I finished the OrcaSlicer setup wizard, landed on the Prepare tab, and stared at it for a solid minute. There are four tabs across the top, a toolbar with ten buttons, paint tools hidden behind a left-side icon strip, and a right-side panel with three dropdowns that each have their own sub-tabs. Here’s what every section actually does, in the order I wish someone had explained it to me.
This tour is built against OrcaSlicer v2.3.2 on Windows 11. The layout is mostly identical on macOS and Linux, with the usual Cmd-key swaps. If you haven’t finished the first-launch wizard yet, do that first in our OrcaSlicer setup wizard walkthrough and then come back here. If you want the end-to-end “press print and don’t melt your bed” version, that’s the beginner’s first print pillar. This article is the in-between piece: I’m naming every panel, button, and dropdown so the rest of the cluster stops feeling like a maze.
Heads-up before we start: the UI is dense. Some buttons are unintuitive. A lot of features live behind right-click menus that aren’t obvious. The Device tab looks broken until you actually connect a printer. I’ll flag those potholes as we hit them.
Table of contents
- The four-tab anatomy (Prepare, Preview, Device, Project)
- The top toolbar and the Slice button
- Inside the Prepare tab
- The right-side settings panel (the dense one)
- Paint tools: Color, Support, Seam
- The Preview tab
- The Device tab
- The Project tab (the one nobody mentions)
- Keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet
- Where features hide (right-click and other easter eggs)
- FAQ
The four-tab anatomy (Prepare, Preview, Device, Project)
The first thing to clear up: OrcaSlicer has four top-of-window tabs, not three. A lot of older blog posts (and an earlier draft of my own notes) said three. They’re wrong about v2.3.2. The actual order, left to right, is Prepare, Preview, Device, Project.
| Tab | What it’s for | When you use it |
|---|---|---|
| Prepare | Import, arrange, scale, rotate, paint, configure print settings | Every single print, this is the default landing tab |
| Preview | Scrub through the sliced toolpath layer by layer, inject color changes or pauses | Only after you press Slice plate (Ctrl+R) |
| Device | Live printer control: status, camera, AMS, queue, temperatures | Only useful with a connected networked printer |
| Project | Project notes, attached docs, bill of materials | Honestly, almost never. More on that later. |
Here’s the first real pain point: there’s no keyboard shortcut to switch between these tabs. None. You have to click. Issue #527 requested a tab hotkey and it was closed as “not planned.” I check that issue every few months hoping it reopens. It hasn’t. If you’re coming from Cura or PrusaSlicer where the workflow is more linear, you’ll click between Prepare and Preview about a hundred times per project and you’ll notice the missing hotkey by hour three.
The other thing I want to be honest about: Prepare and Preview do most of the daily work. Device only matters if you have a Bambu, a Klipper rig, or an OctoPrint setup connected over the network. Project is essentially metadata storage. I’ll spend most of this guide on the first two.
The top toolbar and the Slice button
Across the top of the 3D viewport (still on the Prepare tab) is a horizontal toolbar. These are the buttons you’ll touch the most. I’ll go left to right.
| Button | What it does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Add | Open file picker for STL, STEP, 3MF, OBJ, AMF | Also accepts drag-and-drop directly onto the viewport |
| Add Plate | Creates a new build plate inside the same project | Buggy. See note below. |
| Auto-Arrange | Packs all models on the current plate | Hotkey: A |
| Auto-Orient | Drops each model onto its most stable face | Sometimes flips logos upside-down, eyeball it after |
| Split | Splits a multi-body STL into separate objects | Useful when an STL packs multiple parts in one file |
| Split Parts | Splits at part boundaries inside one object | Different from Split, this one stays inside a single mesh |
| Variable Layer Height | Opens the per-layer height editor | Adaptive layer heights live here |
| Plate selector | Thumbnails of every plate in the project | Click a thumbnail to switch plates |
| Undo / Redo | Step backwards or forwards through edits | Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y |
| Slice plate | Slices the current plate only | Ctrl+R. The dropdown arrow next to it gives Slice all. |
| Export / Send | Export sliced file or send to printer | Appears after a successful slice. Split-button: main click exports, arrow opens “Print” or “Send and Print.” |
The Add Plate button has a real bug I want to flag because it tricked me for a week. After you click Add Plate, the button looks unresponsive. It won’t accept a second click. Issue #5042 and #5899 confirm it: move your mouse off the button and back onto it, and it’ll work again. It’s not a real lockout, just a UX bug. Multi-plate workflows feel rough because of this. If you regularly print batches across multiple plates, you’ll learn to expect the weird mouse dance.
The Slice plate button is the one you came for. Ctrl+R does the same thing. After it finishes, the Preview tab unlocks and the export button appears in the same toolbar slot where Slice was. If you click the small arrow next to Slice plate, you get “Slice all” which processes every plate in the project. Useful when you have batched five plates for an overnight run.
Inside the Prepare tab
Prepare is where you’ll spend 80% of your time. The tab is divided into four zones: the top toolbar (covered above), the left-side gizmo strip, the central 3D viewport, and the right-side settings panel (which I’ll handle in its own section).
The left-side gizmo strip
This vertical strip of icons only lights up after you select a model. Click your imported STL once on the bed, and the icons become active. Here’s the full lineup with hotkeys.
| Tool | Hotkey | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Move | M | Drag the model on the bed, or type exact X/Y/Z coordinates |
| Scale | S | Resize uniform or per-axis, in percent or millimeters |
| Rotate | R | Rotate around any axis. Hold Shift while dragging for 45-degree snaps |
| Lay on Face | F | Click a face, the model rotates so that face sits flat on the bed |
| Cut | B | Plane cut with optional connectors. Some older docs list C, the current wiki says B. Confirm in your install if it matters. |
| Mesh Boolean | (none) | Union, difference, or intersect on two or more selected meshes |
| Color Painting | N | Paint faces with assigned filament colors |
| Support Painting | L | Enforce or block supports per face |
| Seam Painting | P | Force or block seam placement per face |
| Text | T | Add embossed or debossed text on a face |
| SVG | (none) | Add embossed or debossed SVG art on a face |
Lay on Face is the one I undersold to myself for a month. If a model is sitting awkwardly, you don’t have to math out rotation angles. Press F, click the face you want flat on the bed, and OrcaSlicer rotates the model into place. It’s the single biggest time-saver in the gizmo strip.
The paint tools (N, L, P) get their own section below because they’re deep enough to deserve it. The thing to know up front: those keys only fire when a model is selected and the viewport has focus. If you press N and nothing happens, click your model first.
The 3D viewport and camera
The viewport is the central area showing your build plate and any loaded models. The build plate grid has an axis indicator in the lower-left corner: red is X, green is Y, blue is Z. Standard CAD coloring.
Camera controls aren’t explained anywhere obvious, so here’s the list. Middle-mouse drag orbits around the focal point. Shift plus middle-drag pans. Scroll wheel zooms. The number keys 0 through 6 jump to preset views: 0 is default isometric, 1 through 6 are top, bottom, front, back, left, right (the exact mapping is on the keyboard-shortcuts wiki page if you want to memorize it).
In the bottom-left corner of the viewport there’s a small info HUD showing the selected model’s dimensions in millimeters and its triangle count. If you ever wonder why a slice is taking forever, glance at that triangle count. Anything over a couple million triangles is going to chug.
Right-click is where features hide
This is the single biggest thing I missed when I started. Right-clicking inside the viewport opens context menus packed with options that don’t appear anywhere else in the UI.
| Right-click on | What pops up |
|---|---|
| A selected model | Auto-orient, Lay on face, Split, Convert to part, Change type (modifier / support blocker / support enforcer / negative volume), Per-object settings override |
| Empty build plate | Paste, Select all, Arrange, Auto-orient |
| Layer slider (Preview tab) | Add Color Change, Add Pause, Add Custom G-code, Add Tool Change (multi-material only) |
“Change type” is the killer hidden feature. You can convert a regular model into a modifier, a support blocker, a support enforcer, or a negative volume just from this menu. There’s no toolbar button for it. If you’ve ever wondered how people use a sphere to carve a hole in another model, this is how. Right-click, Change type, Negative volume.
Off-plate objects also catch a lot of beginners. If you scale a model too large and parts of it hang off the build plate, OrcaSlicer hides those parts entirely. The model looks deleted. It isn’t. Scale it back down and the geometry returns. There’s a thread on the Bambu forum where the same panicked question gets asked once a week.
For network-printer setup details, the Device tab walkthrough is in our custom printer guide. I’ll mention it again when I get to the Device tab section.
The right-side settings panel (the dense one)
This is the panel that makes new users close OrcaSlicer and reconsider their hobby. It’s not actually that bad once you understand the structure. It’s three dropdowns stacked vertically, each with its own sub-tabs and edit icons.
The three dropdowns
From top to bottom:
- Printer at the very top. Shows the selected printer (for example “Bambu Lab P1S 0.4 nozzle”). To the right are two small icons: a Wi-Fi icon to connect over the network, and a pencil/edit icon to open the full Printer Settings dialog.
- Filament strip in the middle. One colored chip per loaded filament. Multi-material printers show multiple chips. Click the colored circle to change the display color. Click the small “+” to add a slot. The pencil icon opens the full Filament Settings dialog, which is where you go to edit nozzle temps, retraction, max volumetric speed, and so on. If you’re tuning a new spool, see the filament settings guide.
- Process below that. Print quality preset, e.g. “0.20mm Standard.” To the right is the dense icon row: pencil (open full process dialog), save (save current as new), undo (discard changes), and the Basic/Advanced mode toggle.
That Basic/Advanced toggle is famously hidden. Issue #1237 is the bug report where dozens of users could not figure out where seam settings, fuzzy skin, or pressure advance lived. Answer: the panel hides “advanced” parameters by default, and you have to click a small toggle (it looks like a tiny icon, easy to miss) to flip into Advanced mode. Until you find it, half the settings the wiki references won’t appear in your UI. If you’ve been wondering why the article you’re reading doesn’t match what you see on screen, this is almost always the reason.
Process sub-tabs
Once you’ve expanded the Process section (and ideally flipped to Advanced mode), you’ll see sub-tabs running across the top of the panel.
| Sub-tab | What lives there |
|---|---|
| Quality | Layer height, first-layer height, line width per feature, seam position, precision, ironing, walls and surfaces, bridging, overhangs |
| Strength | Wall loops, top/bottom shells, infill density, infill pattern |
| Speed | Initial-layer speed, other layers speed, travel speed, acceleration, jerk |
| Support | Enable supports, support type (Normal / Tree / Organic Tree), raft, interface settings |
| Others | Skirt, brim, fuzzy skin, vase mode (Spiral Vase), G-code output options, post-processing scripts. Multi-material flush volumes also live here on v2.3.2. |
| Notes | Free-form text field per preset. Most people ignore it, but it’s handy for recording why you set a quirky parameter. |
Flush volumes (the multi-color “wipe” amount between filament changes) is the setting most multi-color beginners hunt for. It’s inside Others on the current build, near the bottom. If you’re tuning waste for AMS prints, our wipe and prime tower deep-dive covers it properly. For broader settings strategy, the settings master guide goes parameter by parameter.
System vs user presets
Three types of presets, one rule. The system presets that ship with OrcaSlicer are read-only. You’ll see a small lock icon next to the name. If you change any setting while a system preset is active, OrcaSlicer pops up a “Keep / Discard / Save” dialog when you switch presets or close the project.
That dialog confuses people. Issue #4422 is the thread. “Keep” doesn’t mean “save these changes to the preset.” It means “carry these unsaved changes over to the new preset you’re switching to.” Almost always not what you want. To actually save your tweaks, click the small disk/save icon next to the Process dropdown and pick “Save as new preset.” That clones the system preset into a user preset with your edits baked in. User presets are editable, system presets stay locked.
If you want to share user presets between machines, the import/export profiles guide walks the File menu’s Export Config Bundle path.
Paint tools: Color, Support, Seam
Three painting modes, all on the left-side gizmo strip, all require a selected model. The UI pattern is consistent across all three: enter the tool, a sub-toolbar appears at the top of the viewport with brush controls, you paint, you press Escape or click outside to exit.
Color Painting (N)
This is the multi-color tool. Before you enter it, set up multiple filament slots on the right-side panel. Each filament becomes a color you can pick from the palette inside the paint tool.
The brush options inside Color Painting:
| Brush | How it works |
|---|---|
| Circle | 2D circular brush projected onto faces under your cursor |
| Sphere | 3D spherical brush, paints faces inside the sphere including hidden ones |
| Triangle | Single-triangle painter, click each face you want to color |
| Height range | Paints every face within a Z-height range, perfect for layer-color flag prints |
| Fill / Bucket | Click a face, fills connected coplanar faces based on an angle threshold |
| Smart fill | Like Fill but with an angle slider for trickier surfaces |
Height range is the one I keep coming back to. If you’re printing a multi-color sign with stripes of color at different heights, set the Z min/max for each color, click Apply, done. No painstaking face-by-face painting required. For the full multi-color workflow including filament assignment and AMS mapping, see the multi-color guide.
Support Painting (L)
Three modes: Enforce (blue, force supports here), Block (red, prevent supports here), Erase (remove painted assignment). Brush options include size (scroll wheel adjusts it), shape (circle or sphere), and a Smart Fill toggle for auto-filling similar angles.
Here’s the gotcha that catches everyone. Support painting only works if supports are enabled in Process > Support and the type is set to a manual or normal variant. If supports are off, or if the support type is left on the fully automatic mode, your paint marks do nothing. The tool still draws on the model, but nothing changes in the slice. I painted a tricky overhang for twenty minutes before I figured this out. Don’t be me.
Issue #10486 is also worth knowing: on certain models the paint cursor marker disappears so you can’t tell where you’re about to paint. The workaround is to rotate the view slightly or zoom in and out. Not great, but it’s a known thing.
Seam Painting (P)
Two modes: Enforce (force the seam to land on these faces) and Block (forbid seam placement on these faces). Same brush behavior as Support Painting.
Same gotcha pattern: seam painting only works if Process > Quality > Seam > Seam position is set to “Painted.” Otherwise OrcaSlicer ignores your paint and uses its default seam logic. The seam placement guide covers the seam strategies (back, aligned, random, nearest, painted) in detail.
The Preview tab
The Preview tab unlocks after a successful Slice plate. It’s where you scrub through the toolpath layer by layer and verify the slicer interpreted your model the way you expected. I check Preview before every print, even on tested files. It’s saved me from a handful of “wait, why is there a giant gap in the infill” moments.
The right-edge layer slider
A vertical slider runs down the right edge of the viewport. Drag the thumb up or down to scrub layers. There are actually two thumbs (upper and lower) so you can view a range of layers instead of just the top-down stack to a single height. That’s how you isolate the infill, or zoom into one problem zone in the middle of the print.
Right-click the slider at any layer position and a menu pops up. This is where the hidden gold lives.
| Right-click slider option | What it injects |
|---|---|
| Add Color Change | Pause the print at this layer and prompt for a filament swap |
| Add Pause | Pause the print at this layer with no swap, useful for embedding magnets or nuts |
| Add Custom G-code | Inject arbitrary G-code at this layer (M600 swaps, beep commands, M104 temp changes) |
| Add Tool Change | Multi-material only, switch tools at this layer |
Tickmarks appear on the slider for every change you add. Right-click an existing tickmark to delete or edit it.
The horizontal moves slider
There’s a second, smaller slider running across the bottom of the viewport that almost nobody notices. It scrubs through individual moves within the currently selected layer. So if you’re staring at layer 47 wondering where the toolpath starts, drag the bottom slider and watch the path animate one segment at a time. Useful for diagnosing weird seam jumps or unexpected travel paths.
The color scheme dropdown
At the top of the Preview tab is a dropdown that switches what the colors in the toolpath mean. Default is Filament (each color is the assigned filament). The other options are where the analysis power lives.
| Scheme | What it visualizes |
|---|---|
| Filament | Color by assigned filament. Default. |
| Tool/Filament change | Highlights every spot where a tool or filament change happens |
| Line type | Outer wall vs inner wall vs infill vs bridge vs support, etc. Most useful for debugging. |
| Speed | Faster sections in warmer colors, slower in cooler |
| Flow | Extrusion volume per second, useful for spotting volumetric speed overshoots |
| Layer height | Lights up variable-layer-height regions |
| Fan speed | Highlights cooling differences across the print |
| Temperature | Visualizes hot end temp changes (where supported by the firmware) |
Line type is the one I use almost every print. Flip to Line type, then toggle off the line categories you don’t care about (more on the legend below), and you can inspect just the outer walls or just the bridges. It’s the fastest way to spot a missing solid layer or an unexpected travel move.
The legend / line-type toggles
On the right side of the Preview viewport is a dark-gray legend box listing every line type: Outer wall, Inner wall, Top surface, Bottom surface, Sparse infill, Internal solid infill, Bridge, Support, Skirt/brim, Travel. Each has a checkbox and a percentage/length readout.
Toggle Travel off to clean up the view. Toggle everything off except Outer wall to inspect surface quality. If a percentage looks suspicious (say, your bridges are 0%), that’s a sign something didn’t slice the way you wanted.
The filament breakdown panel
Below the legend is the bottom-of-tab summary: per-filament grams and meters, total weight, total flushed volume for multi-color, and total print time. This is the ONLY accurate cost and time estimate you’ll get. Trust this, not the rough estimate you might see in Prepare.
If your flushed volume looks crazy high (it can be 30 to 50 grams per color change on default settings), tune flush volumes in Process > Others. Then re-slice and check again. The wipe tower guide has the procedure.
The Device tab
The Device tab is empty by default. It’s not broken. It’s just blank until you add a printer that’s reachable over the network. Once a printer is connected, the tab becomes the live control panel for that machine.
What the Device tab shows when populated
| Panel | What’s in it |
|---|---|
| Printer list | Each configured printer as a card with name, status icon, and a thumbnail of the active print |
| Live status | idle / preparing / printing / paused / completed / error, percentage and remaining time |
| Temperature gauges | Hot end target/current, bed target/current, chamber temp where applicable |
| Camera feed | In-browser stream. Works for Bambu cloud/LAN and Klipper with webcam configured. |
| Control buttons | Pause, Resume, Stop, Heat-up, Cool-down, Home axes (firmware dependent) |
| Embedded web UI | For Klipper, Mainsail, Fluidd, OctoPrint, Obico, the tab renders the printer’s own web interface inside OrcaSlicer |
| File transfer | Sliced files on the printer’s SD card, click to start, delete, or queue |
| AMS panel (Bambu only) | Each AMS slot with loaded filament type, color, remaining %, and slot mapping |
OrcaSlicer supports a long list of networked printer protocols: Bambu cloud, Bambu LAN, Klipper via Mainsail or Fluidd, OctoPrint, PrusaLink, PrusaConnect, Duet, Repetier, FlashAir, FlashForge, AstroBox, MKS, SimplyPrint, and Obico. That’s twelve-plus protocols. If your printer can talk over the network, OrcaSlicer can probably embed it.
Common Device tab failures and fixes
The Device tab is where troubleshooting tickets pile up. The three patterns I’ve hit most.
- Tab is completely blank with a printer added. Usually a network resolution issue. Issue #791 documents the fix: use the printer’s numeric IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.42) instead of its hostname (e.g. voron.local). Hostnames work intermittently depending on your network setup, IPs always work.
- Mainsail or Fluidd won’t load in the embedded view. Issue #7581 covers this. It’s usually a CORS or HTTPS certificate problem with the embedded webview. The fix is to use HTTP not HTTPS for the printer URL, or to whitelist OrcaSlicer’s webview origin in your Klipper config.
- Bambu Device tab won’t connect. Bambu printers require either a Bambu cloud login or LAN-only mode with the printer’s access code. New P1S users get stuck here constantly. The fix is in our printer setup guide.
For broader connection issues and other Device-tab pain, the troubleshooting master has more.
The Project tab (the one nobody mentions)
The fourth tab. Almost every guide skips it. I’ll be quick because it’s quick.
The Project tab is a metadata view. You can attach images, PDFs, BOM (bill of materials) entries, and free-form notes to the .3mf project file. The use case is for shared project files where you want the recipient to open the .3mf and see a build photo, a parts list, and assembly notes alongside the geometry.
If you’re a solo user printing your own designs, you’ll likely never open this tab. If you publish project files on Printables or MakerWorld and want richer metadata embedded in the .3mf, this is where you’d add it. That’s it. Moving on.
Keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet
Here are the shortcuts I actually use. The full list is on the OrcaSlicer GitHub wiki keyboard-shortcuts page, but these are the ones worth memorizing.
| Shortcut | Action | Where it works |
|---|---|---|
| Ctrl+N | New Project | Anywhere |
| Ctrl+O | Open Project | Anywhere |
| Ctrl+S | Save Project | Anywhere |
| Ctrl+Shift+S | Save Project as | Anywhere |
| Ctrl+I | Import geometry (STL/STEP/3MF/OBJ/AMF) | Prepare |
| Ctrl+G | Export plate sliced file | After slicing |
| Ctrl+R | Slice plate | Prepare |
| Ctrl+Shift+G | Print plate | After slicing |
| Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y | Undo / Redo | Anywhere |
| Ctrl+A | Select all | Prepare |
| Ctrl+D | Duplicate | Prepare |
| Ctrl+F | Find in settings | Settings panel |
| Ctrl+P | Preferences | Anywhere |
| Del | Delete selected | Prepare |
| Esc | Deselect / exit tool | Prepare |
| A | Auto-arrange | Prepare |
| M / S / R / F | Move / Scale / Rotate / Lay on Face | Prepare with model selected |
| N / L / P | Color paint / Support paint / Seam paint | Prepare with model selected |
| 0 to 6 | Preset viewport views | Prepare and Preview |
Ctrl+F is the one almost nobody knows. It searches every setting in every Process sub-tab. Looking for “fuzzy skin” and can’t remember which tab it’s in? Ctrl+F, type fuzzy, done. Massive time-saver once you know it exists.
What’s missing: there’s no global hotkey to switch tabs. There’s also no built-in keybinding editor, so you can’t customize shortcuts to your preference. Both are open feature requests with low priority. I’d rebind Slice plate to a single F key if I could. I can’t. We live with it.
Where features hide (right-click and other easter eggs)
Three quick callouts for things that don’t appear on any toolbar or in any menu but exist if you know where to click.
- Right-click a model for the full per-object menu: Change type, Convert to part, Per-object settings override.
- Right-click the empty build plate for Paste, Select all, Arrange, Auto-orient.
- Right-click the layer slider in Preview for Add Color Change, Add Pause, Add Custom G-code.
- Ctrl+F in settings searches every parameter name. Almost nobody knows this.
- The pencil icon next to each preset dropdown opens the full settings dialog with way more options than the inline sub-tabs show.
- The Basic/Advanced mode toggle in the Process row reveals half the slicer’s parameters that are hidden by default.
If you remember nothing else from this article, remember those six. Right-click everywhere and toggle Advanced mode immediately. The UI gets much friendlier once both habits are second nature.
FAQ
Why is my Device tab empty? Because no printer is connected over the network. The tab only populates when you add a printer with a reachable IP. If you’ve added one and it’s still empty, switch from hostname to numeric IP per Issue #791.
Where did my right-side panel go? Probably undocked or collapsed. Issue #4300 covers the recovery. Try View > Reset layout. If that fails, Preferences has a layout-reset option. In extreme cases, deleting the OrcaSlicer config file and re-running the wizard restores it.
How do I save a setting I changed? Click the small disk icon next to the Process (or Filament, or Printer) dropdown. Pick “Save as new preset,” give it a name. Your edit now lives in a user preset. The system preset stays unchanged.
Can I rebind hotkeys? No, not in v2.3.2. Feature request exists, no ETA. You’re stuck with the defaults.
What’s the difference between Slice plate and Slice all? Slice plate (Ctrl+R) only slices the currently visible plate. Slice all (accessed via the dropdown arrow next to Slice plate) processes every plate in the project. If you’ve batched five plates for an overnight run, Slice all is what you want.
Why does the seam paint tool do nothing? Because Process > Quality > Seam > Seam position is not set to “Painted.” Same gotcha applies to support painting: if supports are disabled or set to fully automatic, paint marks have no effect. Both tools depend on the related Process setting being configured correctly first.
What’s the Project tab actually for? Attaching images, BOMs, and notes to your .3mf file. Useful if you share project files publicly. Most users never touch it.
Next steps
Now that you know what every panel and tab does, the next move depends on what you’re trying to print. For a first-print walkthrough end-to-end, head to the beginner’s first print pillar. If your printer didn’t auto-detect during setup, the custom printer guide walks the manual connection. For deeper parameter tuning, the settings master guide is where I’d send you next. And if anything in the Device tab is being weird, the troubleshooting master has the connection fixes.
The UI gets easier. Two weeks in I stopped fighting it. The patterns are consistent once you’ve seen the rhythm: top toolbar for global actions, left strip for per-model tools, right panel for settings, and right-click for everything that’s missing from the visible UI.
Related OrcaSlicer guides
- OrcaSlicer Settings Master Guide: Every Setting Explained (2026)
- OrcaSlicer for Voron 0.2 / 2.4 / Trident: Configuration Guide
- OrcaSlicer for Elegoo Centauri Carbon: Setup and Best Settings
- OrcaSlicer for Snapmaker Artisan, J1 and 2.0: Setup Guide
- OrcaSlicer Webcam and Live View Setup for Remote Monitoring