Printing
The Printing category contains settings that affect how prints are configured and displayed.
Toolhead Style
Section titled “Toolhead Style”Choose the toolhead icon shown on the Home Panel and Print Status screen. Options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Auto (default) | HelixScreen detects your toolhead from the printer database or Klipper config |
| Default | Generic toolhead icon |
| A4T | Armored Turtle toolhead |
| Anthead | Anthead toolhead |
| Jabberwocky | Jabberwocky toolhead |
| StealthBurner | Voron StealthBurner toolhead |
| Creality K1 | Creality K1 series toolhead |
| Creality K2 | Creality K2 series toolhead |
Most users can leave this on Auto. Change it if HelixScreen picks the wrong icon or if you’ve swapped to an aftermarket toolhead.
G-code Preview
Section titled “G-code Preview”Enable interactive 3D G-code visualization during prints. When off, only the 2D layer view is available. Disable if your hardware struggles with 3D rendering.
Z Movement
Section titled “Z Movement”Controls how Z-axis movement is displayed in the motion controls.
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Auto (default) | HelixScreen auto-detects based on your printer type (bed-slinger vs CoreXY vs delta) |
| Bed Moves | Z controls labeled as bed movement (bed goes down = nozzle moves up relative to bed) |
| Nozzle Moves | Z controls labeled as nozzle movement (nozzle goes up = away from bed) |
This only changes the direction labels in the UI — the actual G-code sent is the same. Use this if auto-detection picks the wrong style for your printer.
Machine Limits
Section titled “Machine Limits”Tap to open the Machine Limits overlay. Adjust motion limits for the current session:
- Maximum velocity per axis
- Maximum acceleration per axis
These override your Klipper config temporarily — useful for testing or troubleshooting motion issues. Changes are lost on restart. To make permanent changes, edit printer.cfg directly.
Retraction Settings
Section titled “Retraction Settings”Only shown when firmware retraction (
[firmware_retraction]) is configured in Klipper.
Tap to open the retraction overlay. Configure G10/G11 firmware retraction parameters. Changes apply immediately and can be adjusted mid-print for tuning.
| Parameter | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Retraction | On/Off | Master toggle for firmware retraction |
| Retract Length | 0–6 mm | Amount of filament to retract. 0.4–2 mm for direct drive, 4–6 mm for bowden. |
| Retract Speed | 10–80 mm/s | Speed of the retraction movement |
| Unretract Extra | 0–1 mm | Extra filament to prime after retraction to compensate for ooze |
| Unretract Speed | 10–60 mm/s | Speed of the prime (unretract) movement |
Material Temperatures
Section titled “Material Temperatures”Configure preheat presets for different filament materials (PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, etc.). Each material can have:
- Nozzle Temperature — Target extruder temperature
- Bed Temperature — Target bed temperature
- Preheat Macro — A Klipper macro to run when preheating this material
- Macro Handles Heating — If enabled, the macro is responsible for setting temperatures. If disabled, HelixScreen sets temperatures first, then runs the macro as an additional step.
Timelapse
Section titled “Timelapse”Only shown when the Moonraker-Timelapse plugin is installed.
Tap to open the Timelapse Settings overlay. Configure how HelixScreen records timelapse videos of your prints.
| Setting | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Timelapse | On/Off | Master toggle for timelapse recording |
| Recording Mode | Layer / Hyperlapse | Layer captures one frame at each layer change — best for most prints. Hyperlapse captures frames at fixed time intervals — better for very long prints. |
| Framerate | 15 / 24 / 30 / 60 fps | Playback speed of the rendered video. 30 fps is the default. |
| Auto-render video | On/Off | When enabled, automatically renders a video file when the print completes |
A quick timelapse toggle also appears on the print status panel, so you can enable or disable recording without leaving the print view.
Changes are saved immediately and sent to Moonraker. If the timelapse plugin is not yet installed, HelixScreen shows an Install Wizard that walks you through the SSH commands to set it up — see Advanced > Timelapse for details.
For browsing and playing recorded videos, see Settings > Timelapse Videos (also covered in Advanced > Timelapse).
Macro Buttons
Section titled “Macro Buttons”Tap to open the Macro Buttons overlay. Configure quick-action buttons and standard macro assignments.
Quick Buttons
Section titled “Quick Buttons”These macros power the buttons you see on the Controls and Filament panels:
| Button | Where it appears | What it does by default |
|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | Preheat widget (when heaters are on), Filament panel | Turns off extruder and bed heaters |
| Load Filament | Filament panel | Runs LOAD_FILAMENT |
| Unload Filament | Filament panel | Runs UNLOAD_FILAMENT |
| Custom Macro 1 | Controls panel | Runs HELIX_CLEAN_NOZZLE (label: “Clean Nozzle”) |
| Custom Macro 2 | Controls panel | Runs HELIX_BED_LEVEL_IF_NEEDED (label: “Bed Level”) |
Cooldown behavior: When you preheat a material using the Preheat widget on the home or controls panel, the button automatically switches to Cool Down while any heater target is above zero. Tapping it runs your configured cooldown macro. This is especially useful if your cooldown needs to do more than just turn off heaters — for example, turning off chamber heaters, bed fans, or recirculation fans.
You can customize any of these. Each button has a label (what the button says) and G-code (what it runs when tapped). The cooldown macro can be a simple G-code string or a multi-line sequence:
SET_HEATER_TEMPERATURE HEATER=extruder TARGET=0SET_HEATER_TEMPERATURE HEATER=heater_bed TARGET=0SET_FAN_SPEED FAN=bed_fan SPEED=0For advanced configuration via settings.json, see the default_macros reference.
Standard Macros
Section titled “Standard Macros”HelixScreen auto-detects common macros from your Klipper configuration (e.g., it recognizes CLEAN_NOZZLE, NOZZLE_CLEAN, and similar naming patterns). You can override any auto-detected assignment:
| Slot | What it controls | Common auto-detected macros |
|---|---|---|
| Load Filament | Filament load operations | LOAD_FILAMENT, M701 |
| Unload Filament | Filament unload operations | UNLOAD_FILAMENT, M702 |
| Purge | Nozzle purge/prime | PURGE, PURGE_LINE, LINE_PURGE, PRIME_LINE |
| Pause | Print pause | PAUSE, M600 |
| Resume | Print resume | RESUME |
| Cancel | Print cancel | CANCEL_PRINT |
| Bed Mesh | Bed mesh calibration | BED_MESH_CALIBRATE |
| Bed Level | Manual bed leveling | BED_SCREWS_ADJUST, SCREWS_TILT_CALCULATE |
| Clean Nozzle | Nozzle cleaning | CLEAN_NOZZLE, NOZZLE_CLEAN |
| Heat Soak | Chamber heat soak | HEAT_SOAK |
If your printer doesn’t have a matching macro, some slots fall back to HelixScreen helper macros (installed via Settings > Advanced > Install HelixScreen Macros). Leave a slot empty to disable that function.
Looking for Load/Unload/Purge button customization? See the Filament guide for a step-by-step walkthrough, including how these buttons interact with AMS systems.
Per-Material Preheat Macros
Section titled “Per-Material Preheat Macros”You can also assign a custom Klipper macro to each material preset (PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU). This is useful when preheating requires more than just setting temperatures — for example, turning on bed fans for ABS or starting a chamber heater.
Configure per-material macros in Material Temperatures (above). Each material can have:
- Preheat Macro — A Klipper macro to run when preheating this material
- Macro Handles Heating — If enabled, the macro is responsible for setting temperatures. If disabled, HelixScreen sets temperatures first, then runs the macro as an additional step.
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