section. Higher precision than MSLA but slower. Found in professional-grade machines.

Slicer: Software that converts a 3D model (STL, 3MF, OBJ) into G-code instructions for your printer. Cura, PrusaSlicer, and Bambu Studio are the most popular free options.

Stepper Motor: The motors that drive printer movement. Controlled by stepper drivers (like TMC2209) that determine precision and noise levels. Each printer has 4-6 steppers (X, Y, Z, and one per extruder).

Stringing: Thin wisps of plastic pulled between separate parts of a print during travel moves. Caused by insufficient retraction or too-high nozzle temperature. Fix by increasing retraction distance/speed or lowering temp by 5-10°C.

Support (Material): Temporary structures printed under overhangs and bridges that are removed after printing. Can be generated automatically by the slicer. Tree supports use less material than standard block supports.

T

Temperature Tower: A calibration print with multiple sections at different temperatures. Helps you find the optimal extrusion temperature for a specific filament. Print one for every new brand or color you try.

TMC (Trinamic) Drivers: Stepper motor drivers (TMC2208, TMC2209, TMC5160) that enable near-silent operation. Most modern printers include them stock. The difference between a TMC-equipped printer and an older A4988-based one is dramatic — library-quiet vs. dot-matrix-printer loud.

TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane): A flexible filament for printing rubber-like parts — phone cases, gaskets, wheels, shoe insoles. Prints at 220-240°C, very slowly (20-30 mm/s). Requires a direct drive extruder for reliable results.

Tree Support: An organic-looking support structure that grows trunk-and-branch style from the build plate to overhang areas. Uses 30-50% less material than traditional block supports and leaves cleaner surfaces.

U

UltiMaker: The company behind Cura slicer and UltiMaker professional 3D printers. Their industrial machines (S5, S7) are popular in corporate and educational environments.

V

Vase Mode (Spiral Vase / Spiralize Outer Contour): A slicer mode that prints the model as a single continuous spiral with one wall and no infill. Creates beautiful, watertight vases and containers. Extremely fast because there are no retractions or layer changes.

Volumetric Flow: The maximum volume of plastic (in mm³/s) a hotend can melt and push through the nozzle. Stock hotends typically max at 10-12 mm³/s. High-flow hotends (Revo, Rapido) reach 25-40 mm³/s. This is usually the true speed limiter, not motor speed.

W

Warping: When printed edges curl upward due to uneven cooling and thermal contraction. Common with ABS and Nylon. Prevented with an enclosure, heated bed, brim, and proper first-layer adhesion.

X/Y/Z

X/Y/Z Axes: The three dimensions of movement. X is left-right, Y is front-back, Z is up-down. On Cartesian printers (like Ender 3), the bed moves in Y and the printhead moves in X. On CoreXY, the printhead moves in X and Y while the bed moves in Z only.

Z-Offset: The distance between the Z-endstop trigger point and the actual nozzle-to-bed distance. Adjusting the Z-offset fine-tunes your first layer — too high and the filament doesn't stick, too low and it squishes into the bed. Most printers let you adjust in 0.01 mm increments during printing.