Color coding:
red/orange - non filaments.
green - PLA formulation.
blue - Ultimaker filament.
light purple - formlabs resin
Click and drag to zoom in. Hover to see more details on each material.
Take all values with a grain of salt
Strength
So the vertical axis of the upper graph is tensile strength. It's measured by pulling on a cylinder of material from each end until it breaks. Divide the force by the cross sectional area and you get the strength in psi (pounds per square inch) or MPa (mega pascals) for those who prefer metric (like me). Anyway this is kind of complicated because the materials towards the left are quite stretchy and long before their breaking point the parts are damaged. The point where it won't bounce back is the yield strength but I choose the ultimate aka breaking strength. Or whichever was higher (some materials actually start to get weaker again - like steel. Or PLA). Now the weakest material shown, PP is actually showing the yield strength - it is actually much stronger than you would think so this is unfair. But the machine that UM used to test PP wasn't long enough to test this value (the part never broke).
Modulus
This is the tensile Young's modulus wherever possible (sometimes it's the flexural modulus which is close enough). This is tricky and complicated but for the most part indicates how stretchy/flexible versus rigid a material is. So ninjaflex on the left edge has very similar flexibility to a rubber band and has very low modulus. Steel is stiff and has a high modulus. Most nylons (except shapeways) are much more flexible than PLA or ABS and this makes them very tough. Materials to the upper left in the above graph will be tough as hell. In fact anything to the left of and including "nylon UM" can probably be driven over by a car and come out just fine afterwards. Or a tank. Or you can throw it against a brick wall with full strength or hit it with a hammer. Most of those materials in most shapes can handle it. Tough. Materials to the lower right are more likely brittle (hence glass is the most brittle). XT is probably somewhat brittle among filaments (I've never tried it). Materials to the right tend to be hard. The hardness scale and the modulus are closely intertwined. Things to the right are harder, to the left are softer. I built a machine to measure modulus but I've only personally tested a small portion of the materials listed.
Softening Temp
Included in the data is a mythical characteristic called "softening temp". For many of these materials with a softening temp below 100C, I have tested them myself personally by sticking them in hot water. Above a certain temp they can be easily bent and when they cool a few degrees they stay in the new shape. That's what I call the softening temp but in reality this value came from HDT (heat deflection temp) or glass temp in other cases or functional temperature (aka working temperature). It's a mixed bag. So it's very approximate! Normally you want the heated bed at a temperature a bit above this temperature such that the material is soft enough to flex a little and spread out the warping forces. This value is the best indicator of how easy a material is to print. Those with higher softening temps need less fan for good layer adhesion, they need hotter heated beds, they need to be enclosed to raise the air temp. They will warp more while printing. All for the same reason - softening temp.
Bed Temp
This is the recommended bed temperature for printing this material. Sometimes the manufacturer doesn't post this or it is room temperature. Typically you want to be 5 to 10C above the materials softening temp so this is an indication of if the material has a higher softening temp. However for more flexible materials (modulus < 0.4 gpa) like nylon it's flexible enough at room temperature that this is no longer critial (if bed is above softening temp then it's less likely for the corners to lift because the part can warp slighlty which distributes the lifting forces over a much larger areas).
Printing Temp
Also somewhat arbitrary as some materials like PLA have a wide range of printing temps. Also variation in heater block design and variations in nozzle length, filament diameter, airflow touching nozzle, and more - affect what this temp should be. But it is a good place to start. Mostly I'm just showing that the red materials need special equipment to print them. The green, yellow, and orange materials can all mostly be printed by most printers no problem.
Color coding:
green - Easy to print
yellow - Medium difficult to print
orange - Hard to print
red - Need special equipment to print