Let’s say that I make a fence for my bed and my desired origin no longer matches the machine’s home. I’d expect to be able to set the user origin, change to “user origin” start position and call it a day.
This works ONLY when I have to vectors outside the work area.
If I add a vector outside the work area lightburn uses the min/max of all vectors as the work area and the user origin seems to be relative to THAT. This is super easy to reproduce.
And yes, I have “ignore out of bounds vectors” enabled.
In order to get your origin to work the way I think you want it to, you need to use the “Cut Selected Graphics” AND “Use Selection Origin” switches in the Laser Panel. You will then see the green origin square move to the graphic you want to cut, ignoring anything else.
Ignore out of bounds only works in absolute coordinates mode which is what I use with a fence. This makes the Lightburn work area a direct representation of your laser bed work area. My fence is L shaped at the back of my work area and once it was fixed in place I used the laser to cut it. I ran a line along the Y axis at 0 and along the X axis at 410, which is my bed size, and cut those lines. Now I just place a workpiece against the corner and I align my project in Lightburn to that corner. I don’t have to fiddle with moving the laser head and setting an origin because it is located exactly in the correct position.
Edit: Absolute coordinates only applies if your machine has limit switches for homing.
Good to know. I was unaware of that restriction. Interestingly, I just did something similar with my set up yesterday. I cut a fence and can now use it for 0,0. I made the fence 3 layers tall, with magnets inside the middle layer, which also protrudes into the bed by 3mm to use as a shelf to elevate the sheet. So far I’m quite happy with it.
I exclusively use “cut selected”, but haven’t tried the “use selection origin” yet. Will look into that.
