How can I tell Lightburn to tell the laser exactly where to start engraving?
More details to that vague question: I’m doing a multi-part project where the large engravings need to meet up in the center. I did 1/2, shifted my workpiece wood the proper amount, realigned it and set the origin at one corner of the already-done section. Thought I had it perfect, but it was off about .25mm (any tips on reducing THAT are also appreciated, as I thought I had it perfectly bisecting the edge of the finished portion).
The second stage runs, with the laser starting it’s work at the furthest edge from the already finished portion. For clarity, I slid the wood away from me while standing at the laser, and the laser starts the next run closest to where I’m standing.
It finishes stage 2, and I notice the ever so pesky sliver that remains from keeping the two halves from being perfectly joined. I say no problem, I’ll move the origin to the top corner and tell it to run the layer again, and I’ll watch super close and stop the laser as soon as that sliver is gone. Said another way, how do I make it go “top down” vs “bottom up”?
Well, now I discover that I can’t figure out how to make the laser start at the “back” or “top” of the bed (furthest edge from the user if user is standing in front of laser). I tried turning optimization settings off, everything I could think of. I’m sure the answer is simple but I’m simple. It’s a Boss LS-1420. The piece of wood remains in place because I didn’t want to disturb it at all before getting rid of that line.
Anybody? I found an option to tell it to start at the “top”… But it didn’t change anything about the laser’s behavior. I can only leave the workpiece in place for so long before I’m going to have to move it and risk never getting the alignment back to solve this.
What is the project itself? Setting the origin corner might not work if your project contains extra stuff, because that can affect where the job aligns relative to that chosen point.
This would be a perfect thing to use ‘Cut Shapes’ and the Print and Cut feature:
The project is actually contained in different files: each file is 11"x11" square, there are four of them so the overall project size will be 22"x22" (I’m doing half and half, so I’ve done 11"x11" then slid the wood up and done the other 11"x11" to form the lower “half” of the square, the seam of which is the issue).
So there is nothing extra in the particular file I’m trying to run, it all fits comfortably within my bed space/workspace. I thought I had solved it somewhere in the options it gave me the “top”, “bottom”, etc choices…but none of them actually affected anything when I tried to run it.
Yes. I’m using top left “current position” and I’ve tried “user origin” as well. The green square is in the proper place on the design, which is also where the laser head is positioned. I’ve pressed the “origin” button on the laser controller several times. None of these steps seem to do anything because as soon as I hit “start” either in LB or on the controller itself, the head moves 11" toward the “bottom” of the bed and it wants to start down there. I just want it to start where it is, and move down instead of moving down then starting while moving up.
The green dot is not “where the laser starts cutting from”, it’s “where is the laser head relative to the job when I press Start”. You said “…the large engravings…” - If your job is mostly engraving, LightBurn runs those bottom up by default, so it’s normal for it to move to the bottom of the job and come back from there, so saying “it moves down 11” when I press start" doesn’t mean it’s doing something wrong.
If your design was 8" tall in total, and the head moved 11" before starting, then it would be wrong, but you haven’t said that, or shown what it is you’re trying to do.
In the settings for the fill layer, change the Angle to 180 degrees.
