I’ve been creating maps using contour lines and open street maps through QGIS. I then bring all the layers into Lightburn to prepare my final designs.
Each layer has objects that need to be cut and objects to engrave. My current project is of Maui (screenshot included). I have approximately 3 layers that represent different water depths, the main layer at 0 elevation then cuts for approximately 15 layers above 0 elevation.
On each layer, I like to engrave the layer it is gluing to for purposes of determining what areas are going to show when I paint. Some layers also have visible items like lettering, numbers for depth / elevation, etc. that need engraving as well.
With that said, my current process on items that only had 8 layers of material on the final print was to have a separate layer for engraving and cutting - which multiplied me out to 16 layers in Lighburn.
From what I’ve seen, sub-layers won’t work as not all the objects for a physical layer need to be subject to the same speed / cutting.
I’m thinking my only solution is for a single project to have multiple Lightburn files (not optimal for a well organized collection of various designs or for selling to others potentially) or have to adjust the speed and power settings each time I change physical layers to turn the prior cut layer into an engrave layer on the next one. However, I wondered if anyone had any other suggestions.
Appreciate any input as I’m only a month into my learning. I’ve attached some sample projects I’ve got cut and painted, now ready for a framed border and clearcoat. I’ve also attached the design for the Maui cutout that I referenced above where I’m running out of layers on a single file.
Thank you and glad to join the community! I’ve read through a lot of posts as I’ve been learning this last month.
Is there a reason why elevation layers need to correlate to separate layers in LightBurn? Could you just have all engravings in one layer and all cut in another layer?
I may be missing the question completely here, but there are 29 cut layers, each with 11 sub-layers available. As @berainlb suggests, you can also combine objects that are produced using the same settings on the same layer / sub-layer.
Each layer is the full 400mm x ~300mm. My laser is just a small 400mm x 400mm surface with just a 10W diode laser, so I can only fit one layer at a time on the bed and can only go through 18mm (if I do multiple passes). I have been making each layer about 3.2mm (1/8"). For the Maui one, I’m anticipating being almost 3 inches from the volcano peak to the lowest spot on the one where I had water depth every 700 feet (to 3000 ft) and elevation every 700 feet (to ~11k feet).
Each layer being full size also makes it easy to stack and glue them when each layer is the same size. I’ve thought about making them hollow with only material stacked / glued where the depths of the lakes are, but that makes the gluing / aligning stage trickier and subject to more error / misalignment with the layer above / below. And harder to clamp.
For the Maui one, I may try and take the volcano heights and make them all cut at once. I’ve figured I’ll have to engrave numbers on each to keep track of which is which. Since those don’t go to the entire size of the frame coming above sea level I can do multiple.
This is an in-process view - however when I did that one, I had to guess how far out on the layer I needed to paint on each layer to fill the cutouts on the layer above. That’s why on my newer ones I started engraving the layer above on each, so I could paint inside (approximately) the lines quickly, then stack, glue and clamp as soon as a bunch are dry.
The pin is 3/64 inch = 1.2 mm steel rod, which is likely too small for plywood.
That let me stack three layers of acrylic around some shattered glass, with clear acrylic on top and a mirror on the bottom, flood it with epoxy, and have everything remain aligned without clamping.
Another way to do alignment is to do your cut, and also engrave the outline of the next layer on that sheet. I realize that since you are painting the layers, that might present difficulties, but a modestly deep engraving of the outline should still be apparent through the paint, but would be practically invisible once the next layer was stacked on it.
This would allow you to cut each layer so that you used material more efficiently, but on the other hand would probably give you hollow voids within the model.
Why not do as @berainlb and @Rick suggest? Put the engraving on one layer and the cuts on other(s) layer. You can use the “Cut Selected Graphics” feature in the Laser window to control what is being cut/engraved.
