Disable auto-join

When designing a project, I want to draw multiple segment open lines and basic geometric shapes without them being auto-joined. How can I do this on a global basis? I have tried the break apart function but it will break things down into small pieces within a single line segment be it straight or circle segment.

What would be your purpose for doing this, so we can better suggest ways to achieve this.

Select everything and use the “break apart” function.

He already tried that.

…I didn’t read the post correctly, sorry.
But now I just don’t understand the question.

It is a convenience issue for me. There are times when I wish to eliminate a line segment but it is auto-joined to the adjacent segments that I want to keep. So, I have to stop and do a break apart first, which interrupts the workflow. It would be nice to turn off the auto-join function, so I can just draw lines, line segments or objects as plain ole lines that are not joined.

Can you just use edit nodes? Hover over the line you don’t want and press D

I agree with @micrololin , use mark and edit to change or delete individual nodes or shapes/segments, anything else will create chaos from a construction point of view.
Can you show an example of “real life” where/how you would use it, maybe other eyes can see other solutions :wink:

Ps. Making shapes editable, transforming shapes to paths, is a 2-click process for your entire project or just for individual shapes.

Pictures are worth a thousand words. I want to erase the horizontal red line only but I can’t without additional steps

Simplest way I know how to achieve this if the rectangle is a primitive shape created in Lightburn. Right click on shape, convert to path, select Node Editor Tool, hover over line you want to delete and press the D key on your keyboard.
Screen Recording 2026-04-06 at 3.32.50 PM
If the shape was created using the line tool or created outside Lightburn it should already be a path and the conversion step can be skipped.

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Thanks for the insight. I appreciate all the responses I have received. What I will take from all this is that there is not a way to turn off auto-join globally for an entire project. Maybe, Lightburn will think about that for a later update.

One of the issues, is you have multiple lines to a single point.

There is no way for the machine to know what to do at the junction.

:grinning_cat:

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Honestly I don’t know of anyone that considers auto join as a problem in that it joins things. There is a features suggestions you can use though.

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All

I have been doing a series of trivets that use a lot of lines in the design pattern. After I get all the single line patterns I want, I then do offsets for all of them. Then I remove those I don’t want or convert some of the generated shapes to cutouts. When you overlap lines and then remove some segments, Lightburn starts joining line to gather again and in some instances I have to break them apart again so I can further remove or change to a cut segment.

The red lines are cut and the black lines are engraved.

Thanks again.

I would post this solved but don’t remember how.

md

Now that you have finally shown what you’re trying to achieve, rather than just a vague description…

Try switching the layer to line mode before removing the segments. When working in fill mode it is doing everything it can to keep closed shapes. That would be the normal desired result. Line mode does not attempt to close the shapes.

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You can use the Faaast Trim-Shapes tool by holding down the Ctrl key to disable Auto-Join.

Remove .txt at the end and see how easy with a simple shape added to yours.
forum_188879.mp4.txt (645.3 KB)

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Tim

I just rechecked my process, I drew several overlapping circles and rectangles, then I started to snip away segments. All on the same layer set to line. Lightburn started joining remaining line segments that touched.

Just to refresh, my original question was a straight up or down question: can auto-join be turned off globally". All the responses have given very helpful workarounds, but not said yes or no.

Thanks to all.

Mike

In this last post you talk about using the snipping (Trim Shapes) tool. Follow the instructions from the documentation below and see if that works for you.

I would not say exactly that it is a “problem”. I also use Vectric quite a lot and it has a “rejoin trimmed sections” option.

Normally when I use Vector Trim I expect lines to join automatically. Usually it’s when they don’t join that I get annoyed. But the option is still there for users who prefer to not have them join after. I am sure there’s a use case for it.