How to Fix Elephant's Foot on 3D Prints

Elephant's foot is the bulge or flare at the bottom of a print, where the first few layers are wider than the rest. It looks like the base of an elephant's leg. For decorative parts it is cosmetic. For parts that must fit together, such as lids, press-fits and brackets, it can stop them assembling. This 3D printing guide covers the causes and the fixes, in the order to try them. It is based on maker documentation rather than our own tests, so settings are starting points.

What causes elephant's foot

Prusa describes it simply: the first layer is squished against the heated bed, so it ends up a bit wider than it should be. OrcaSlicer's documentation lists four contributors: the weight of the material above the first layers, thermal expansion of the material, a bed temperature that is too high, and inaccurate bed height or leveling.

Bambu Lab's first-layer guide gives a visual cue for the height problem. If the line is squished to the point of creating raised edges, or the nozzle drags, the nozzle is too low.

1. Check the first layer height

This is the most common cause and the cheapest to fix. Prusa's troubleshooting advice is to avoid compensating for a lack of adhesion by lowering the live Z adjustment and squishing the first layer. It warns that if lowered too much, the nozzle can damage the steel sheet and cause excessive vibration. Raise the Z offset in small steps, then reprint a small test. See how to fix a bad first layer and the bed leveling guide. If your printer has auto calibration, calibrating the printer can correct a drifting nozzle height.

2. Lower the bed temperature

A hot bed keeps the lowest layers soft, so they sag and spread under the weight above. OrcaSlicer lists a bed temperature that is too high as one cause. Drop it in small steps, staying inside the range printed on the filament spool or maker profile, until adhesion starts to suffer, then go back up one step. Lowering the bed too far trades elephant's foot for the problems in print not sticking.

3. Use elephant foot compensation in the slicer

Most slicers can shrink the first layer slightly so the squished result lands at the right size.

• PrusaSlicer: Print Settings, Advanced, Elephant foot compensation (visible in Advanced or Expert mode). Prusa says values around 0.2 mm usually work well for the default 0.4 mm nozzle. The adaptive version in PrusaSlicer 2.2 and newer detects thin lines in the first layer so they are not over-shrunk, and Prusa's official profiles ship with it enabled.
• OrcaSlicer: Quality, Precision, Elephant foot compensation. You enter a negative distance that is applied to a number of first layers. The compensation tapers linearly over those layers, and the wiki's example uses 0.25 mm.
• Cura: the Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion setting. Its definition in the Cura source says a negative value can compensate for squishing of the first layer known as elephant's foot. The default is 0.

If a brim looks disconnected from the part in the preview, that is expected, because the preview does not show the compensation. If the brim fails to connect on the real print, Prusa says your compensation value is likely too high.

4. Design around it when fit is critical

For parts that must mate, a small chamfer on the bottom edge of the model gives the flare somewhere to go. This is general modeling practice rather than something taken from a maker page, so check the result on your own printer. For general layer settings, see layer height explained.