I did a rudimentary search in the forum and found one discussion in 2019 and then another one in 2023 about creating spirals (and several others about applying text to a spiral path). However, the recommendation for creating spirals at that time required the use of a 3rd party app.
Is there an easy way to create spirals in Lightburn? If not, will there ever be – or is it just one of those “unlikely” or “impossible” features like “center line trace”?
You can create spirals in free Inkscape and export a SVG that LB can import.
I know center line trace is one of the most requested features. It also can be done in Inkscape, but center line tracing is hit or mix with most software, including Illustrator and CorelDraw. Mostly miss.
Sometimes, you have to bite the bullet and redraw. The end result will be better than any center line tracing.
Or do what I do. Grab an image somehow and trace it on Vellum paper, using a fine point felt tip pen, with a lightpad or tracing box. Vellum paper does not bleed or wick the ink.
Mine from Amazon, $20 US
LitEnergy A4 LED Copy Board Light Tracing Box, Ultra-Thin Adjustable USB Power Artcraft LED Trace Light Pad for Tattoo Transferring, Drawing, Streaming, Sketching, Animation, Stenciling
I’m sure the LB team will add a spiral at some point in the future. The mathematics isn’t difficult and certainly well within their capabilities. I guess it just depends on the demand from users.
One of the forum threads you referred to might have been one where someone was asking for a method to create a spiral for a cam. I ended up writing an application for them which I hoped would be cross-platform, but I later found out that I wasn’t able to do this. I’ve very recently been rewriting it using a platform that I’m more familiar with and I can now also compile it for MacOS.
I know you were asking specifically about a spiral tool in LB but until they implement one I think your only option is to use a 3rd party tool. Affinity Designer, CorelDRAW, Illustrator, FreeCAD etc. each have their own strengths and weaknesses so you might need different ones for different applications. As I said, mine was specifically developed for the requirement to produce a cam profile.
If you or anyone else is interested you’ll find the new versions on my Ko-Fi page. If anyone has any problems with it then just let me know.
I got curious. Lightburn has equation ability. With that and and the link below, you should be amle to create a spiral path in Lightburn. All you have to do is decide which spiral pattern yoy want.
Very cool. Thanks.