Hey folks, I’ve got an issue I hope you can help me with. I created a parametric finger joint box in Fusion and imported it into Lightburn. In Lightburn I added the appropriate kerf offset and when I preview the box I get this message: The following layer(s) have a non-zero Kerf Offset, but this layer contains one or more shapes that are not closed, so Kerf Offset will not be applied to them:
I highlighted the object and selected Close Path in the Edit menu but after doing so I get the same message. Please help.
I use filled rendering to help see closed shapes. You need to be sure to change the layer back to line before sending for cutting.
You have several thing going on with this file. First, your “Back” piecs consists of 2 layers. In order to close a shape all lines must be on the same layer. Select the entire shape and set to red layer. This leaves 54 open shapes. Next, go to Edit> Auto-Join Selected Shapes. This takes care of the majority of issues and reduces the number of open shapes to 5. If you click node Editor you see that the top line has an overlap that needs to be fixed.
You can drag the nodes on top of each other to close the path or use the tool; Edit> Close selected paths with tolerance. The ends are less than a mm apart and using the slider closes this path.
This still leaves 4 open shapes. Let’s see what they are. Edit, Select open shapes. Click any unused layer to assign thes shapes to a new layer, then hide the red layer so you can see what the shapes are. It’s the outlines around the text tool layer.
Now you need to decide what you want to do with thes lines. You can place them on the tool layer and they won’t affect anything. You can make them rectangles that fit around your text and change them back to the red layer (this will give you cuts inside your pieces, but the kerf offset and all other cut settings will apply to them as well) or you place them on their own layer and the kerf offset will not apply and set the output to whatever you want for these shapes.
Thanks guys so much for that info. I just learned A LOT. I’ve had trouble several times in the past trying to close vectors and the procedure you guys explained nailed it. Thanks to you both for taking the time to explain it step by step.
Well I got it to work but another problem popped up. On the Back piece I need to set a kerf on the opposing sides but not on the other two sides. If I break apart the piece I’m right back to where I started from. I don’t see how I can set a kerf on the opposing sides without setting 2 different layers.
Kerf offset can only be applied to closed shapes and it will be the same setting for the entire shape. If you need different kerf settings on a shape you will need to manually adjust the size of each side before sending it to the laser.
