Cookie Cutter Design Lab

Cura settings for cookie cutters, and the tweaks that matter

Where every setting lives in Cura, with the values, and the two that people get wrong.

These are the settings by their exact Cura names and the section you will find them in. Switch the settings visibility to Expert first, otherwise about half of these are hidden.

Start from your printer's standard 0.2 mm profile and change only what is below.

The list

Cura settingSectionValue
Layer HeightQuality0.2 mm
Wall Line CountWalls2
Outer Wall SpeedSpeed25 mm/s
Infill DensityInfill10 percent
Top ThicknessTop/Bottom0.6 mm
Bottom ThicknessTop/Bottom0.6 mm
Initial Layer Horizontal ExpansionWalls-0.15 mm
Initial Layer SpeedSpeed20 mm/s
Fan SpeedCooling100 percent
Z Hop When RetractedTravelOn
Generate SupportSupportOff
Build Plate Adhesion TypeBuild Plate AdhesionSkirt, or Brim if it lifts

The two people get wrong

Wall Thickness versus Wall Line Count

Cura gives you both. Wall Thickness is a millimetre value, Wall Line Count is a count, and setting one changes the other. The trap is that Wall Thickness is resolved against your line width, so if the line width is not exactly 0.4 mm then a Wall Thickness of 0.8 mm can resolve to a single line.

Set Wall Line Count to 2 and ignore Wall Thickness. A count cannot be rounded away.

Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion is negative

The first layer of any print squashes outward. On most models nobody notices. On a cookie cutter the flange is the part you press with and the blade stands on it, so a squashed first layer makes the footprint larger than the shape you designed and leaves a visible lip in the dough.

Set Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion to -0.15 mm. It is under Walls, and it must be negative. Positive makes the problem worse.

If the first layer still spreads, the nozzle is too close to the bed. Fix the Z offset rather than pushing this number past -0.25 mm.

Check the wall before you print

Slice, switch to Preview, and drag the layer slider to about halfway up the blade. You are looking for two extrusion lines sitting against each other with no gap. If you see a single line, Wall Line Count did not take effect, or the wall generator has been switched to Classic under Walls.

Cura specific notes

Make one now