Hi, I’m wondering if there is a way to have Lightburn place the lead in within an object. For example, I want to cut out stencil type letters where the interior of the letters would be waste material, so I would like the lead in to stay within the letters waste material so it wouldn’t mess up the stencil.
I’m trying to find out if there is an easy way to do this rather than placing each letter and the holes within letters (Like the triangle on a “A”) on its own layer and playing with lead in settings till i achieve it, which can make it take a while to Create a design.
Also how can i get the lead in to completely flip around sometimes the 90 - -90 angle range doesn’t quiet end up being enough to get the lead in to be inside of shapes, especially on letters. This can usually be worked around by moving the start point, just checking if there is a quicker method.
Yes, use a negative number. And you may need to move the Start Point of each path to provide room for the lead-in. I moved the Start Points for all but one shape here as you can see. All the rest start “inside” as requested.
Hi, thanks for the response. I also realized that having the letters inside another shape like a rectangle changed the direction of the lead-in to the inside which works because I’m trying to cut out a stencil font anyway. But without a shape around the letters, the lead-in remains outside the letter no matter what angle I used, which could just be the font I suppose. However, I also noticed that when I put a box around my text it appears in the preview as though my kerf offset is revearsed and now the letters look super thin lol. perhaps just far more playing around is required.
I’m going to post images below showing first without a shape around it, then one with a shape around it. in the pictures the piece is the first chunk of a “C”, without the box around it no matter what angle I use positive or negative it will remain outside at least from that starting point.
I can replicate your issue on a Mac with a stencil font, regardless of whether it’s inside another shape or not, whether it’s rendered to a path from a font, or not.
Hey, I just had a thought, maybe its not a bug. If you think about trying to cut something that has cuts within it as well. Take a stencil for example, if both shapes are on the same cut layer i’d assume you would want the kerf of the outside shape to have outside kerf while the shape inside to have an inside kerf which to me sounds like everything would cut perfectly. It could definitely be a slight oversight or bug though lol.
Kerf and Lead In / Out both know whether a shape is inside or outside another shape, and act accordingly. These three circles are all on the same layer, and the two smaller circles are identical:
The one on the right is not inside anything so the lead line runs from outside the shape, and for the one on the left, the opposite happens - The software knows that the smaller circle is inside the larger one, so the lead-in starts from “outside” the shape. It’s a little easier to visualize if you imagine them filled, like this:
Adding a third circle in between the existing two changes the fill order, and flips the position of the lead-ins:
And you may need to move the Start Point of each path to provide room for the lead-in. I moved the Start Points for all but one shape here as you can see. All the rest start “inside” as requested.
