Divide a line into equal sections

LightBurn Software Questions
1

How do I divide a line into equal sections, say 4 or 5 or 9 o whatever?

I ask because I use lightburn to design buildings for my HO scale model trains. If I want to have a building front with several equally spaced windows, I need to find a fairly simple way to accomplish this, rather than the trial and error method I’ve been using.

Same goes for windows. If I make a window a scale 6 feet wide, and I want to have 5 individual panes going across, how do I do that?

Thanks.

1 Like
2

I’d suggest looking at these two tools:

  1. Grid Array Tool - This will allow you to create copies of a shape in various ways with a tremendous amount of flexibility
  2. Arrange->Distribute - This will allow you to distribute existing shapes evenly. If you position the two pieces at the extremes of the area you want covered this tool will distribute all the shapes evenly between those extremes
3

This is my first thought:

  1. Draw a ‘cutting’ line and place it at one end of the line you want divided.

  2. Select your cutting line first then select the line you want divided using either shift-click or ctrl-click so that you have both lines selected (the selection order is important!).

  3. Use the ‘Copy Along Path’ tool to copy your cutting line as many times as you need.

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  4. Then use the ‘node edit’ tool to place nodes at the intersections of you main line and your cutting lines.

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  5. Lastly, delete your cutting lines.
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Hope this helps.

4

Thank you for your quick response. What you suggested is exactly what I’m looking for.

However. I tried what you said. I drew a horizontal line and a short vertical line at one end, just touching the horizontal line. I selected both lines and when I used the “copy along path”, I got more horizontal lines corresponding to the length of the vertical line.

Any thoughts about what I’m doing wrong?

Alan Carter

5

It’s important to select your lines in the correct order (I should have highlighted that fact). Select the short line first and the line you want to divide second.

6

Great. That worked. I also forgot that you have to press “shift” when you click on the second line.

Thanks for your help. Problem solved.

7

:+1:
If you wouldn’t mind could you mark my answer as the solution as it makes it easier for other users who have the same question find an answer.

8

Sure. Can you add that you need to hold the shift key when you select the 2nd line?

9

Ok, I’ve added that to my instructions above. It’s just standard Windows (and I guess other OS’s) way of selecting multiple items. In addition here’s the section of the online documentation that explains the ‘Copy Along Path’ tool:

10

I marked it as the solution.

Thanks again for your help.

11

Thanks.

No problem, glad I could help.

12

Alan, I am new to laser cutting and creating HO buildings is an area I would like to learn. I am also new to the LightBurn forum. Although LightBurn has a good selection of drawing tools, I use TurboCad, which makes tasks such as you describe much easier with a robust collection of drawing/editing commands. You might look into one of the basic drawing packages offered by IMSI TurboCad. TurboCad will export dxf files, which you can then import to LightBurn. If you are willing to help in my interest creating HO scale buildings, is there a way to contact you within the forum or by other means (E-mail; etc).

13

Hi Ed,

Thanks for contacting me. I haven’t tried TurboCad yet, and actually I’ve gotten pretty good results with Lightburn. Unless I decide to make Notre Dame Cathedral, I’ll probably stick with it. Most of the buildings I want to build are fairly simple architecturally, but we’ll see.

If you send me your email, I’d be happy to help you with train stuff. As it happens, I’m working on a brief overview of what I’ve learned so far that I’m going to put on the forum at model-railroad-hobbyist.com., sort of a beginner’s primer on the whole laser thing, with a few suggestions I’ve come up with specific to designing HO scale buildings. If you’re not familiar, MRH is a terrific site for all things model railroading. Great articles, a monthly on-line magazine, and a very comprehensive forum. I’ve gotten some good advice about lasers thanks to the generosity of some of the members.

Once I get this article done, I’ll send you a copy.

14

Here is E-mail; [Redacted]

15

Alan; would you also share your e-mail either here or by sending e-mail to mine?

16

Sure. My email is [REDACTED] If you send me yours as well, we can communicate that way instead of just through the forum.

20

Okay. I’m not sure of the rules here as I’m new to all this. Did I violate some rule by posting my email and if so, how do I give someone my email address so we can communicate away from the forum?

Thanks.

21

We often remove or redact email addresses from public communication. There are ‘crawlers’ that roam the internet looking for contact information to sell to spammers.

If the conversation stays here and stays public, then it can help others… sometimes months or even years later.