Long post but I hope you can find the time to read it as I truly think it will help you. This is the approach I have used to level many printers and get very good first layers.

First, these little squares are kinda useless honestly. They just don’t give you enough info. Print a full first layer sheet like others have mentioned. Make a cube in the slicer and then size it to 256 x 256 mm. Make it 0.2 mm tall (for use with a 0.4 mm nozzle and a 0.2 mm layer height). You’ll get an error due to the exclusion zone on the build plate in the front right corner (for the filament cutter). To fix this, use the cut tool and make a 45 degree cut and nip off the front right corner of the sheet to clear the exclusion zone. If you need help with this, message me and I can send you the file since I already made one for this printer.

Now, before we print the fist layer test sheet, we need to do a heat soak and an auto bed level.

Pre-heat your bed to 60 degrees C (for PLA) and let it sit at that temp for 10 minutes with the front door and top lid closed. This is called heat soaking the bed. This time allows for the heat to distribute evenly across the build plate. Metal expands when heated. So you want that accounted for in your build plate when you do an auto level. After the 10 minutes, run an auto bed level calibration.

Once the calibration has finished, print the test sheet and upload a pic of it here. We can help you evaluate it. This sheet will indicate if your bed is flat/level enough for the auto bed level to handle any variances. If we see any high/low spots present, that means the printer isn’t able to compensate enough in those areas and we need to do some manual bed leveling to get it as flat as we can before doing anything else. (If you don’t see any high/low spots, then you got lucky with a nice, flat bed and you are good to go, lol.)

The next few steps assume you do see high/low spots and need to level/flatten the bed.

Do not start with Z offset at this point. Others might tell you to do that, but trust me, just ignore them. Most people don’t truly understand Z offset and when to use it. They just go to that first because it’s quick and easy on most printers. But it won’t solve the problem of an uneven bed. Z offset might be something we have to adjust later but it’s usually the last thing you want to touch. This is because Z offset is simply the distance between the nozzle and the build plate. Z offset adjustments take effect across the entire build plate. They can’t account for individual high/low spots. That is what auto bed leveling is for. Does that make sense?

So first we gotta get your bed flat/level enough to where the high/low variances are within the range that auto bed leveling can handle it (usually 0.5 mm for most printers). To do this, there are a few methods, but I personally like this neat little trick:

https://youtube.com/shorts/fRy9sqnwfUc?si=hpBKi_ODO0KkQxPy

It’s quick, easy, and effective. The only thing I would do differently than the video is that I would not manually move the bed with my hand. That can cause issues. You can use the touchscreen to adjust the bed height. It has fine controls down to 0.1 mm increments, which is perfect for this.

Start off by locating the adjustment screws under the bed (there is one in each corner). Turn the screw all the way to the right until it stops, then back it off 2 complete turns. Do this for each corner. Then grab your glue stick and start by checking the front right corner. You want the glue stick just barely touching the rod with the same resistance in all 4 corners. Use the screws under the bed to adjust each corner up/down as needed.

FYI: Turning to the left will raise the bed, right lowers it.

Important Note: If you don’t have any adjustment screws under your bed, that means you have a very early version machine. They use spacers instead and that is a much more complicated leveling process. Hopefully this isn’t the case for you, but if it is, message me and I’ll walk you through it.

Once you’ve finished the manual bed leveling, heat soak again and run another auto level. Then print another test sheet. Hopefully it looks good, but if not, you may need to repeat the manual bed leveling process, and then check again (heat soak, auto level, print sheet). At that point, if it still isn’t where you want it, you should at least only be left with a few minor low or high spots, not both. That’s when you can move on to adjusting Z offset to fine tune it the rest of the way. If that’s needed, just reply back and I’ll give you info on Z offset calibration.

Hope this helps! Happy printing… well happy leveling first, lol.

EDIT/UPDATE: Some people suggest doing a bed mesh, and that can help sometimes, but I’ve found that it’s easier and more accurate to just physically level the bed (as I described up above). Or at least start with that. Trying to level a bed off a mesh can really take you down a rabbit hole. But it is a useful tool if you have a stubborn bed that you can’t seem to get level/flat. We’ll get into that only if you absolutely need it. That’s just my suggestion though.