gaps will not close

[satre]

Here are pics of successive tests (they came out in reverse order on this post, sorry) on the same STL of a 2cm cube where I'm trying to make the first layer solid without any gaps. You will notice that the wider I try to make the bead of PLA in the "First Layer Width" setting under the "Layer" tab, the wider the spacing. Yet, paradoxically, when I use a brim or skirt, the extruded bead builds up on top of the previous one in the brim/skirt, but in the model 1st layer, it widens the spacing! I went all the way up to 500% just to be crazy and see what happens. As in the other tests, the bead does get wider and piles up on the brim/skirt, but the spacing goes crazy wide on the model itself! How do you get the bead wider in the model without changing the spacing so the bead paths will contact each other so that it will print a solid layer just like it's doing with the brim/skirt? I've read other posts about this and no one seems to have an answer that will work. Is this a bug? Outline overlap seemed to make little, if any, difference. Thanks!

[brian442]

Looks like the nozzle is starting too far away from the bed.

Read this: https://www.simplify3d.com/support/prin ... to-the-bed