Overlapping objects turn White?

[CadJoe]

Am I missing a setting in LB somewhere when fills overlap?

I didn’t have to edit ALL my objects that crossed or were behind another object in other burn apps.

Its very time consuming to constantly have to break object to skip over another.

Thanks,
Joe

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

@CadJoe

Am I missing a setting in LB somewhere when fills overlap?

No, but you need to understand how LightBurn uses boundaries to decide what to fill. Understanding this concept should help in the development of your source artwork. The following explains this behavior.

How do I invert (negate) a vector engraving?

If you want to invert a vector engraving (Fill layer) you need to add an outline to it. Think about what happens when you scan a circle, compared to the letter ‘O’. The inner ring of the O toggles the fill. If you add another shape (like a square) outside it, it negates the whole thing: [image] And a slightly different example, this time done by changing the outer line around the design to a ‘Line’, instead of leaving it as part of the Fill layer: [image] In the case above, the design alr…

You should also design in Wireframe mode, the LightBurn default, and ‘Preview’ is your friend.

[CadJoe]

Right, I’m understanding now how LB works, but that doesn’t eliminate the hours of redesigning existing Vector artwork that worked on other apps.
A FILL is a FILL, so who cares if they overlap.
LB should just have an option to merge them, instead of me having to switch to Wireframe and spend hours welding an breaking vector fills. Works just fine in my cheaper K40 software.

[Stroonzo (Jeff)]

@CadJoe

spend hours welding an breaking vector fills.

You could put the overlapping objects on different layers and each object will fill on its own / overlap. The result is not the same as welding the overlapping shapes (the overlapped areas on the material will effectively have double exposure to the laser).

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

@CadJoe

A FILL is a FILL, so who cares if they overlap.

@CadJoe

LB should just have an option to merge them

A ‘Fill’ is a fill until you start to consider how to deal with each shape type (a circle inside another is not necessarily a text shape for zero or “O”), and which layer these shapes are on.

We do not recommend designing in Filled View Mode as you can have things hidden and undesired results, differing from what is displayed. Note the blue filled shape, moved down and to the right in the copy below the original. This blue shape is hidden in original when viewed in Filled View Mode.

You are asking for two different things here. As @Stroonzo shares, you can place each shape on a different ‘Fill’ layer so these shapes cut overlapping if you so choose.

Shape “merging” is a completely different concept, would need to see what you are trying to do to offer anything of value.

[LightBurn (Oz)]

@CadJoe

Works just fine in my cheaper K40 software

K40 Whisperer uses InkScape to render all the filled shapes in an SVG files as an image, then just engraves the image - that’s why you need InkScape installed to use it. If you want LightBurn to work that way, the simplest approach is to select all your filled shapes and export them as a PNG image file, then use LightBurn to engrave that. It will ignore all the shape boundaries and just fill the rendered image result as you see it.