How to Use Cura Slicer: A Beginner's Guide

Danielle A.

Cura: The People’s Slicer

Ultimaker Cura is easily one of the most widely used free slicers in the 3D printing world. It has an enormous user base, extensive documentation, and a huge ecosystem of community created plugins and profiles. For many people, especially Creality owners, Cura is the very first slicer they ever use, as Creality distributes customised versions of Cura with many of their printers.

Learning Cura properly builds a strong foundation for understanding slicers in general. Even if you eventually move to OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer, or another platform later on, most of the core concepts transfer directly across.

At first glance, though, Cura can feel overwhelming. There are hundreds of adjustable settings, many with names that mean very little to beginners initially. The best approach is to start simple. Use the Recommended mode first, become comfortable with basic printing workflows, and then gradually move into custom settings as your understanding improves. Trying to tune everything at once is one of the fastest ways to become frustrated. Cura rewards gradual experimentation far more than aggressive tweaking.

Installation and Printer Setup

Cura is free and available for Windows, macOS, and Linux directly through Ultimaker. During setup, you can select from a huge list of supported printers. Most popular machines already have community tested profiles available, including:

• Ender 3 series
• CR 10 series
• Bambu Lab printers
• Anycubic machines
• Elegoo printers
• Prusa systems

If your specific machine is not listed, Cura also allows completely custom printer profiles where you manually enter build volume, nozzle diameter, and machine dimensions. Once the printer profile is configured, the next step is setting up material profiles.

Each filament profile should, at minimum, include:

• nozzle temperature
• bed temperature
• cooling behaviour
• print speed expectations

For OzFDM PLA, a very reliable starting point is usually around the following:

• 210°C nozzle temperature
• 60°C bed temperature

From there, temperatures can be adjusted slightly depending on the specific colour, printer, cooling setup, and desired surface finish.

As general starting ranges:

• PLA: around 200–215°C
• PETG: around 230–250°C
• ABS: around 235–255°C

The Essential Settings

Cura contains hundreds of adjustable settings, but beginners only need to focus on a relatively small group initially.

Layer Height

• Layer height controls vertical print resolution and directly affects print quality, speed, and surface smoothness.
• Smaller layer heights improve detail and surface finish but increase print time significantly.
• See our layer height guide

Wall Thickness

• Wall settings control the strength and rigidity of the outer shell of the print.
• For most standard prints, 2–4 wall lines provide a good balance between strength and material usage.

Infill Density

• Infill controls the internal structure of the print.
• Most everyday prints work perfectly well between 15–25% infill. Higher values increase strength but also increase print time and filament usage.

Supports

• Supports help print overhangs that would otherwise fail due to gravity.
• As a general rule, unsupported angles beyond roughly 45° often begin needing support depending on cooling performance and geometry.

Build Plate Adhesion

Cura offers several adhesion helpers:

• skirt
• brim
• raft

For standard PLA prints, skirts are usually sufficient. Materials prone to warping, such as ABS or ASA, often benefit from brims to improve first layer adhesion.

Print Speed

• Reducing print speed is one of the simplest ways to improve print quality and reliability.

Higher speeds are useful for drafts and prototypes, while slower speeds generally improve surface finish and dimensional consistency.

Cura’s Biggest Strength: Tree Supports

• One area where Cura remains especially strong is support generation, particularly tree supports.
• Trees support branches outward organically rather than creating large solid support blocks.

This usually

• reduces material usage
• improves removal
• minimises surface scarring
• makes complex organic models easier to clean up

For miniatures, figurines, statues, cosplay props, and curved decorative models, Cura’s tree supports are often excellent.

• They can be enabled through:
  Support → Support Structure → Tree

For many organic shapes, they produce dramatically cleaner results compared to traditional grid supports. See our supports guide for configuration tips.

Cura Plugins Worth Installing

One of Cura’s biggest advantages is its plugin ecosystem. The Cura Marketplace contains dozens of useful additions, but one plugin stands out immediately for beginners: Settings Guide. Settings Guide adds detailed hover explanations for Cura’s settings, making it dramatically easier to understand what each adjustment actually does. It is genuinely one of the most valuable tools for learning Cura properly because it removes a huge amount of guesswork.

Other useful plugins include:

• Post Processing scripts
• pause at layer height tools
• advanced G code modifications
• 3MF support
• calibration helpers

The Post Processing tools are especially useful because they allow functions like automatic filament change pauses for multicolour printing without manually editing G-code.

Like most parts of 3D printing, Cura becomes far easier to learn when variables remain consistent. Reliable filament plays a major role there. Consistent extrusion and predictable print behaviour make it much easier to understand what each slicer setting is actually changing rather than troubleshooting multiple variables simultaneously. Use quality Australian filament and you'll get consistent, predictable results that let you properly learn what each setting change actually does.