Boolean Subtract PDF file problem

LightBurn Software Questions
1

I am trying to get a Topo map that I downloaded from the USGS website and am trying to edit for engraving. My problem is that I cannot get the Boolean subtract to make a small section of the map. The PDF imports correctly and all the layers are recognized by Lightburn. I am able to turn off the layers and also not show the layers that I do not need. I can ungroup the PDF and also groups the image but when I try to do a Boolean operation the only thing that will work is the weld operation. I draw a rectangle on a new layer around the area of the map that I want to engrave, I then select the map contours lines that are grouped with some other information that I want to engrave. The map shows the ants running on all of the map but the Boolean subtract is still grayed out.
Any advise or has anybody have a work procedure for this type of editing.

Thanks in advanced

2

To use boolean operations all the ‘shapes’ or ‘objects’ must be ‘closed shapes’. It difficult to guess what you see.

Drop the .lbrn2 file here for us to look at, if that’s ok…

You can try selecting the line you wish (make sure it’s not grouped) and use ‘Edit → Auto Join selected shapes’.

Any open shapes can be ‘selected’ by ‘Edit → Select open shapes’

Good luck

Look forward to seeing the end product…

:smile_cat:

3

In addition to the condition that @jkwilborn has brought up about closed shapes… if Weld is an option but all others are not it’s likely that you’re working with more than 2 objects at a time.

4

Thanks for the replies. I am suspecting that I have a lot of open contours. The Lightburn file is to large to upload because of the size of the PDF. Is there anyway to delete layers of the PDF in Lightburn ? I do not have a PDF editor so I get all of the information from the USGS topo map PDF which is a lot of data. Is there any PDF editors out there that are either open source / free. I really don’t want to purchase Adobe Acobat if I can help it.

5

Are you saving as .lbrn2 format? It’s much more efficient size wise than .lbrn. If not, you could host on an external site and link here.

6

CorelDRAW and Affinity Publisher (and various other paid-for software) will open PDF’s for editing, or if you’re looking for a free one try Inkscape. There will be others but these are the ones I know of.

Hope this helps.

8

Thanks for all the suggestions and help. The problem with my file is that they have open contours just as Jack suggested. Inkscape will not bring in the layers because there is an image embedded in the PDF. I am impressed with Lightburn and what it can do its very strong software. I really didn’t expect this to be an easy thing to accomplish so I need to research how I want to approach this issue.

Once again thanks !

9

Great that it’s working for you…

You’ll find that Lightburn does all of what you need for a laser and then some…

Good luck… Mark the thread ‘solved’ if that’s the case.

Take care

:smile_cat:

10

would Mask work?

11

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.