We recently purchased Lightburn Pro, and can not figure out how to use registration dot marks to scan. RDWorks allowed me to click a mark and assign it as M1 and auto select the other similar sized dots as camera dots. Lightburn does not appear to have an option for scanning dots to use for printed jobs. I have a rip software that generates its own cu dots and cut files. I was always told Lightburn was the best laser software, but for it to no have the simplest feature seems a bit silly. My camera can’t sit on top of the machine to take a picture, not do I want it too as when we did do that before, it was FAR less accurate. We bought Lightburn for the sole purpose of using the print to cut feature, what is the best way to achieve this? I am not going to measure out lines and have the machine take screenshots of each area just to do that, if that’s the case I might as well get rid of Lightburn.
It turns out you don’t need a camera for Print and Cut, as described in the doc.
The general idea is to have two targets in the LightBurn design at the same coordinates as two printed targets on the material. Ideally, you use the LightBurn design to create the printed material, but having the targets at the same locations relative to the design is crucial.
Assuming you have a red-dot pointer aligned with the focused laser spot:
- Select one of the targets in the LightBurn layout
- Jog to the corresponding target printed on the material
- Click Alt1
- Select the other target
- Jog to that target on the material
- Click Alt2
- Click Alt3 or Alt4 as appropriate
- Select the layout / design / items to be burned
- Fire The Laser
A head-mounted camera with a center reticle at a known offset from the laser spot should work just as well as a red-dot pointer.
That way might work, but seems like the ancient way of doing things. If a free program coded in regular C++ like RD Works can use the mounted camera and scan the dot as a camera is intended to be used for, then so should the $200 software. This “No Camera” method takes about 5x as long as just selecting one 1 and auto-selecting the rest. This was not something I thought needed to be tested in the trial as I was told LightBurn was the best in class. LightBurn seems primarily for people that have cheap or laser only materials.