I am trying to learn more about Lightburn while I am waiting for my laser to arrive. I have experience with Inkscape and other vector design programs. It looks like Lightburn has a good amount of design elements included. My question is this: Is it more beneficial to learn the ins and outs of designing fully in Lightburn, or can I rely on my experience with Inkscape to get most of the design work done? I would like to begin experimenting with some designs but I cannot test them until my laser arrives in an estimated 3 months 
I would hate to spend hours designing in Inkscape only to find that I need to redo much of the work in order for it to translate well to Lightburn. Any insight is appreciated!
You will be able to use Inkscape files, saved in the correct format, without any problems. But, why not play and practice a little in LightBurn ?, you have 3 weeks free evaluation time with this fine program. I do almost all my design work in LightBurn even though I have used Inkscape a lot and like this program too. For general, âflatâ construction, LightBurn is very suitable.
Agree with many of @bernd.dkâs points. If youâre very familiar and proficient with Inkscape youâll find LightBurnâs design capabilities relatively slim. However, where LightBurn excels is as job layout tool and quick cleanup tool for prepping burns. In those ways itâs much more streamlined than Inkscape at doing those things and very quick. Youâll find a lot of tools that are focused on facilitating layouts, alignment, culling parts of a design, variable text, etc.
Thereâs value in getting very proficient at these tools as there are certain things that make sense to be done in LightBurn in preparation for a burn that donât really make sense at design time. You may also be integrating multiple designs to consolidate a complete burn or maximize use of work material. Or if your design needs are fairly modest LightBurn can make it very easy to pull something moderately complex together.
I will definitely be checking it out. I sounds like it is more fine tuned to design FOR the burning process and not just designing in general. From my early research is sounds like Lightburn will distinguish between different colored paths that will dictate what the laser will do on those areas. I am guessing I could design in Inkscape with the correct color coordination and then import and fine tune in Lightburn. I learned Inkscape through youtube videos so I plan to look for similar instruction there and also here for Lightburn. Thanks for your input.
I guess my best bet is to give Lightburn and spin and see the ways the two programs differ for myself. Thanks for the response!
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All of these packages have their bright spots and failures⌠I have found Lightburn to be the best out there for 2d or laser type work. I have used it on my little cnc milling machine but thatâs needs needs more flexibility in the 3d range.
You will be able to do things in Inkscape that cannot be easily done with Lightburn. Just like Gimp handles some things that Lightburn doesnât. Some of my designs need to âmatchâ something else Iâve created. For example, I needed a box to hold a sensor. Designed the box in Freecad for 3d printing and exported the âtopâ out as a DXF that I cut on the laser using Lightburn.
The most difficult thing I have to think about every time I have a problem getting Lightburn to âdo what I wantâ is to forget what and how Iâd do it in another package. Lightburn is generally much more simple.
It does not support parametric design. So if you want to make finger boxes, you are stuck with the size you design. With parametric (such as Freecad) you can set it up to recompute for any thickness or whatever. So some of my designs are done in Freecad for that specific reason.
Donât give up on the programs you know, just learn which is more advantageous to use and when.
Most of the time, you will find Lightburn does more than you needâŚ
Good luck
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