Creality Pig Print Time

Ask how long a pig takes to 3D print and you will find confident, exact answers online. Treat them with suspicion, because there is no such thing as the pig print time. “A pig” is not one model — it is thousands of different files, from a tiny keychain charm to a chunky piggy bank — and even the same file can take two hours or twenty depending on the settings you choose. This guide covers what drives the time, gives worked estimates for typical sizes, and shows how to get the exact number for your own file in about ten seconds.

Why there is no single answer

Print time is simply the total length of every path the nozzle has to travel, divided by how fast it can travel them. Anything that adds paths — or slows them down — adds time. For a pig model, these are the variables that matter:

• Model size (scale). The biggest factor by far. Double a model’s height and you double its width and depth too, so it holds roughly eight times as much material.
• Layer height. A 0.12 mm layer height means about two-thirds more layers than 0.2 mm over the same height — and nearly every layer still needs its walls printed.
• Infill percentage. A solid pig is mostly plastic inside. Dropping infill from 100% to 15–20% removes most of that interior material, because strength comes mainly from the walls.
• Solid vs hollow. A hollow pig (0% infill, thicker walls) prints much faster than a solid one of the same size — as long as the walls are thick enough to support the layers above them.
• Wall count. Walls are printed on every layer, so going from two walls to three or four costs time on all of them — though it adds far less than solid infill does.
• Print speed. Faster is faster — up to the limits of acceleration on a small model full of short moves, and of the print quality you can accept.

Worked example: the same pig at three sizes

To make this concrete, here is one typical low-poly pig figurine at three common sizes, sliced with ordinary settings for a Creality machine with a 0.4 mm nozzle (PLA, roughly 50 mm/s print speed, walls and infill as shown). Read these as honest ranges, not promises: a different pig model, a different slicer profile, or a support-heavy pose will move your number. Your slicer’s own estimate (next section) is always the authority for your file.

Pig height	Settings	Estimated print time	Estimated filament (PLA)
50 mm (keychain size)	0.2 mm layers, 20% infill, 3 walls	About 1–2 hours	Roughly 8–15 g
100 mm (desk figurine)	0.2 mm layers, 15–20% infill, 3 walls	About 6–10 hours	Roughly 50–80 g
150 mm (shelf piece)	0.12 mm layers, 15% infill, 3 walls	About 20–30 hours	Roughly 110–170 g

Two things stand out in that table. First, the jump from 50 mm to 100 mm roughly quadruples-plus the time — that is the cubic scaling of volume at work, not a slower printer. Second, the 150 mm version is slower than size alone would suggest, because it is also sliced at a finer layer height for a smoother finish; at 0.2 mm layers it would land much closer to 12–18 hours instead. Change the layer height, and you change the answer — which is exactly why any single “pig print time” figure you find elsewhere is made up.

How to get your exact time: ask the slicer

For your specific pig file, nobody needs to guess — including you. Every current slicer calculates the time and filament use before you print:

1. Load the pig model into Ultimaker Cura or Creality Print, scale it to the size you want, and choose your layer height and infill.
2. Slice it. The preview shows the estimated print time and the filament use in grams (and in metres of filament).
3. That pair of numbers — time and grams — is your planning figure. It already accounts for your model, your scale, and your settings, which is something no general article can do.

Expect the real print to take somewhat longer than the estimate — commonly on the order of 10–20%, sometimes more. The estimate assumes the printer moves at the requested speeds, but on a pig-sized model most moves are short, so the hotend spends much of its time accelerating and decelerating rather than cruising. The estimate also skips the real-world minutes before the first layer: heating the nozzle and bed, homing, and priming. Older Creality boards and conservative firmware acceleration settings widen the gap; if your slicer pulls the machine’s real acceleration values from its printer profile, the estimate gets noticeably closer.

The levers that change print time, ranked

If your pig is taking too long, these are the changes that actually move the needle, biggest first:

1. Scale it down. Nothing else comes close. Printing at 80% scale cuts volume — and roughly time — to about half. The trade-off is obvious: a smaller pig.
2. Raise the layer height. Going from 0.12 mm to 0.2 or 0.28 mm layers removes entire layers from the job. The trade-off is visible layer lines, which matter less on a chunky low-poly model than on a smooth, detailed one.
3. Increase print speed. Helps most on long, straight runs and larger models; on a small pig, acceleration limits cap the gain. Push too far and ringing and weaker layer bonding arrive before the time savings do.
4. Reduce infill and walls. Dropping from solid to 15–20% infill matters a lot on bigger models; going from 20% to 10% matters far less, because the walls — printed regardless — dominate at small sizes. Fewer walls save a little time but produce a noticeably more fragile figurine.

And the lever that is not on this list: there is no “pig” setting, profile, or printer feature that changes this. The time is a property of the model and your settings, full stop. If you are tuning settings for a first long print, our step-by-step calibration guide covers the first-layer and flow checks worth doing before you commit the hours.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my slicer say 6 hours but the print took 7?

Because the estimate is a best case. It assumes the printer instantly reaches every commanded speed, but a small model is all short moves, so the hotend lives in acceleration and deceleration — and requested top speed is rarely reached. Add heat-up, homing and priming time at the start, which the estimate usually excludes, and 10–20% over the slicer figure is normal on Ender 3 and CR-10-class machines. A bigger gap than that usually means the slicer’s machine profile has higher acceleration or speed limits than your printer’s firmware actually allows.

Can I print a large pig overnight?

Many owners do run long prints unattended, but be honest about what that means: a 3D printer is a device with a hot nozzle and a heated bed running for hours. The sensible minimum is a printer in good order with thermal runaway protection enabled (standard on current Creality firmware), a smoke alarm in the room, no clutter around the machine, and the printer somewhere you would notice a problem early. Start long prints when you will be around for the first layer and the first hour — most failures happen early — and don’t treat “set it and forget it for a weekend” as normal.

Does infill or speed matter more for a faster print?

For most pig-sized figurines, layer height and scale matter more than either. Between the two: raising speed helps only until acceleration limits bite, while cutting infill from high to low removes real material paths — but only where infill actually exists. On a small 50 mm pig, the walls are most of the print, so infill changes barely move the clock; on a 100 mm or larger pig, dropping from 100% to 15–20% infill can remove hours. Check the slicer’s preview breakdown if your slicer shows one — it tells you exactly where your model’s hours are going.

Two slicers gave me different times for the same pig. Which one is right?

Both are estimates built from their own default assumptions, so small differences are normal. Cura and Creality Print may assume different acceleration, jerk/junction and travel speeds for the same printer model, and those assumptions are exactly what separate an estimate from reality. Use either figure for planning, expect the real print to run a little long, and after a few prints you will know which slicer’s numbers land closer to your machine — trust that one.