My Material Library is in metric, and I would like it in ASA. I have the ASA .clb file from my other computer, but when I try to load it in Lightburn, the program reverts to the metric .clb instead of the ASA file I asked to load. I even tried renaming the metric .clb file, but that didn’t change anything. Lightburn still loads the metric .clb file, not the ASA .clb file. Is there a setting somewhere that makes the .clb go to metric?
I believe these are all XML type files. You can open them or look at them with a text editor. Virtually every field has a pretty good description.
Only guessing, but I suspect these are only dealt with in metric… Lightburn uses metric internally and all of these Chinese hobby machines work internally in metric, as does my Ruida.
This is something that only the Lightburn people may know. I have never needed it and I don’t remember any discussions about it.
Maybe @Aaron.F knows…?
Hang in there as most of the Lightburn people have the weekend off.
Jack is correct. You can open a .CLB file with any text editor. The data is stored in a fairly human-readable XML format.
I’ve used VS Code here to get XML syntax highlighting:
The .CLB Material Library is always stored in metric speed units. (mm / second).
But displayed according to your Machine Units settings.
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Sorry to be dumb, but what’s ASA? I’ve Googled it (specifying “ASA units”) and Google just gives me links to anaesthesia.
American Standards Association, simply put in this case, inches rather than millimeters
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You often see “Metric” and “SAE” in the same context, meaning metric and Yankee.
Ah, fair enough. On reflection that probably should have been evident from context. I was being a bit hard-of-thinking.
Is using ASA units just in decimal with a straight 25.4 conversion factor, or do you need to be able to enter fractions like 3/16” directly?
Works in the Numeric Edits toolbar:
Annoyingly, through, not in all numeric fields.
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In LB you can’t enter fractions, you must enter Imperial numbers such as 0.1875" as opposed to 3/16"
ASA (now ANSI) isn’t about mathematical formulas, it’s about measuring and standardizing everything from film speed (ISO), how many frames a second a film camera runs, the width of railroad tracks, the amount of electrical power that goes into a residential home, why a 2x4 doesn’t measure 2" x 4" and so on.
As you said, if you wanted to know the metric equivalent to 5", then yes you would use 25.4 (5 x 25.4 = 30.4).
Hope this helps
Not true. Play before you say. Kind of like try before you buy.
Enter 3/16” while you have in or mm selected.
To enter 3-3/16”, you must convert to an Improper Fraction: 51/16”
Or just enter it as 5” in the box displaying a Metric value. As @ednisley says, not all numeric fields work, but definately the ones used to design your paths.
Well Shut my mouth, of the 16 different graphic design software that I have loaded on my system and used for decades this is a first time I’ve learned of this.
Someone forgot to send me that memo…
You got the memo (Docs), but were too busy to read it. 
If you enter 3"-3/16" it´s the same as 45/16" you have to input units.
One of our calculators is on vacation!
3” = 48/16”
48/16” + 3/16” = 51/16”
I typed 3-3/16” not 3”-3/16” (three inches minus three sixteenths inches).
3-3/16 is standard drafting notation.
You typed a subtraction:
But you`re adding:
And you have to input 3"
or else Lightburn thinks is 3 (mm) - 3/16 (inch).
Went into the archives as it has been a while… got it. The memo:
Equations:
This one is a pet project of mine: LightBurn’s X & Y position, width, height, scale, and interval entry boxes now support expressions and units. What does this mean for you?
If you type 1/2in, and you’re in mm mode, it’ll turn into 12.7. If you’re in inch mode and type 1/2in, it’ll become 0.5. You can use ft, cm, in, or mm, along with normal math symbols and parenthesis (*/-+). You can combine them, so entering (1/2in + 3mm) * 2.5 + 1ft is valid. You can type 1/300in in the interval box to have it convert “300 lines per inch” into an interval for you. This should make working in mixed units easier.
Over the next release or two I’ll be replacing other number boxes with the new equation entry box, but it’ll take a bit of time.
LightBurn 0.8.07 - Equations, color camera view, grayscale & PPI for A – LightBurn Software
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Mine:
Yours:
Nope, I did not have that quotation mark in mine.
In that case to Ligtburn understand:
If in Inch you have to input 3"+3/16" or 3+3/16 or 3"+3/16 or 3+3/16" (=51/16≈80.963)
If in mm you have to input 3"+3/16" (≈80.963≈51/16)
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That makes sense. I did not think of using the “+” sign. I was hung up on the standard notation.
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I was told in high school that we’d be metric in a decade or two.. that was late 1960’s.
Might want to check out this article on conversions and how costly they can be.
There are a list of these conversion errors from NASA documented here by the measurement teams.
Bought a new 1974 CJ Jeep… it had metric bolts in numerous places, now I needed both sets of tools. 
The US Government claims companies have the right to choose which metric they desire for measurement. Some countries metric is the only legal metric.
It usually comes down to what you grew up with.. Hard to change people.
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