Been struggling with this all day and would love to find a solution. Not exactly sure if this is LB related or something going on in the laser.
Thunder Nova 63, LB 1.7
We are working with UV printed designs that then need to be cut out of panels. We work with leather almost exclusively so if this has been an ongoing issue, I may just not have noticed with the forgiveness of the material.
When doing print & cut, we use targets in opposite corners and in this case the targets were about 10" apart. Set the first target and jog over to the 2nd target and it is always short of the target on the printed design. roughly by 1.5 mm or so. It will not cut out my shapes with any accuracy.
Files are designed in Illustrator and brought into LB as we’ve done for years. If I take this same file and run it as a score on material and then do a full print and cut set up for that, the targets match up perfectly. If I send a 100mmx100mm square to the laser it cuts a 100mm square. Feel like I’ve tried to everything I can think of to get this to resolve. From changing which target I select first to making new files. Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated.
Edit - if we bring the same file up in Illustrator and and LB and measure the distance between targets, they match exactly. Send the file to the laser to run print and cut and the distance changes.
At this point do you jog the laser to align with the target using arrow keys and set the second target? After you set the second target d oyou choose scaled or not scaled?
Does the UV printed design measure correctly? Measure the distance between the targets on the leather, then measure the distance between the targets in Lightburn. From what you’re describing I would expect the printed design to be about 1.5mm different than the measurement in Lightburn. If that’s the case, your printer is not printing to scale.
Jog to the 2nd target within LB and not using the laser control panel.
Uv print matches file dimensions exactly. I’ve been round and round on this and to the best of my knowledge the original file, the uv print and the file in LB all match.
The cut on the laser DOES NOT match the file or print.
Using not scaled as these should all match. If I scale it then the axis between the targets gets better but the corners away from the targets get skewed.
then how are you getting the second target aligned properly? You said it comes up 1.5mm short when you click the jog button.
The workflow I use is align the first target to the laser moving the workpiece as necessary since it’s easier to move the workpiece than fiddling with the laser controls for this one. Set the first target. From this point on I don’t move the workpiece. Click on the second target in Lightburn and click the jog to selection button, then I go to the laser control panel and nudge the laser to get it aligned perfectly with the second target, because it’s never perfect with the jog button, and set the second target. Then choose scaled or not scaled as required.
When I then adjust the position after the jog to the 2nd it is off. Then adjusting using LB controls to get it in exact position to the target. It will not cut the shapes as designed - either scaled or not scaled.
The only time I’ve gotten the cuts to actually line up was when I “printed” the file with the laser and then did the print and cut.
Another example - using the target cross hair intersections I created a rectangle. The top left corner of the rectangle was on the exact intersection of target 1 and the bottom right corner was on the intersection of target 2. Cut this rectangle on the laser and it is smaller (just like every other cut) than the file dimensions.
OK, so you’re using the arrow keys in Lightburn’s move window to get the laser aligned to the 2nd target? That method should work. My computer is not right at my laser so I have to use the machine console for that.
And the printout matches the dimensions in Lightburn 100%, weird. Is it just one particular file you’re having issue with or all files?
Just throwing an idea out here. If you double the size of your printout or shrink it in half is the difference between it and the cut proportionate or is it always off by the same dimension?
I can’t think of anything else tonight. If your file isn’t proprietary upload it here and I’ll try to play with it tomorrow. I can print it on paper and test print & cut to see if my results are similar. Upload the ai file and the lightburn file.
I was wanting the illustrator file as well to compare, A photo of the cut results might prove useful as well.
I looked at that file and have a couple comments about it though. First, I noticed you have duplicate targets on different layers and a duplicate layer of the shapes. One of the target layers is set to fill. I don’t think either of these will cause the problem you’re having, but curious as to why the repeated layers and why the fill on the target?