3D Printing News & Updates

Recommended 3D Printer Experience

We would like to make your printing experience as positive as possible and we believe that this chart is one part of that process. We know that not all materials are suitable for all printers and that novice end-users often have more difficulties than someone with a lot more experience. We often see this with something a bit more difficult, let’s say CF-PC, and the end-user has minimal experience and is running a $250 Chinese printer. Just because it melts plastic, doesn’t necessarily means it can print a part – and this is a good example. This scenario really isn’t a combination for success, so we want to give our customers some indication of the general experience level they should have or an expectation of the level of difficulty that they should expect when trying something new.

These categories are pretty arbitrary, but come from many years of our own printing experience as well as troubleshooting issues with our customers.  We hope this helps!

3D Printer Experience Levels

Novice: A beginner using an entry-level 3D printer should have minimal problems using this material
Intermediate: User has several months of experience with a moderate to high quality 3D printer
Advanced: User has > 1 year of printing experience and is using a high quality commercial machine
Expert: User has significant amount of experience and is using a high-performance or heavily modified 3D printer

Novice Difficulty Green
  • PLA
  • HIPS
  • PETG
  • ESD-PLA
  • ESD-PETG
  • PLA+CF
  • PETG+CF
Intermediate Difficulty Yellow
  • ABS
  • ASA
  • Low-Gloss PETG
  • Nylon
  • Flexibles
  • PC-ASA
  • PC-ABS
  • PETG+GF
  • Nylon+GF
  • ESD-ABS
  • ABS+CF
  • Nylon+CF
Advanced Difficulty Orange
  • PC
  • PVDF
  • PPS
  • PSU
  • ESD-PC
  • ESD-PVDF
  • ESD-PPS
  • PC+CF
Expert Difficulty Red
  • PEEK
  • PEKK
  • PEI, 1010
  • PEI, 9085
  • PPSU
  • ESD-PEI
  • ESD-PEKK
  • PEI+CF
  • PEEK+CF
  • PEKK+CF