MatterControl has had 3 point software print leveling for a while now. If you haven’t used it before, it’s a very simple and easy way to level your printer without needing to get your hardware perfectly physically level.

The way it works is pretty simple. You measure three points on the bed via a step-by-step wizard, and MatterControl then creates a plane with those three points and translates the gcode onto that plane.

The 3-point kind of software leveling works great on Cartesian style printers, but it doesn’t work particularly well on Delta style printers like the SeeMeCNC Rostock Max V2 and Orion.

Delta printers are great, but they’ve been known to be a bit more difficult to calibrate and level. Our goal is to make MatterControl “just work” with every kind of printer. So, the new 7 and 13 point leveling options were designed specifically to address the calibration issues with deltas.

Essentially, the 7 and 13 point leveling options break your printer bed up into either 6 or 12 separate, smaller planes.

6 Planes / 12 Planes

Because deltas have three independent towers, with three independent sets of delta arms, it’s possible for one area of the bed to be different than another. The area between the X tower and Y tower, for example, may be higher off the bed than the area between the X and Z towers, or the Y and Z towers. This can’t be properly accounted for with just one plane.

The 7 and 13 point leveling allows MatterControl to account for this and provide a level printing surface through software.

You can access the new leveling options in MatterControl under the Printer tab in the Advanced view mode.

Select your print leveling options

You can select the 3, 7, or 13 point options here. While the 3 point plane is generally adequate for Cartesian printers, there’s no reason you can’t use the 7 or 13 for added precision.

Once you’ve selected the desired method, go to the Options tab.

Configure automatic print leveling

Select Configure next to Automatic Print Leveling and follow the directions on the screen. MatterControl will move your head to 7 or 13 positions and instruct you to move the nozzle up or down until it is just above the print bed. Once finished, MatterControl will save these values until you go through the configuration process again.

It’s really that simple. In about five minutes you can have a leveled Delta or Cartesian printer with no hardware or firmware modifications. It just works. If you haven’t upgraded to MatterControl 1.4 yet, 7 and 13 point leveling is a great excuse to do so.

Check it out and don’t ever worry about print leveling again.

As always,

Happy Printing!