Engraving or making raised text using LightBurn Text

[GeorgeM (George Mizzell)]

I have no problem importing a jpg of text from PhotoShop and getting LB to scan it and either make it raised letters and burn away the background or burn the letters in and leave the wood alone. However, I would really like to simply use the text in Lightburn and scan it while either leaving the letters and burning away the background or burning in the letters but I cannot figure out how to do it and cannot find the subject even addressed in the manual. When I draw the bounding box around the text it just completely covers up the text. What parameter tells to to not do that?

Thanks

[Kent56 (Stoica Florin)]

hello!
You want to engrave something like a 3D effect? You have to use a black background like i did in the image below. Then the laser should engrave only the background and the letters will remain untouched and you will get a 3D effect. Try this

[Kent56 (Stoica Florin)]

after that you can group them and convert to BMP

[GeorgeM (George Mizzell)]

Andrew - Yes - this is what I want. Interestingly RDworks does this automatically but I like Lightburn more and so I am sure it will do it but the setting to do so is not labeled so that I recognize how to use it.

[Kent56 (Stoica Florin)]

lightburn is way better than RD :smiley, I used lbrn everyday since last year and i still use it, check this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a53idVtJjA4

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

I think you are asking how LightBurn uses boundaries to identify what to fill.

How do I invert (negate) a vector engraving?

If you want to invert a vector engraving (Fill layer) you need to add an outline to it. Think about what happens when you scan a circle, compared to the letter ‘O’. The inner ring of the O toggles the fill. If you add another shape (like a square) outside it, it negates the whole thing: [image] And a slightly different example, this time done by changing the outer line around the design to a ‘Line’, instead of leaving it as part of the Fill layer: [image] In the case above, the design alr…

[Stroonzo (Jeff)]

Create your text on a fill layer:

This will engrave the lettering:

BUT

Add a closed path surrounding your lettering on that same fill layer:

This will engrave / fill around your lettering:

No need to convert to a bitmap, jpg, etc. You have more control keeping the objects as paths.

Have a look at the reference @Rick suggested to understand more about fill logic. (It looks like he and I were writing responses at the same time).

[GeorgeM (George Mizzell)]

Thanks - I am still not getting it but I will watch the reference video now. I create the black box background and place the text in the middle. But when I preview it I get this strange playback like it is going top to bottom and then left to right. While playing with it some more I notice I have two boxes around it - one was for cutting the box out at the end and I deleted it and now it works like I want it but I still need a cut line around the outside to cut it out when done. Do I need to put that cut box on a different layer?

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

@GeorgeM

I create the black box background

This sounds like you are designing while viewing in Filled render mode. Don’t do that. Design in Wireframe so you can see all your work. Using the Filled render view on-screen does not always correctly show what the produced job will output. Use ‘Preview’ for that. Fill view should only be used to spot check work.

Are both the text and box on the same ‘Fill’ layer? They should be to get what @Stroonzo is showing.

[GeorgeM (George Mizzell)]

Thanks - I think I got what I was looking for

Thanks for everyone’s help:) I had to read and re-read a few times but finally got everything in the right place at the right time:)

Thanks
George