Creating a Poll for the Reading of the LightBurn Documentation

LightBurn Software Questions Tips and Tricks
9

Thank you Bernd,

Agreed, and further to this, the forum allows the Developers to explore what they call ‘Esoteric Workflows’. When folks are given a tool, software or otherwise, they occasionally innovate or intuitively expect a different behavior. It’s not always approached with the intended methods in mind. When things don’t work as expected we see questions and confusion - This helps the team make things smoother. Several adjustments have been made to the software over the last few years to help new users adopt it. I feel the Boolean Helper tool is likely the clearest example.

Unread or unschooled users share insights from their own perspectives - and there are many different perspectives on the Forum. We’re here for the journey and we’re here to cultivate a resource for everyone.

The odd upside is, when folks set out to Google a thing that they’re having trouble with, and if they don’t have the terminology down pat, a search-result may land here matching a new user’s first questions - because their perspectives are similar.

Many struggling users are working in a language that isn’t English with software that doesn’t align with their life experience so far. We’re not going to insist that the English grammar or spelling is top notch on the forum either. We don’t scrub the other languages, we append our best understanding and proceed to help. We’re moving to a professional translation service this quarter for the User Interface and hopefully that eliminates some of the confusion caused by Transliteration errors on our part.

LightBurn does, and LightBurn did… I believe we just re-upped to 50 Gb.

We do have canned answers and several one and done answers for several common questions - in the FAQ section. Most of these are more than a year or two old and should be revisited.

In the mean time have fun, post schematics, finished projects, innovative ideas, rookie questions, advanced math, source code, firmware hacking techniques and whatever else you feel you might want to bring. If it gets in the way of someone else’s journey please flag it and we’ll intercede as soon as we can.

Thanks as always for your constructive input, understanding and your appreciation for the space and what we’re doing here.

We couldn’t do this without you; all of you!

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I believe it is most important for all users to understand that there is no way the Lightburn staff can test their creations on all the machines that use their software. We the end users are their test bed, and they rely on us to tell them of any problems we encounter. They do a fantastic job putting things right and very promptly too. What we get here for our licence money is extremely good value and I personally thank all of them for their dedication to what must be a very challenging task.

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Yeah…
When I see something on TV that I don’t like I just change the channel.

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All good unless you’re forced to scroll past a couple of hundered repeating channels to get to what you want to see. Just sayin’

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Some people seem to forget that they too were once a newbie.
I can’t help but wonder if they were looked down upon by people that were doing CNC or lasers long before they got started.

I’m not here to start a pissing contest.
Just saying that people need to be more tolerant of the newbies asking questions.
They are only trying to learn.
Like I told my kids many years ago, there is no such thig as a stupid question, just stupid answers.
And with that, I’ll get down off my soapbox.

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Which is not to be sniffed at!

What we need is a way to make common answers more easily found and instantly usable, so providing a quick pointer will solve the problem.

Nobody was born knowing this stuff!

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Whoa! I’m not here to put down anyone. I only asked the question to stem some thoughts on a better means of disseminating answers to repeated questions. Yes, we’re all newbies in some sort of manner, myself included.

When I come here to read to gain further insight to the software and its nuances, I just keep stumbling over the same questions. Now that there’s been some input from some folks, I too suggest there’s must be a better way. That’s all I’m asking to be thought about.

In a previous career of software development, I’d put together a SharePoint with simple drill down questions. Sort of like picking up a plant identification book and picking the best likeness to the situation, answer that question which then stems another question until the answer was obtained. Very welcomed and received. It added much needed time for the developers to get the software updates out the window instead of poring through repeated questions.

Never intended this to turn into a contest.
Cheers!

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It is completely correct and that is also why I try my best to give back what I got a few years ago.

But - it would be nice, if everyone with a question/problem could at least operate their own machines and familiarize themselves with LightBurn’s basic functions. If the search function is then used before asking for help, there will not be as many similar and already answered questions.

I know of only one other forum that is as tolerant as LightBurn. The tone is mostly still pleasant and friendly and is only broken once in a while by unreasonable and rude new users who think they have bought all LightBurn assets with their license. But these few are always handled by the LightBurn people themselves, in a manner that I can only admire.

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While I do very often see questions asked that a simple Google search would answer (and I’ll admit, this bugs me a bit) in many cases users are asking questions they’re not even sure are the right question - they’re not sure what terms to use, which resources are accurate, etc.

It’s frustrating occasionally when we answer the same things over and over, but that’s also a useful cue to us that maybe the information should be presented better, more accessible, or in some way made more obvious for new users, so there’s value in this repetition for us, and we try not to see it as a burden, but an opportunity to improve.

It’s also important to put yourself in the shoes of a new user with alien hardware & software. If the first response they get is RTFM, even if that’s accurate, it sets a tone I honestly dislike.

I don’t want anyone to feel bad for asking a question. I’d love them to get comfortable looking first, and then asking, but I think there’s an expectation that docs and support is generally terrible, so it’s easier to just ask. If we can change that perception by pointing them to the right resources, great, but we should try to be nice about it, because that tone is what they’re going to remember.

It’s cliche, but you only get one chance to make a first impression.

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Thank you Oz. 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. Sometimes I find the answer in several places. You are so correct in noting that some easier method to find answers is needed. However, your are trying to get it done. If you get a methodology that could be applied to old posts that works then you could require it for new posts and questions. I have found the questions to be interesting when I am looking for my queries. I really like the program. Thank you. Warren

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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. Sometimes I get lucky in a search, sometimes not. Same with Google. I am a database programmer and web developer, so I see this issue in a different light than a laser user. By the way, I am mostly a newbie myself.

The forum search spits out too many results not relevant to my question. 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. The default would be “ALL”. Of course, the forum software used by Lightburn may make any of this impractical.

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

20

SELECT guru
FROM db.users

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You articulated your experiences with the forum search but didn’t elaborate on your experience with the PDF manual. I’m curious what you felt were the shortcomings because I’ve had a very positive experience with the written documentation.

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I do not want to discourage anybody from using the PDF manual. My experience was less than stellar because I do not hnow the buzz words of the trade. That said, I wanted to learn about the controls and windows used 90% of the time. I knew I had a settings issue, but could not determine the actual problem using search words. When EVERYTHING is going wrong, it is easy to get exasperated. I find navigating the PDF difficult because I am not “laser educated”. That is not Lightburn’s fault, it is mine. To put things in perspective, I am a retired techie that gets, due to other projects like Ham radio, to play with my Sainsmart about once every three months. I suppose this forces me to be a perpetual newbie.

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I can understand the OP’s point as I am one to ask some simple questions to myself and wonder if is to common to post it here. 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?
As Oz stated I find them from a Google search
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

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Would love to hear more about this image improvement? what machine do you have and what is this preset?

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If you select your image then right click on it you get a drop down menu. One of the headings here is Adjust image. Select that and you get a panel with options to adjust the image. What I have found is a narrow blank box with preset next to it. If you click on this box there are two presets already for you to select. These are supplied by Lightburn. You also have the option to adjust your image and save the settings as a preset for later use. I cant find this in their documentation, but may have over looked it. I’m finding this a very useful featcher and it saves wriing down all my tried settings on a note pad.
Atomstack A5 with 40W upgraded laser head.

26

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.

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. :slight_smile:

Agreed… no argument here.

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.

Absolutely! And we all started somewhere.

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

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.

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

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

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.

I have not found this order. :slight_smile: 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.

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.

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I think that’s a good idea personally. I realized late that there was more in depth documentation (from the beginner documentation) and I was tremendously embarrassed that I had asked so many questions that would have easily been solved had I read the proper documentation. I’m extremely grateful for all of the help that so many people have offered up. Currently half way through the reading. Hoping to get some serious reading done over the course of the next couple weeks.

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