Yesterday I used my laser (and Lightburn) for the first time in a while. There was an update for Lightburn, which I installed. But when I sent the design to the laser, it matches the origin to the top left corner of the whole “work area” or the Lightburn screen, not the design like it used to. Itks driving me nuts! Is it a problem with the update?
Likely not. Try loading an .lbprefs file from a day before the update.
Also be aware there has been a change in how design and control units are managed.
What is the change in how design and control units are managed?
There is now a switch that links them. Switch on, change one, the other changes. Switch off, you can laser in mm, but design in inches or mm. I constantly flip back and forth in the design window, but all laser (diode) movements are in mm.
I have a Ruida controlled CO2 laser, and use mm for everything, so I don’t think that will bother me much.
It doesn’t sound like there is an issue with the update specifically, but it does sound like you are using a different “Start From” position than you’re used to.
The Absolute Coords start from option, pushes the green and red dots to a corner of the work area and anything you place in the LightBurn work area grid will be output in that same location in your real world machine’s work area, relative to the origin point set.
You were either using Current Position or User Origin, which puts the green dot somewhere in relation to the design, but the two options have their own nuances that you can read about our documentation here: Coordinates and Job Origin
Unless you reload your previous prefs, as @MikeyH recommended, you’ll have to do some experimentation to see which option you were using last.
Here is my version:
With Absolute Coords, imagine looking down through the design grid onto the machine operating area. Wherever you put something in your grid, that is where the laser will go.
Thank you! That indeed was the problem. I have never had to adjust this before with any update, so never gave it a thought. Much appreciated.