I work with designers who create complex cut files for our laser. They’re in vector format. I import them into Lightburn, and have pretty good success.
I’m having a challenge though. If I open up the vector files in a vector program, all of the cut lines intersect each other perfectly. However, when I import them into Lightburn, it often adds the tiniest little space in between where the lines intersect.
When this happens, the laser doesn’t cut all the way through, and leaves tiny splinters between the pieces.
Are you able to attach the actual vector file as well? You might need to append a .txt extension to get around the restrictions that the forum settings impose.
The “complex lines” have a width that LightBurn ignores
A node can only join two curves
Artsy designs can use curves with a stroke width & fill, but a laser spot is basically … just a spot. In order to create a wide stroke with a laser, you must arrange the design to have a curve at each border, then use Fill to burn the space between them. Additionally, those curves must form closed shapes: you cannot fill an open shape, because it has no “inside” distinct from the “outside”.
Those curves in LightBurn are basically Bézier curves, with a node at each end. A single node can, by definition, join only two curves, but the Y intersection in the design requires three curves. The artsy design probably has a separate node at the end of the leftmost curve, but it’s hidden by the stroke width of the curves.
One way to convert the artsy design into a LightBurn design is to make a bank shot off a raster image, perhaps a PNG, then have LightBurn import & trace the image back into vectors. Each border will become a closed curve and setting the layer to Fill will recreate the artsy layout.
