Printing

Everything about selecting, starting, monitoring, and tuning your prints.

Selecting a File

Print Select Panel

From the Home panel, tap the print file area (shows “Select a file” when idle)
Browse your G-code files from Moonraker’s virtual SD card

File source tabs:

If your printer exposes a USB drive, the top-left of the panel shows Printer and USB tabs. Tap a tab to switch which storage the file browser lists — Printer shows files on the printer’s storage (Moonraker’s virtual SD card), USB shows files on the attached USB drive. The tabs only appear when more than one source is available.

Printing a file from the USB tab first copies it to the printer’s storage, into a folder named usb_prints, with a progress bar while it copies. The copy stays there afterwards, so the file is also listed under Printer and can be reprinted without the stick. If usb_prints already holds the same file, it is printed from there without copying again. If it holds a different file with the same name, nothing is overwritten: the new copy is saved as name (2).gcode, then name (3).gcode, and so on. HelixScreen never deletes these copies, so clear out usb_prints from the file list when it fills up. Files on the USB tab cannot be deleted from HelixScreen.

View options:

Card View (default): Thumbnails with file info — estimated time, filament usage, slicer
List View: Compact view for browsing many files (toggle with the grid icon in top-right)

List View

List view shows filename, print status, file size, modification date, and estimated print time in a sortable table. Tap any column header to sort.

Sort columns (tap a column header to sort):

Filename (A-Z or Z-A)
Size (largest or smallest)
Modified (newest or oldest first)
Time (longest or shortest)

Sending Prints from OrcaSlicer

Files you slice in OrcaSlicer can be sent straight to your printer over the network, where they show up in the file browser above — no USB stick or web upload needed. OrcaSlicer 2.4.0 or newer added a native Klipper/Moonraker connection that makes this work out of the box; HelixScreen needs nothing configured on its side.

In OrcaSlicer:

Open Printer Settings (the gear next to your printer profile) → Connection (or the printer/network icon in the device area).
Set the host type to Moonraker (Klipper).
Enter your printer’s address — the same IP or hostname your printer’s web interface (Mainsail/Fluidd) uses, e.g. http://192.168.1.50 or http://myprinter.local.
API key (only if your Moonraker requires one): paste the key from your Moonraker config. Most home setups can leave this blank.
Click Test — OrcaSlicer confirms it can reach the printer.

Once connected, OrcaSlicer’s Print button uploads the sliced file and (optionally) starts it. The file appears in HelixScreen’s file browser like any other, and you can also start it from the touchscreen.

Older OrcaSlicer (2.3.x): the native Moonraker option isn’t available. Either upgrade to 2.4.0+, use the older Octo (Klipper) host type, or just export the G-code and copy it through Mainsail/Fluidd.

Filament presets come along for the ride: if your AMS slots are configured in HelixScreen, OrcaSlicer pre-selects matching filament presets automatically — see the Filament guide.

File Preview

Tap a file to see the preview panel:

3D G-code preview: Rotatable with touch, showing the toolpath
Metadata: Estimated time, filament weight, layer count, material, and layer height
Pre-print steps: Shows which calibration steps will run before printing (e.g., bed mesh)
Timelapse toggle: Enable recording if you have the timelapse plugin installed

Pre-Print Options

Before starting, you can enable or disable:

Option	What It Does
Auto Bed Mesh	Run bed mesh calibration before print
Quad gantry level	Run QGL calibration (for gantry printers)
Z-tilt adjust	Run Z-tilt calibration
Clean Nozzle	Execute your cleaning macro

These options modify the G-code on-the-fly — if you disable “Auto Bed Mesh” but your G-code contains BED_MESH_CALIBRATE, HelixScreen comments it out so it doesn’t run.

Note: This only works for operations in the sliced file itself. If a step like bed mesh or QGL lives inside your PRINT_START macro, HelixScreen can’t comment it out — run Advanced → Configure PRINT_START once to make those steps skippable, and then these toggles will control them.

Tip: Pre-print options remember your preferences per slicer. If you always run bed mesh before PrusaSlicer prints, that preference persists.

Starting a Print

Select your file
Review and set pre-print options
Tap Start Print

The UI switches to the Print Status panel automatically.

Before the print actually begins

Some printers do a lot of work before the first layer: homing, heating a bed to soak temperature, and on some machines a full bed mesh. Depending on the printer, that work runs either inside its own PRINT_START macro or ahead of the job. On a K2 Plus with Auto Bed Mesh enabled it regularly takes seven to ten minutes.

The Print Status panel shows the pre-print steps and an estimated time for this whole period, with the new file’s name and preview - the previous job’s result is cleared the moment you tap Start Print.

While the pre-print steps are showing:

Cancel is available and always stops the print from starting. If the printer is mid-way through a leveling pass it will finish that motion first, because a running macro cannot be interrupted - but the print will not begin, and the screen reports it as cancelled rather than as a failure.
Pause is unavailable, since there is no print to pause yet.
Tune works. Speed and flow adjustments carry into the print. A Z-offset change made here may be overwritten by the printer’s own start macro, so it is usually better to adjust once printing has begun.

The rest of the screen tracks this window too. The home panel’s print card shows the preparing job from the moment you tap Start Print — thumbnail, a progress bar for the pre-print steps, and the current step — and tapping it opens the Print Status panel rather than the file browser. Controls that would move the toolhead (jog controls, filament load/unload, tool changes) stay unavailable until the first layer actually begins.

Note: On a multi-color print, HelixScreen checks your loaded filament before it starts and will stop with a Check filament dialog if a required tool maps to an empty slot. Printing from bypass skips that check, since the filament never passes through a slot. On printers with camera-based failure detection, it can also react to a print going wrong mid-job. See Print Monitoring & Failure Detection.

During a Print

Print Status Panel

The Print Status panel shows:

Circular progress indicator with percentage
Time elapsed and time remaining
Current layer / total layers
Filament used — live consumption updated during printing
Filename and thumbnail

Note: Exact layer counts and the most accurate time-remaining estimate require your slicer to report layer info to Klipper via SET_PRINT_STATS_INFO. If the count or ETA looks off, see Troubleshooting → Layer count is wrong, stuck at 0, or total layers missing.

If Klipper errors mid-print: HelixScreen automatically shows a full-screen recovery dialog when the printer shuts down, errors, or disconnects. See Troubleshooting → When the Printer Errors or Disconnects (Recovery Dialog) for what each button does and when to use it.

Print controls:

Button	Action
Light	Toggles the printer’s LED/case light. Only appears when HelixScreen has a controllable light configured.
Pause	Parks nozzle safely, pauses print
Resume	Continues from paused state
Cancel	Stops print (confirmation required). By default, waits for the printer’s cancel routine to finish. If Cancel Escalation is enabled in Settings > Safety & Notifications, an emergency stop triggers automatically after the configured timeout.
Tune	Opens Print Tune overlay for real-time adjustments

View Toggle (Progress / Complete)

When the G-code viewer is active during a print, a small floating button appears in the top-left corner. Tap it to switch between:

Progress view (default): Shows layers printed so far in solid color with a faded “ghost” preview of unprinted layers above.
Complete view: Shows the entire finished object with all layers solid — useful for seeing what the final print will look like.

The icon shows a cube (tap to see the complete model) or stacked layers (tap to return to progress view). The toggle resets automatically when a new print starts.

If the print contains multiple objects, an objects button (a skip-objects icon) also appears in that corner. Tap it to open the Objects list — one of the two ways to exclude an object, see Exclude Object below. The view toggle shifts to the right to make room.

Timelapse Toggle

If the Moonraker-Timelapse plugin is installed, a timelapse button appears in the print controls. Tap it to enable or disable recording for the current print. The button shows a camera icon and toggles between “On” and “Off” states.

During printing, frame captures happen automatically based on your timelapse settings (per-layer or time-based). When the print finishes, the video renders automatically if auto-render is enabled.

Print Tune Overlay

Access by tapping Tune during an active print.

Parameter	Range	What It Does
Speed %	50-200%	Overall print speed multiplier
Flow %	75-125%	Extrusion rate multiplier

The overlay also includes Z-Offset / baby-step controls (see below).

When to adjust:

Speed %: Slow down (60-80%) for intricate details or if you see layer separation. Speed up for large infill areas.
Flow %: Increase (105-110%) if you see gaps between extrusion lines. Decrease (95-98%) for blobs or over-packed lines.

Note: Speed and Flow adjustments are temporary and only affect the current print. The next print uses your slicer’s original values. Z-Offset is the exception - see below.

Fan speed: Part cooling fan speed is not adjusted from the Tune overlay. Current fan speeds are shown on the Print Status panel; tap that fan row to open the separate fan control overlay.

Z-Offset / Baby Steps

Fine-tune your first layer height, during a print or while idle.

Getting there:

During a print: the Tune button on the Print Status screen.
Any time: the Z-Offset row on the Controls panel. It shows the current offset and opens the same controls.

Adjusting:

Choose a step size (0.05 / 0.025 / 0.01 / 0.005 mm), then tap up/down to raise or lower the nozzle.

Signs you need to adjust:

Symptom	Problem	Fix
Lines not sticking, curling up	Nozzle too high	Tap down
Rough first layer, scratching sounds	Nozzle too low	Tap up
Gaps between lines	Nozzle too high	Tap down
Elephant foot, ridges	Nozzle too low	Tap up

Saving your Z-Offset:

Get the first layer looking good
Tap Save Z-Offset to write to Klipper config
Future prints use this as the starting point

If there is no Save Z-Offset button, your printer’s firmware stores the offset itself and there is nothing to save - what you dialed in is already kept and is re-applied at the start of the next print. This is the case on the FlashForge AD5M / AD5X running ZMOD, and on the Snapmaker U1.

AD5M / AD5X (ZMOD): the firmware clears the live offset when a print ends, so other interfaces can show 0.000 while idle even though your real offset is stored and will be used. HelixScreen shows the stored value instead, so the number on the Z-Offset row is what your next print will actually use.

Tip: Make small adjustments (0.01mm) and wait for the printer to complete a few moves before judging the result.

Exclude Object

On a multi-object print you can stop printing a single object and let the rest finish — the way to salvage a job when one part fails or detaches. Your slicer must label the objects in the G-code (OrcaSlicer and SuperSlicer do this); on a file without labels there is nothing to pick and the feature stays out of your way.

There are two ways to exclude an object during a print:

Press and hold the object in the viewer. In the G-code viewer (2D or 3D), press and hold your finger on the failing object for about a second — deliberately longer than a normal tap, so an accidental touch can’t cancel a part. A confirmation appears: “Stop printing “name”? This cannot be undone after 5 seconds.“

Use the Objects list. Tap the objects button — the skip-objects icon in the viewer’s top-left corner, shown only on multi-object prints. An Objects list slides in beside the viewer; in thumbnail mode you also get an overhead bed map with numbered objects matching the list. Tap the object you want to skip and the same confirmation appears.

The Objects list slides in beside the G-code viewer

After you confirm:

The object is drawn red and translucent in the viewer
A toast offers Undo for 5 seconds — tap it in that window and nothing is sent to the printer
Once the 5 seconds pass, the exclusion is sent and is final

When the Objects list is closed, a short tap on an object in the viewer (no hold) doesn’t exclude anything — it just draws corner brackets around the object so you can see which one is which. With the list open, a short tap behaves like tapping the object’s row in the list and asks for confirmation.

After a Print

When a print completes, a completion modal appears showing:

Total print time and slicer estimate comparison
Layers printed — the job’s total layer count
Filament consumed (formatted as mm, meters, or km)
Notification sound plays (if enabled in Sound Settings)
Print is logged to history

Once a print has finished — whether it completed, was cancelled, or failed — a Reprint button replaces the Cancel button in the print controls. Tap it to start the same file again without browsing back to it.

Recovering After a Power Loss

If the power dies mid-print, some printers keep a recovery point of the interrupted job. When HelixScreen connects to one of these printers and finds a recovery waiting, a dialog offers to pick the print back up:

Resume — continues the interrupted file from where the power failed
Discard — clears the recovery data so the printer starts fresh next time

The dialog names the file and warns that the layer in progress when the power dropped may not line up perfectly — a small seam at the resume point is normal.

This works on Creality’s Klipper firmware (K1, K1C, K1 Max, K2 Plus, Ender 3 V3, Hi, and i7) and on the Snapmaker U1. On the Creality printers, HelixScreen asks the printer itself to confirm that a recoverable print exists before offering Resume — if the printer’s own check does not pass, the offer never appears, because resuming without it can make the printer home straight through the part left on the bed.

The offer appears once per connection while the printer is idle; if it went unanswered, it comes back the next time HelixScreen connects.

For everything else HelixScreen watches for during and around a print, see Print Monitoring & Failure Detection.