OrcaSlicer/.claude/skills/orca-profiles/references/process-profiles.md

Process profiles

Processes live in resources/profiles/<Vendor>/process/ — selectable leaves and shared bases alike, and every one of them is registered in process_list. There are no global processes shared across vendors.

Naming

"<layer height>mm <quality> @<target>" — near-universal, so match it.

Follow the bundle's existing quality vocabulary. BBL's common ladder relates the quality word to the layer-height / nozzle ratio; it is a naming convention, not a loader constraint:

Quality	Ratio	0.2 nozzle	0.4	0.6	0.8
Extra Fine	0.2×	—	0.08	—	—
Fine	0.3×	0.06	0.12	0.18	0.24
Optimal	0.4×	0.08	0.16	0.24	0.32
Standard	0.5×	0.10	0.20	0.30	0.40
Draft	0.6×	0.12	0.24	0.36	0.48
Extra Draft	0.7×	0.14	0.28	0.42	0.56

This is the fdm_process_single_<lh>_nozzle_<n> ladder; 0.4 is commonly the unsuffixed nozzle default. Match neighbouring names rather than renaming shipped tiers to fit the table.

The @target is a human label, not a reference: most do not equal any real printer variant name. Compatibility comes from the resolved list or condition, not this label.

Shape

A selectable leaf's only truly universal keys are type, setting_id, name and instantiation; inherits and from are near-universal — plus compatibility. No slicing key is universal; even layer_height is more often inherited than restated. A base has type, name, instantiation, almost always from, and no setting_id.

Target shape: a 7-key leaf. OrcaArena is the cleanest model — fdm_process_common → fdm_process_arena_common → fdm_process_arena_<lh>_nozzle_<n> → leaf, where the leaf carries only type, name, inherits, from, setting_id, instantiation, compatible_printers, and the per-nozzle base holds the layer height and all eight line widths.

BBL, WonderMaker and Z-Bolt are uniform in layering — every leaf inherits a base, names its printers directly and holds no layer height of its own — but not in key count. Imitate BBL's layering, not its content: its leaves carry doubled print_extruder_variant arrays that no single-variant vendor needs.

Nearly every vendor ships its own fdm_process_common as the inherits-less root. Those files are not identical; copying another vendor's version into a new bundle is normal.

Beware leaf-inherits-leaf: Prusa chains several levels deep through sibling leaves, and Elegoo and Flashforge do it too, so editing one selectable process silently changes others. Check a leaf's children before editing it.

Compatibility

Most leaves set compatible_printers directly; some inherit it from a base, and Prusa's fall through to compatible_printers_condition. After resolving inherits, every selectable process has one or the other — that is the invariant to review against. Unlike filaments, inheriting compatible_printers is legitimate for a process, and no check enforces its presence.

• A non-empty compatible_printers makes compatible_printers_condition dead code. Use one or the other.

• A condition that fails to parse means compatible with everything — a warning, not an error. A typo widens compatibility instead of narrowing it.

• Matching is boost::regex regex_match — a full-string match, which is why every shipped condition wraps its keyword in .*. Because it is boost rather than std, . also spans the newlines inside printer_notes.

• A printer_notes keyword that prefixes another model's keyword matches both. Prusa guards it:

  printer_notes=~/.*PRINTER_MODEL_COREONE[^_a-zA-Z0-9].*/ and nozzle_diameter[0]==0.4 and printer_notes=~/.*HF_NOZZLE.*/
  

  The [^_a-zA-Z0-9] exists because PRINTER_MODEL_COREONE_L also contains PRINTER_MODEL_COREONE.

compatible_printers is almost always one element. A leaf listing a whole model family is where a newly added printer is usually forgotten.

What to review per nozzle

Key group	Review
line_width and per-region widths	resolved widths suit the nozzle and layer height
layer_height, initial_layer_print_height	within the printer's limits
print speeds	consistent with flow limits and hardware tuning
shell layers, wall loops, accelerations, support Z distances	preserve the intended thickness, motion and support behavior

A common starting pattern is nozzle + 0.02 mm: 0.22 / 0.42 / 0.62 / 0.82 / 1.02. In that pattern, at 0.4, inner_wall_line_width, sparse_infill_line_width, skin_infill_line_width and skeleton_infill_line_width widen to 0.45 and initial_layer_line_width to 0.5; at 0.2, initial_layer_line_width widens to 0.25. Also derived, and easily missed: ironing_inset = line_width / 2 (0.11 / 0.21 / 0.31 / 0.41). These are examples, not required values; preserve intentional vendor tuning and percentage/automatic widths, and validate their resolved values.

min_layer_height and max_layer_height are machine keys — no process file sets them.

Slice-time content checks

Print::validate() enforces four rules at slice time:

1. initial_layer_print_height ≤ min nozzle_diameter
2. layer_height ≤ min nozzle_diameter — "Layer height cannot exceed nozzle diameter."
3. line_width and the seven per-region widths (inner/outer wall, sparse infill, internal solid infill, top surface, skin, skeleton) > layer_height — "Line width too small". support_line_width only when the object has support or a raft; initial_layer_line_width is never checked.
4. every width ≤ 5 × max nozzle_diameter — "Line width too large"

Two further rules cover bridge_line_width (≤ nozzle diameter; > layer_height unless thick_bridges and thick_internal_bridges are both on). The sweep starts from printer defaults rather than enumerating every process. A new non-default process gets no dedicated slice coverage in CI.

What CI checks on a process

Structure, not content: process_list name consistency and index coverage the other way, two files claiming one process name, the extruder_clearance_radius / extruder_clearance_max_radius conflict pair, duplicate JSON keys, a file normalize would rewrite, and the five setting_id rules (the fifth rejects the misspelled key settings_id). compatible_printers presence is checked for filaments only.

Note the C++ loader derives a missing setting_id on the fly, so the validator will not fail a process without one — only orca_profile_tool.py check catches it. Running the validator alone gives a false all-clear.

Silent failures specific to processes

• Unknown or misspelled keys are discarded with no error and no warning. They ship all over the process tree, both plain typos (inital_layer_height, tree_support_bramch_diameter_angle, sparse_infill_patter) and keys copied from other slicers that Orca never defined.
• Keys on the tool's OBSOLETE_KEYS list (adaptive_layer_height, overhang_totally_speed, …) are rejected by check's normalization pass across preset types; normalize removes them. The additional per-key obsolete warnings read filament/ only.
• A dangling compatible_printers inside an instantiation: "false" base is invisible to check_preset_references: a base never becomes a Preset at all (its config goes into config_maps and the loader returns early), so it is in no collection for the check to walk.
• Orphan bases that nothing inherits are scattered through the tree — usually the leftover of a half-finished nozzle addition.

Adding a quality tier or a nozzle's processes

1. Choose the layer height and quality label using the vendor's existing ladder.
2. If the vendor has per-nozzle bases, add one (fdm_process_<vendor>_<lh>_nozzle_<n>) with the layer height, nozzle-appropriate line widths, initial_layer_print_height and ironing_inset.
3. Add the leaf: 7 keys, compatible_printers naming the exact printer variant(s).
4. Register both in process_list, parent first. Bump the version, run the id tool, validate.
5. Slice this process explicitly with its intended printer; the sweep gives non-default tiers no dedicated coverage. If it is a printer's default_print_profile, verify the exact name and resolved compatibility too — the sweep may fall back or select another compatible process.