Electron beam melting (EBM) is one of the leading Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) methods for the additive manufacturing (AM) of metals. In the process, the EBM system uses a set of parameters grouped in so-called themes. Although EBM offers great control over the manufacturing process, the potential of the beam parameters is not fully exploited in the available themes. Parameters such as beam intensity and speed will greatly influence melt pool size, grain growth, solidification rates or even allow for selective evaporation of some alloying elements. By manipulating the build files and melting themes, it is possible to locally steer the solidification process, and consequently tailor the microstructure, which has been referred to in the literature as 4D printing or microstructural engineering. This approach enables not only to combine the complex geometries possible with AM, but also to control the material properties in specific regions of the build. EBM has previously been explored to allow microstructural changes in the XY-directions. One challenge with the application of this practice in the Z-direction is that every layer will be re-melted and affected by any heat from the layers around it. The aim with this work is to gain a better understanding of how independent changes of parameters can influence the microstructure and layer surface. This is evaluated by analyzing melted tracks on solid metal plates. The work is complemented by microstructural characterization in Scanning Electron Microscopy as well as Energy Dispersive X-ray.