I have a Sculpfun Pro Max 20 watt machine with 900mm extension.
Is it possible to start a project other than the Home position? Lets say I have a grid on my waste board with a 100 mm circle in the center. If I were doing a coaster that is 100 mm in diameter and set it on the waste board circle, can Lightburn move the laser and start engraving in this area?
Thanks!
Dale
Sure. You can start at any position. I think you might need some background information about coordinate systems:
You can manually position the laser anywhere, automatically, give a different starting point, use a circle center finder tool… various options 
What’s your workflow at the moment?
In Absolute positioning, all movements reference the Home position. I think you are asking if you can have a project not over at the Home position. The answer to this is YES. I worked up a routine that works for me…
I was using my rollers as a bottle support, but not rotating it. I needed a way to easily / quickly synchronize the laser position with the position of the drawing. This series of steps is my solution.
Absolute Coords.
Home machine if capable.
Move to front-left, power up, and Set Origin if no homing switches.
Never move by hand after power on.
[1] Jog laser to CENTER of what you want to burn.
[2] In Laser window, click “+Show Last Position” button.
[3] In Workspace window, you should see a small red cross.
[4] In Workspace (drawing) window, highlight (CTRL-A) your work.
[5] Mouse to the center of your work, click and drag that center onto the top of the red cross.
[6] You now have the physical locations of the laser and work aligned.
[7] Frame should be pretty close to correct. If not, re-scale the drawing or move your part to be burned slightly, but do not move the laser or the drawing center (red “+” position).
I found this method also allows to quickly relocate to unburned / uncut areas of the workpiece.
Let us know if this was not really your question.
You can shorten this:
In laser window, choose current position, enable “cut selected graphics” and “use selection origin” and set job origin to center.
Now, the center of your project is precisely where the laser is, not matter where you jogged it. You can also manually move it to the desired position (or use the center finder tool if you have a round workpiece in the workspace).
Maybe, but I use it to find unused areas of previously cut material. Basically we are saying the same thing. How neat is that?
Melvin,
So nice to hear from you again! I really appreciate your help!!!
I’ve been retired for about 8 years so I take it pretty easy. I’m finding that this laser keeps both my mind and body going without much pain. I used to make furniture as a serious hobby. I can’t handle large projects anymore.
Have a great day!
Dale
Thank you Mikey!
I didn’t want to change the method you are using, I just wanted to mention that you are doing it more complicated than necessary
I understood that you are manually moving your project center to the place where the laser has been positioned. Like this:
But if you use the options I mentioned, both positions ARE already identical, no movement of any shape in your project is required.
This just saves you from a few steps in your procedure You only need step 1 and step 7
You know you are getting old when you need pictures! Thank you for the images, it describes perfectly what you are saying. I have been locked in on Absolute, Front-Left and did not catch what you were saying. At my age, saving every minute counts. 
Thank you Mike, this really answers my question!
Dale
Great! You might consider Melvin’s abbreviated version too. I am not a production shop, but it does make sense.
Hi Melvin,
Hope all is well!
Things are going pretty well. I’m starting to do great work, and having fun. But, I’ve hit a snag.
I volunteer for a non profit group, and several women on the staff have become good friends. So, I thought I would make each of them a little something, using their logo. I copied the logo from their website, and imported it to a program I found called Inkscape. I saved it as an .svg file and then imported to Lightburn. I set up the project and in the cuts and layers window, grey scale popped up. But, when I ran the project, the gray scale, which was selected as the second layer, the laser stopped. I couldn’t get it to engrave the logo. If this file doesn’t help, the website is Dementiaalliancenc.org
Can you help guide me?
Thanks!
Dale
Sorry, wrong web address. dementianc.org
Dale
I think it’s usually easier to use LightBurn directly. Import the image into LightBurn. Then right-click and choose “Trace image” then use the tracing feature to extract the typical shapes.
Since letters are not well traced typically, I’d recommend writing them again using the text tool. You can place the text above the image to check if the alignment is correct. I used Arial font, I think the one from the logo is slightly different, but for a small logo, it should be fine.
You could also ask them to provide the logo as SVG, that would be the best option
Here is what I created within a few minutes, you might need to adjust it to make it perfect
DementiaAlliance.lbrn2 (90.0 KB)
Of course, if you want to keep the shading of the logo, you need to keep it as an image and not a vector. But the quality is worse with images.
Hi Melvin,
Another day, another question. This is about a new machine I bought. Omtech ZF 2028-60. This as you probably know has a Ruida controller. Although I won’t get it for about a week, I’ve been reading and watching some Omtech videos on YouTube to get a head start.
I’m unclear how the Ruida controller interfaces with Lightburn. My guess is that Ruida only controls the laser but Lightburn tells everything what to do, right? Do you have a simple answer?
Thanks!
Dale
Which should be another thread, because it’s another laser.
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