Hi!
I always really loved Lightburn, but lately I get way too irritated with the software. I hope it is just me doing something wrong:
I turn ON “Remove overlapping lines”
If I draw 2 new squares and let them share one side - it does work (that side is cut only once)
But if I need to cut a different 2 shapes for a box - I put the lines on each other (it snaps there itself) - it will cut the sharing side twice! A few minutes ago I almost jumped out of my skin! I just can’t figure out WHY?? Please help me or I will cry
I have this pattern to cut out - many small weird peaces. What is the best optimalization for cutting it? Like I can’t figure out how to make sure that the laser will not travel across already cut parts (because the part might get stucked in the hole and the laser head might hit it)
Is there ANY way how to tell the laser to travel between the cuts and NOT over them?
ALSO as you can see on the 1. picture - WHY the h*ll does the laser start cutting the outline first, when “Cut inner shapes first” is ON? It is the same layer…
The shapes inside are in a few small groups (=my best way to force the laser not to go across already cut shapes too much, but it still does)
When I group the outline and all the groups of small shapes together, then the laser starts with the inner shapes as it should…I just don’t understand.
ALSO look where it starts cutting the inner shapes! do you know how can I optimize this? Like why would it not start close to where it finished the outline?
So there are 4 objects. 2 and 2. The higer ones are working well. The lower two (in my opinion much better setup for cutting) just won’t work - in this case laser will cut the line twice.
WHY?
This is the part with the smaller parts: LB-test.lbrn (1.1 MB)
I had to delete the picture in the middle because the max size of a file is 4MB a it was over that.
When I put it in a new Lightburn (to save only this graphics) I noticed that the cut does not start with the outline. I so don’t understand it! I checked the original file with the rest of the graphics a few times and everything seems to be exact same, all settings etc. In the original graphics the laser cuts the outline first…
But a bigger problem for me is how to make the laser NOT traveling across the cut shapes?
Snapping in LightBurn works a little differently to other programs I’m used to. You need to grab a corner to enable snapping to object. Otherwise it may be snapping to grid.
In Optimization Settings your priority is set by layer, by priority. Since the outline is on a separate layer which is on a higher layer it will cut that first. Either move the outline to the same layer or change the ordering of the layers.
Try enabling “Cut in direction order” in Optimization Settings. You could also experiment with “Reduce Travel Moves” and “Reduce direction changes”.
Snapping also works if you grab the line (not only the corner)
I am not sure if I understand you - the outline and the inside parts are of course under the same layer…I have it both black as you can see on my fifth picture from the first post.
Cut in direction order is probably the only way to go here. I would still keep the small parts in a few groups, because if I put them all in one group, the laser will still jump a couple of times across it. Like…it leaves a few parts not cut and then jumpes back to them later, even in this mode.
I didn’t really want cutting in order for the rest of the design. But I guess I will need to do it this way.
I have no idea how to use “Reduce direction changes”. It is always worse than when it is off, at least for me.
What is your distance tolerance set to in Optimization Settings? I don’t recall if that’s saved in the file itself. Does increasing that value change the behavior?
My wording was sloppy there. I was trying to emphasize that the snapping occurs at the pointer, not on the object as is typical with other programs. So what you grab onto and what you snap to are all relevant and based on pointer location.
I was referring to the green line which I thought you mean was being cut first. I don’t see the black outline being cut first.
If you want absolute control over cutting order you could potentially assign each shape a “Cut Order Priority” in Shape Properties. That would give you ultimate control over the order but would be a bit of a pain.
Because the current version of LightBurn does not remove lines that are partially overlapping each other, only complete overlaps. The next update (1.3.00) will handle partials as well.
For the moment, if you change your shapes to look like this, it works:
… because then the lines are exact matches, not offset (shifted) from each other.
For the other file, as PY says, you have told LightBurn to run the green shape first, which it does, but since it’s fast / low power, that shouldn’t matter. If you completely removed “order by layer” from the optimization settings, it would cut inner to outer shapes, regardless of the layer order.
That’s generally a bad idea - you cut the inner shapes first so if the cut parts fall through the bed, the shapes within them still get a chance to cut. Also prevents air assist from pushing the cut parts around before the inner bits have been cut out. Imagine a letter O - There’s an inside circle and an outer one making up the letter. If you cut the outer one first, and the air blows the piece a little, when you move on to the inner ring it won’t be in the correct place. Cutting inside to outside shapes means that things stay attached to the larger piece of wood until you’re ready for them to be allowed to move.
This might be a residual bug in the cut planner. Version 1.2 introduced sub-layers, and there were a few issues that slipped through with that, though 1.3 resolves all of those.
Yes, I am fully zoomed in. I don’t know why you have space there. I don’t. That is weird, I would think that if I send you the file, that you will see what I see…
Yeah I don’t have that yet.
As I wrote in the post before (where I sent the files), when I copy this into a new Lightburn and have only this design and nothing else, it is being cut as it should. But when I had it with the rest of the design it cut the outline first, which is not good.
It is changing based on the optimization settings…I guess that is not worth solving anymore. But thanks!
Yes, I forgot about this settings, thank you. I used it a long time ago once. I need to figure it out, it might be the only solution for designs like this…
Unless hopefully one day somebody will come up with some kind of solution, that we will be able to tell the laser to travel only between the lines and not over them. Or when you finish cutting a group and going to cut another group, go around of the already cut group, not through it - that would be so awesome!
Hmm, okay interesting. Thank you for the info.
But what am I missing? That would mean that if I draw 2 squares and make one bigger than the other, let them share one side that it would be cut twice?
I tried that and “removing overlapping lines” works fine here:
Yes, I was not talking about the green layer. I know that. I was talking about the black outline.
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Yes I know that, thank you. I don’t know if I explained myself well, but my point was that at some point the laser was cutting the outline first, even when I had ON the option “Cut the inner shapes first” AND it is in the same layer - and I really don’t like it, I was trying to solve it.
My very first picture shows that problem - do you know what I mean now?
(And yes, I had “inner shapes” ON.)
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I do believe that! And I really hope it will be fixed.
Because I’ve never had any problem with LB until this year. This last months I noticed that laser cuts the shapes pretty silly. And sometimes it really plays with my nerves.
Even sending extra layers into the laser that I did not make - is that being fixed also? Because it is not comfortable at all.
The two bottom sets have shapes that are offset from each other (slightly shifted) so only part of the lines overlap. The top pair of shapes have lines that are fully covered by another line. Those work in the version you already have, and the offset ones will work in 1.3.00.
When I send any graphics into my laser, LB sends a few extra layers, that I did not create.
Thankfully it does not really affect the laser, because the layers are set to “0”. But it is hard to check my layers, when sometimes I can’t see them on the display…
You haven’t updated to 1.2.04. Any time you see a release with a different last number (1.2.00, .01, .02… etc) you should absolutely update, since it’s a bugfix and critical issue update only. The bug you’re seeing with extra layers was actually fixed in the first patch, 1.2.01.
Okay, well…my licence expired right after 1.2.00
So I will wait for 1.3.00 and probably pay for new key.
Do you know when 1.3.00 will be out?
Thank you.
If you already have a key, you can purchase renewal(s) to gain access to updates again.
As for when 1.3.00 will be released, we do not provide date certain as this is software and things can come up. We release when we are confident in the release. We are currently deep in the beta cycle for this version and things are looking solid. Soon-ish is the best we can offer.
