This guide covers the first real print on a Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, after the printer is unboxed, leveled, and loaded with filament. If you still need to do any of that, check the setup, calibration, and filament guides linked at the end of this article. Here we focus on one thing: getting a model from file to finished part, and understanding what the printer does on its own during that first layer.
Picking a Model for Your First Print
You have two practical options for a first print.
Use one of the pre-loaded internal files. The X1 Carbon ships with a small set of pre-sliced models stored in its internal memory, accessible from the touchscreen without connecting to Bambu Studio at all. Bambu’s own walkthrough for this uses a single-color scraper model as the example. The exact list of files can vary between units and firmware versions, so open the folder icon on the screen and see what’s there before assuming a specific name.
Slice something simple yourself in Bambu Studio. A benchy or a small calibration cube works well because both are fast to print and easy to judge by eye. Keep the first attempt to a single color and a single material unless you already have a good reason to involve the AMS.
Either path gets you to the same checkpoint: filament loaded, a sliced file ready, and a printer that is leveled and calibrated from the initial setup.
Starting the Print From the Touchscreen
If you’re using a pre-loaded file:
- Confirm filament is loaded in the extruder (check the filament page on the printer screen; a lit indicator confirms the sensor sees filament).
- Touch the folder icon and select one of the available models.
- Enable all calibration options when prompted. Bambu’s own guidance for this first print explicitly recommends leaving these on for the best result.
- Touch Print Now.
The printer handles bed heating, nozzle heating, and any enabled calibration routines (flow rate check, vibration compensation, and so on) before the nozzle starts moving on the actual model.
Starting the Print From Bambu Studio
If you sliced your own file:
- Import the model, adjust settings if needed, and click Slice.
- Click Print. A window opens where you select the target printer and choose which calibration options to run before the print starts.
- Click Send.
Whether the file goes straight to the printer or gets routed through the Bambu cloud first depends on your network setup. Bambu Studio sends the file directly over the local network only when it can find the printer on that network and an SD card is present in the printer; otherwise the file goes through Bambu’s cloud and back down to the printer, unless you’ve turned on LAN Only mode. If you’d rather keep everything local, enable LAN Only on the printer or copy the sliced file to the SD card yourself. Once the transfer completes, you can watch progress from the Printer tab in Bambu Studio, including the live camera feed.
What the Micro Lidar Does on the First Layer
The X1 Carbon’s Micro Lidar does two jobs before and during a print: it measures test line width to calculate the correct flow rate, and it scans the first layer once printed to check consistency.
Here’s what that means in practice. After the first layer finishes, the lidar checks it and reports what it finds. If the deviation is minor, the printer logs an information message (Bambu’s own HMS documentation for this specific case describes it as "not severe enough to trigger print pause action") and keeps going, leaving it to you to check the layer by eye or through the camera feed and decide whether to stop manually. For a more significant inconsistency, the system is designed to pause the print so you can inspect it before deciding whether to continue.
This is a separate function from Build Plate Detection, which checks that the plate in the printer matches what the slice file expects and halts printing if it doesn’t. Both First Layer Inspection and Build Plate Detection can be toggled from the printer’s Settings menu, and the calibration checks (including lidar-based ones) can be turned on or off from the print dialog in Bambu Studio before you send a job. For a first print, leave them on.
One practical note from Bambu’s own documentation and firmware release notes: the lidar’s camera and laser need to stay clean to read the first layer accurately, so buildup from ABS particles or debris on the sensor can affect how reliably it works. If you start seeing repeated inspection errors on later prints, that’s worth checking.
What to Watch During the Print
Once the first layer clears inspection, the rest of the print runs largely unattended, but a few things are worth keeping an eye on, especially on a first print:
- AI print monitoring. The chamber camera, combined with the printer’s onboard processing, watches for tangled filament (commonly called spaghetti), pile-up at the purge chute, and nozzle clumping. You can set the pause sensitivity to high, medium, or low from Settings; high pauses on the first sign of a problem, low waits for something more obvious. For a first print, a stricter setting costs you nothing but a possible false pause.
- Layer adhesion and warping. Watch the corners of the part in the first few minutes. Curling edges usually point to bed temperature, cooling, or a plate that needs cleaning rather than anything Micro Lidar will catch after the fact.
- Chamber and bed temperature. These display on the touchscreen and in Bambu Studio’s Printer tab. If you’re printing PLA, the chamber will stay unheated and the cooling fan will run more aggressively than it would for ABS or PC.
- Remote monitoring. Bambu Studio and the Bambu Handy app both show the live camera feed, so you don’t have to stand next to the printer for the whole print.
Removing the Part From the Plate
Once the print finishes, let the bed cool before removing anything. Bambu’s guidance for the textured PEI plate is to wait until the bed temperature drops to around 35°C or lower; most parts release from the plate on their own at that point. If a part is still stuck, pull the steel plate out of the printer and flex it slightly. The plate’s spring steel construction is designed to pop parts loose without a scraper.
Avoid cleaning the textured PEI plate with acetone, since it damages the surface. Dish soap, water, and a sponge or paper towel are enough to clear grease and residue between prints.
Related Guides
For the rest of the X1 Carbon setup process, see our guides on unboxing and safe first setup, bed leveling and calibration, loading, unloading, and changing filament, and Bambu Studio setup. If your printer throws an error code during or after this first print, our X1 Carbon HMS error index covers what each code means and how to resolve it.