Hello, I’m a new user of Lightburn and still in “trial mode”, but after testing for a few days now,
I have some questions/issues that I would like to solve, before I purchase this software.
LB is more advanced and user friendly, than Laserworks, which I have been using for almost 10 years.
But it behaves different to .
Bitmaps : sometimes, without any reason a bitmap gets engraved 2 times, even
when settings are set on “one pass”. Is this a setting I missed ? I use b/w bmp’s, dithered by
my graphics software, not by LB itself.
Inner to Outer : Inner to Outer is interpreted differently.
I create modeltrain lasercut kits. In my designs I use extra cut-lines so that disposable pieces get cut in
smaller pieces and drop out easier. If not they sometimes stick to the concept and I have to remove
them with a needle or toothpick.
These extra lines are within the contours but get cut after these contours. This means
that the disposable pieces are sometimes gone before they are cut in smaller pieces.
The picture below shows what I mean. In Laserworks these extra cuts (in the picture changed
to black and thicker) are cut first and then the outline. With Lightburn, the black lines are cut
after the outline.
Which setting do I need to change to change this behavior or must I adapt my designs.
And I would rather not because I have quite a few designs already…
When you experience a bitmap or other object being scanned twice or cut twice, it is typically because the same object is on top of the “first”. If you set Lightburn to single pass and in preview, the laser runs twice, try clicking on your object and delete the object at the top. (you can always undo your actions)
You will put your black lines on an extra layer and prioritize the layer as the first cut, it should be a very easy way to solve your problem.
Your black lines will behave as you’d expect with the next release. This is something that I’ve been chasing for a little while - essentially, if you had shapes like this:
The red line would be detected as inside the rectangle, but the blue line, because it touches the sides, would not. This is fixed for the pending release, so Bernd’s suggestion of making those lines their own layer won’t be necessary as of 0.9.15.
For bitmaps, Bernd is correct - you’d either have to have two graphics on top of each other, or have that layer set to scan twice. Also, since you mentioned it, when using images dithered outside of LightBurn, enable ‘Pass Through’ on the image layer or LightBurn will resample the image to the correct size and DPI for the output size you’ve chosen, and with a dithered image you don’t want that.
If you’re comfortable doing the editing elsewhere that’s fine, but it would be worth testing LightBurn’s built-in dithering, as it would give you a little more flexibility. You could do everything but the dither externally, and just let LightBurn do that last step - it always dithers at the output size being sent to the laser.
Thank you.
But I know this possibility and it was not the case.
I assume that by sending a updated version of the file to the laser (Ruida controller) and overwriting
the former file, something happened. I never had this before.
I design in Coreldraw 12 and then use Coreldraw X4 to export to AI with embedded bitmaps.
X2 still uses AI 7.0 and does not export curves very smooth.
X4 goes up to CS3 file format and is perfect for exporting to AI, images included.
The BMP’s I use are al in 400 DPI, for light 3D engraving.
On my website laserlabo.be you can see some results.
I would love to buy the new Corel for Mac but it is way to expensive when you only need
Draw, Paint and Trace. My current versions still run on a virtual windows on my Mac.
Example of difference between AI versions when importing in LightBurn.
Ok, so the issue is LB related and will be solved ! Great, thank you for the info.
For now this won’t bother me so much as I’m only testing.
Changing all my designs by grouping or assigning another color/layer to these
lines, is way too much work. I have a lot of designs and each design has several
sets for same or different materials.
So I better wait for the update in stead of doing all the work.
See below : one small Belgian Farmers house in HO (1/87 scale).
Materials user : MDF 1 mm, 2 mm, Cardboard 0,3 mm and Vivak 0,5 mm.
Each line is a different material. All sets designed to fit in a A4 (pagesize) box.
Now I understand better what you mean and the problem goes beyond my abilities. I only use Inkscape and Lightburn and do not need import and export between the other major programs that you use for your work. I hope you find a solution to your problem.
