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Level the Bed

You need to have the bed you print on be as level as possible. There are bunches of videos on YouTube that go over leveling on lots of printers. They do a far better job that I can do so I am not even going to try.

Leveling is not the word. It does not matter how level your plate is in relation to the earth. Leveling, for a 3D printer, refers to tramming. The nozzle must remain the same distance from the bed as it moves around.

Older/inexpensive printers make you level the bed by turning wheels at the corners to get the bed level. Nothing is flat.

More modern/expensive printers will have Automatic Bed Leveling. They have a pribbe that goes around the bed and sees how far away it is at various points. During printing, if the gcode was present, it moves the head up/down to keep a constant distance from the bed.

The measurements taken were from the probe to the bed. The printer needs to know how far the tip of the nozzle is from the probe. The X and Y distances are compiled in to Marlin. If the probe is moved a new version of the firmware should be used. The Z offset is set on the panel. It will probably change whenever you do things, like replace the nozzle. If you have ABL and you have not set the Z offset, go do that.

Some printers will probe the bed and then do something to figure out how far the nozzle is from the probe.

Some other printers will use the nozzle to probe the bed.

Bottom line. If you have a printer without ABL and add a CR or BL touch you need to update the firmware for the printer. You also need to update the gcode the slicer puts at the start of the print to use/create the mesh. You need to update the Z offset. If the gcode says to use the mesh you must create one before the print.

There are 1 level prints to tell you how well your bed is leveled. There are a bunch of them. Depending on you there may be one you like. Use whatever makes you feel good. One example of these prints it here.

Mesh View

A bunch of things will show you the mesh to level the bed. It could be a picture of what the bed looks like or it could be a bunch of numbers that show how far the bed is away at various locations. You do not have to get this to be 0. As long as your printer is capable of moving the head up/down to keep a constant distance it is fine. This is largely useless. As long as your printer does the first layer OK it is close enough.