PLA print settings

PLA prints at about 210 °C with a 60 °C bed and 100% part cooling. Usable range 195–225 °C nozzle, 50–65 °C bed. No enclosure needed.

Polylactic AcidStandard PLAGradient PLARainbow PLATri-Colour PLAMulti-Colour PLA

Starting settings

Nozzle: 195–225 °C (start 210)
Bed: 50–65 °C (start 60)
Part fan: 80–100% (start 100%)
Wall speed: 30–60 mm/s
Max volumetric flow: 12 mm³/s
Shrinkage: 0.3%
Softens at: 60 °C
Enclosure: Not needed
Nozzle size: 0.2 mm or larger — 0.4 mm recommended
Nozzle material: Brass is fine
Drying: 45 °C for 4 h

Speed

The baseline every other material gets compared against. 40–60 mm/s walls suits most machines, and the real ceiling is your hotend's melt rate rather than the plastic.

Bed surface

Smooth or textured PEI at 60 °C. Clean with dish soap and warm water — isopropyl alone smears the finger oils around rather than removing them.

What bites people

Softens around 60 °C. A PLA part left in a parked car in summer will sag, and no print setting changes that — it is a material limit.
Heat creep on long prints with many retractions: filament softens above the melt zone and jams. If failures start an hour in rather than at the start, suspect cooling of the heatsink, not the profile.
Very forgiving of a bad first layer, which is exactly why beginners never learn to level properly until they switch materials.

Safety

Nozzle runs above 200 °C and the heater block stays dangerous well after a print ends.

Open First Layer →
The app walks this in order, generates the test model for your nozzle and filament, and records what you measure so nothing has to be repeated. Free, no account, works offline.