Creating a Poll for the Reading of the LightBurn Documentation

[JohnJohn (John Johnson)]

@Warren1

I have spent lots of time looking for an answer, say a half an hour to an hour trying different search words, phrases, etc. I learn a lot of interesting stuff, but after 40 minutes I give up and try again later.

@MikeyH

I have used the search box and downloaded the PDF manual. Neither was a good experience. But I attribute that to the complexity (power) of Lightburn and the vast variety of machines and controllers out there.

I also fight with the search tools. I’ve found more complete results with Google but there’s a catch. I have to recall the words, to find a particular post - not the meaning and not the synonyms - the specific words.

@MikeyH

I am a database programmer and web developer, so I see this issue in a different light than a laser user.

I appreciate the different perspectives that different professions bring to the Forum, and I agree that the scope of equipment available to LightBurn is vast and growing. The controller type is paramount to “Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?” in our daily efforts playing 20 Questions on the forum.

@MikeyH

The forum search spits out too many results not relevant to my question.

Agreed… no argument here.

@MikeyH

Maybe because I don’t know what to ask, or maybe how to ask. In any case, a pre-filter of sorts would be useful. Maybe a couple of input list boxes, one for controllers and one for manfacturer.

Without the terminology well-in-hand, searches can be challenging and offer mixed results.

We ask users to fill in their User Profile info with their equipment information.
btw. Yours is Perfect and Thank You!

I’ll ask my boss if we can use User Profile info to adjust forum search results to make the results better and steer incomplete User Profiles to more introductory search results. That might be a really simple automation. Thanks for the seed for the idea.

@MikeyH

Just remember, if we never had Newbies, we would never have Gurus!

Absolutely! And we all started somewhere.

@MikeyH

My experience was less than stellar because I do not hnow the buzz words of the trade.

Agreed, the terminology is the hurdle. It can’t be searched if the term is unknown.

@MikeyH

When EVERYTHING is going wrong, it is easy to get exasperated.

Agreed. The emotional challenge is more often greater than the technical challenge. Further, the assignment of Unknown Error to Everything in Error is a common personal choice that can be absolutely overwhelming.

From the perspective of some experience (here, in Life and elsewhere) I can see that an Error means that the User is very close to ideal or optimal outcomes. For example, for an error message to be displayed, controller communication is occurring, motion is happening or not happening, things are powered on, the hard drive is working.
For a laser to be misbehaving, it has an observable behavior which means even more things are working.

Most folks are 95-98% of the way to their goals whether they know it or not.

When new users have errors, we occasionally get quite impossible to answer questions, like “My laser is broken.” or “Please help me.” We have a stock answer to help new users formulate more thorough questions.

How To Ask For Help

Folks, When asking for support for LightBurn via this forum, email or anywhere else, please keep the following tips in mind for the fastest and most helpful answers. Please provide these details: What machine do you have? What controller does it have , and what firmware it is running? Are you running the latest version of LightBurn? Is the issue new, or has it happened before? What kind of computer is it, and what Operating System is it running? Please note these things: Please speak in co…

If I was more consistently clairvoyant I would likely spend more time day trading.

@Cornerman

I am one to ask some simple questions to myself and wonder if is to common to post it here.

Please ask, It helps us shape the documentation and find weaknesses in our approach and explanations.

@Cornerman

To add to his question is there a place with a table of contents to get access to the videos that would answer most questions before they get posted?

This is a good idea. Table of contents, Index and search terms for the videos.
I’ll bring this to the Video Creation team. Thank you.

@Cornerman

And is there an order to watch them to develop a good practice on proper work flow?
Some talk about stuff that I did not learn yet

I have not found this order. There is an interest in unorthodox or esoteric workflow that provides new ideas and directions for development but proper and improper aren’t as formally defined for LightBurn being a tool for craft, as they would be for Graphic Design, Engineering Drawing or other Commercial endeavors.

We are absolutely willing to advise and offer recommendations on the fastest ways to get to your goals. Most users have very different goals in mind so articulating this clearly, even with images of similar desired outcomes is very helpful for discussion.

@RonClarke

I cant find this in their documentation, but may have over looked it.

I will go look and if I can’t find it I will ask the documentation team where it may be found. We haven’t documented everything. The developers are really good at adding exquisite hidden features and then surprising us with their innovations.

I think they set out to surprise each other which seems to delight them.

Thanks for all of this. It’s been very helpful.