Materials library now syncs with control units, not design units

LightBurn Software Questions
1

I upgraded from 1.7 recently and jumped straight into 2.1.02.

In 1.7 i had my design units in inches and my control units in mm/s. The materials library displayed in inches, just like the design units.

After upgrading and reimporting my old cut settings, it appears the library syncs with the control units, rather than the design units. I can’t seem to find any combination of settings to resolve this; can anyone point me to it?

My issue is similar to (or the same as) this post, but it doesn’t have an answer that solves my problem: Material Library Units Not in Sync w/ Design Units

2

Check if this helps:

3

OK, you had me convinced I had lost my mind, so I fired up my old 1.7.08 install:

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I had my design units in inches, the material library was in inches, and my control units were in mm/s.

4

Now with the switch, you can have it either way.

5

Sorry, but I think I’m missing something obvious…

Design and control units haven’t been explicitly linked for years (see screenshot above). I’ve run with my control units in mm/s and design units in inches since at least 2024. From my perspective, the only differences I’m seeing now are that a) there’s a switch that allows me to force them to be consistent and b) when they are inconsistent the materials library matches the control units instead of the design units.

6

You are making this too complicated. I would expect the Materials Library to match control because that is your burning settings.

As for the switch, mine is off. I am always metric to the laser, and everything related to that. But in the Design screen I flip back and forth, having about 50% each.

Yeah, the new settings caught me off guard too, but I quickly (got lucky) figured it out.

7

I wouldn’t say I’m ‘making it too complicated’ because it’s a distinct change in behavior. It used to work one way, now it works differently.

So, either the behavior changed (in a way I strongly dislike) or it’s actually /more/ complicated and there’s a setting somewhere that I can’t find.

8

ahhhh, ok. I see the disconnect. I’m not being specific enough.

To clarify, the control settings in the materials library (speed, specifically) have always matched the machine control settings. What I’m talking about is the thickness specifications in the materials list. They used to match whatever the design units were, but now they match the control units. So if I was designing in inches, my material was labeled as 1/8" and I cut at 20 mm/s. Now, the material is labeled at 3.something mm if I am using metric control units, regardless of what my design units are set as.

9

Ahhh! Maybe you can add that to the Description as a workaround:

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10

I mean, I could, but I’d be interested to know if the developers consider this a regression and would consider fixing it instead.

11

A few things first for context. Please note, I’m trying to provide clarity for the topic and terms we are discussing. Not trying to just tell anyone that they are wrong.

This was not a thing in 1.7 - We didn’t add control units until 2.0. In 1.7 there was only one units setting - it was stored per device, but there was only one. It changed your Design, Control, and Device units all at the same time.

In 2.0 we split it into Design and Device units. In 2.1 we split it further into Design, Device, and Control units, plus we added the ability to link Design and Control units to make it more like 1.7 for the people that wanted it that way.

See above, control units was not a thing in 1.7. What you actually had was your units set to a “mixed mode” → Inches / mm/s (or Inches / mm/min) - in other words, imperial distances and metric speeds.

See above again - you’ve been running with “mixed units” mode described above. Design and Control units as a separate thing didn’t exist until 2.0 (July 2025) and they were, in effect, always linked before that. Because there was only one units setting.

OK, now that I’ve clarified the terms and concepts above:
This is not a bug or a regression. It was a choice.
As to if it was the correct choice remains to be seen.

When I split out the units I had to choose what parts of the UI used which units setting. Most of those choices were clear: Jogging is control units and shape size is design units, for example.

Some were less clear - this was one of them. I chose control units because we are talking about the thickness of the material. If your control units are set to metric distances then I assume you are measuring your material in metric, and vice versa.
If I just changed it so in the next version the Material Library showed thicknesses in Design Units I’m certain I would have just as many people telling me it’s wrong.

I’ll discuss it with the team - the only thing I can think of at this point is to have yet another units setting to allow you to specifically override what material thicknesses are shown in.

12

Is or is not does not matter. Lightburn is constantly evolving, generally for the good. How does that old saying go, “Can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time”?

Having been a developer myself in the past, I would have made the same assumption because it sounds logical. Don’t get me wrong, there are changes I did lot like either. But the opinion of one policy does make.

The only logical conclusion. :nerd_face:

Overall, the Lightburn team has been very responsive and has done a remarkable job designing both Lightburn and MillMage.

13

Thanks.
I noticed that too, in fact when I wrote my last post I started with that but after reading again I noticed that the OP wanted different settings so delete everything and offered a workaround. In my case as English is not my mother tong sometimes the understanding slips away when reading and when writing sometimes with only part of the answer, isn´t like Portuguese when I speak write and listen the brain auto-process a few hypotheses to make everything clear.
And people’s tastes aren´t math so no one is wrong :grinning_face:

14

FYI, it was decided that thickness being linked to Design Units was the “correct” option. So there will be a “fix” for that coming shortly.

15

Hey, sorry for going silent there; it was a busy week at the day job!

Sorry for my confusion on the units setting, as well. I see the difference now. I appreciate that you took my feedback under consideration and look forward to the change in a future version.

Thanks!

16

So still basic problems. i think i wait next year. or give Beam Bench a try, its free and has the same look as LB.

Big warning its still beta, but lb 2.1 is not better . . .

17

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.