Hi!
I started using LightBurn a few days ago, and I find this software amazing and very intuitive to use.
However, after a few days, I’ve encountered my first problem. I designed a drawing in AutoCAD, and I want to cut it on paper. Here’s the issue: I need certain parts to be cut by the laser and others to be just “engraved.”
When I import my drawing, I don’t understand how LightBurn selects the groups of lines.
I’ll attach pictures to my post to make it easier to understand.
At first, I thought the problem was with my drawing, so I redesigned everything and created one layer with the outlines that need to be cut, and another layer with the lines that need to be engraved. But even with this setup, it doesn’t work (see the screenshot of LightBurn and the selected lines).
I’m not sure if I’m missing a setting or doing something wrong. Does anyone know how to properly configure LightBurn to distinguish between layers for cutting and engraving? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
The difference between cut and engrave is a cut uses a lower speed and higher power than an engrave. There are 2 types of engraving. A score line, which is just a tracing of lines at a power and speed that mark your material, then there is a fill engrave which scans back and forth and fills in a closed shape. In this image there is a filled engrave, a score line engrave and an outer cut line. You tell Lightburn what you want any particular layer to do. A filled engrave must be a closed shape. Score and cut can be open shapes or closed.
Thank you very much for your quick response, but this isn’t quite what I meant.
Actually, if we look at the two AutoCAD images (the grey ones), we can see that one shows only the outlines of my drawing, while the other shows the details inside the outlines.
However, when I import everything into LightBurn, I can’t figure out how to select only the “outlines” to set them for cutting, and the “details” for engraving.
As shown in these images, some lines are selected in red, but I want them to be in blue.
I think I understand what you want to do. The red lines segments that are within the exterior can be changed by using the node editor. Make sure everything is ungrouped, select one of the lines that you want to change to blue. Select node editor. Hover over the intersection where the line needs to change and if there is not a node there click I key to insert a node then click the B key on the keyboard, repeat for the other end of the line segment. Exit node editor and select the segment and change the color. Repeat for all segments you want to engrave.
Ok, here are a few things that you might or might not know (please ignore anything you already know):
When importing files such as DXF, SVG etc into LightBurn, the colour of the entity determines which layer that entity gets placed on. LightBurn will choose the layer that’s closest in colour to the entity’s colour.
Unfortunately the AutoCAD colour palette doesn’t include many of the LightBurn colour palette values which can lead to some unexpected results.
The difference between cutting and engraving is purely down to the power and speed setting associated with a specific layer (this can be modified on a per-entity basis but let’s keep it simple).
Hopefully you will find the information helps. If not then if you could attach your AutoCAD file we can see how we might help you further.
EDIT:
Here’s a link to a docs page that lists the RGB values for the LB layers:
Select your shapes and create a rubber-band outline then Node edit the highlighted line to follow your outline and set rubber-band shape/layer to Cut settings.
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Right-click Mode and sselect Sort Cuts Last.
