Perfect Alignment Producing Unaligned Cuts

[Asher (Asher Haig)]

@NicholasL

Ok, so what you are requesting is that if the user selects targets, with no scaling, you would like LightBurn to warn the user if the measurement between the targets (as determined by the machine positions) is different by more than a certain margin of error to the distance as determined by the drawing?

Ideally when you do alignment (alt-3) for print and cut, Lightburn would provide output describing the deskew angle and amount of displacement from proper target alignment (probably expressed in x and y distances).

@NicholasL

Since you were worried about LightBurn possibly having a bug relating to the geometry transformations with Print and Cut, I made a test in v1.4.00 with a simple job with fill boxes in the corners to test if the engravings were translated in relative alignment with the rest of the cut lines, and I did not notice any problems with the output.

My concern was specific to handling of images. I do not have any cut vectors with these cubes.

[NicholasL (Nicholas Leqeta)]

@Asher

I do not have any cut vectors with these cubes

The vectors that were used as the targets and the jig was what I had in mind, I wanted to make sure the fill boxes (to represent the images) were transformed in lockstep with the jig linework.

[NicholasL (Nicholas Leqeta)]

@Asher

Ideally when you do alignment (alt-3) for print and cut, Lightburn would provide output describing the deskew angle and amount of displacement from proper target alignment (probably expressed in x and y distances).

Are you using Alt+3?

Please use Alt+4 (no scaling), scaling will change the output size which would ruin the jig!

@Asher

Any ideas what might result in such behavior? My previous descriptions were attempts to grasp at possible logic, but I’m not sure what is actually going on.

I was just thinking, since I know you are trying to get to the bottom of this, to help you troubleshot you can probably save the Print and Cut Mode output as a .rd file and import it back to the drawing (as a backplot of sorts) and if you group and lock the original artwork, then rotate the import to match you should be able to compare the output as an overlay.

I think you would definitely find it better to align your jig using a more traditional approach for example;

• push the jig into a corner and then cut the jig internal cutouts
• push a corner jig-alignment-tool into the corner and cut an L-shape from it using the laser, use this align all your jigs to a known position.
• marks burnt to masking tape on the workbed and the jig aligned to it. (I prefer this method as it also prevents any potential for small deviations in homing to affect job position)

[Asher (Asher Haig)]

What kind of scaling will alt3 do? The two options don’t seem to be documented.

If 4 is preferred why is 3 first? This would be an example of an interface failure. The implication as currently set up is 3 is normal and 4 is an exception.

The interface is responsible for directing human behavior, not just providing a dump of options that could be used.

[Colin (Colin Worobetz)]

Hi Asher - The scaling will be applied to the entire job based on those two points. A diagonal scale in X and Y.

The options are all presented at the same time, scaling/no scaling listed right in the menu - selecting the correct option for your specific use case is important. The interface is absolutely responsible for presenting the options available, it is on the user to understand and select the correct option.

I’ve requested an update to our docs team to add more details regarding the difference between what scaling vs no scaling means in the Print and Cut context for those whom it is not clear.

[Asher (Asher Haig)]

Docs are useful but the interface should explain itself. Really there shouldn’t be two options— in the case where the displacement is significant, the application should prompt whether the user intends to scale.

Given two options, the intended default should get priority in the order, particularly in the sequence numbering. The intended options should be 1,2,3 not 1,2,4.

Language and conventions matter. They are not simply arbitrary choices to be decided any which way. The ordering of the interface is a choice about communicating how it works.

[Colin (Colin Worobetz)]

I will relay that to our dev team, thanks for your input!

[RalphU (RU)]

@Asher

Docs are useful but the interface should explain itself. Really there shouldn’t be two options— in the case where the displacement is significant, the application should prompt whether the user intends to scale.

Given two options, the intended default should get priority in the order, particularly in the sequence numbering. The intended options should be 1,2,3 not 1,2,4.

Language and conventions matter. They are not simply arbitrary choices to be decided any which way. The ordering of the interface is a choice about communicating how it works.

You should apply for a customer service position with Lightburn

[NicholasL (Nicholas Leqeta)]

You could use the Hotkey Editor to set your commonly used options to 1,2,3.

ALT+4 could be the reset;

[Asher (Asher Haig)]

Or the interface could be corrected

[RalphU (RU)]

You have to be one of the most humble LB users

[Asher (Asher Haig)]

“I do not think that word means what you think it means.”

[Asher (Asher Haig)]

Print and cut seems to have irresolvable bugs that no one wants to address. The solution to alignment seems to be: don’t use it.

Way to go providing broken features.