Shortcut for placing object in corner / programmatically adjusting objects in .lbrn2 file

[maximhh (Maxim Stein)]

Hello, I’ve been using lightburn for quite some time now (mostly galvo fiber laser) and I’d like to know for some tasks if they can be accomplished efficiently. My workflow consists of copying one of many tool layers, that represent an item to be engraved. I have to manually align each item in the top left corner of another tool layer, that represents a fixed corner on the workspace.

this task alone takes time because I have to align it exactly in the corner. Is there any way to speed this up? There are only shortcuts for centering objects, which isn’t useful here.

Also, I have to copy a text, resize it, assign the right font, and sometimes adjust line breaks manually. It would be way easier to define a rectangle for the text, where the text will automatically fill all the available space and get smaller, if necessary. But I assume this can’t be accomplished?
sometimes I can copy an svg, but it’s usually way too big and has to be resized manually. Can this be done more quickly?

Also, as a programmer I tried generating SVG files from customized orders, which would already contain the template and the text. But I couldnt figure out how to make lightburn recognize a shape as tool layer. It also seems like many SVG properties aren’t recognized by lightburn. Can I programmatically manipulate a .lbrn2 file to change a text and resize it? For example, the file has this text:

    <Shape Type="Text" CutIndex="11" Font="Corbel,-1,100,5,50,0,0,0,0,0" Str="+49 172 111111111" H="4.8294706" LS="-1" LnS="0" Ah="1" Av="1" OldWidth="1" Weld="1" BendDistort="1" VariableOffset="3" HasBackupPath="1">

Would it be possible to resize and center it, even when a different font is applied?

[ednisley]

@maximhh

align each item in the top left corner of another tool layer

Docking doesn’t work inside a rectangle, but if you’re willing / able to put a pair of rectangles outside the boundaries, the Docking tools will do what you want:

@maximhh

define a rectangle for the text

The Squeeze option will work when you’re importing text from a CSV file, which is suitable when pouring different many different text snippets into the same container.

However, it seems like you are massaging each chunk of text in unique ways, which is definitely not LightBurn’s strong suit. If you can do all that in a program better suited to text wrangling, then export the results into LightBurn, it may produce more net happiness.

No clue on battering lbrn2 files into submission …

[maximhh (Maxim Stein)]

How does it work with the 2 rectangles? Is there a shortcut for that?

[ednisley]

@maximhh

How does it work with the 2 rectangles

Docking doesn’t work against the inside of a rectangle, so you can’t just plunk the imported rectangle+shapes inside a larger rectangle and dock it against the sides.

So you need two rectangles at the template cornder (one for X, one for Y) and you must dock the imported rectangle+shapes against both of them in succession.

@maximhh

a shortcut for that?

After you have the template set up, docking into the corner requires two clicks instead of one, which seems survivable.

[maximhh (Maxim Stein)]

I haven’t really figured out what you mean. I have 2 corner objects, but what do I do to place my object in the corner?

[ednisley]

@maximhh

what do I do to place my object in the corner

Make sure the Docking Tools are displayed:

With that done:

• Select the object
• Click the Dock left tool icon (on the left)
• Click the Dock up tool icon (third from left)

You want no padding, so set that field to zero.

When you have something with more structure than a rectangle, you probably want the two switches turned on so the whole affair moves as one lump.

Put the two corner rectangles on a tool layer so they don’t end up getting scorched into the material.

[maximhh (Maxim Stein)]

Thanks, it kinda works, but if the selecting has inner text, it gets moved way to far.

[thelmuth (Tim Helmuth)]

Enable the lock Inner Objects toggle

[maximhh (Maxim Stein)]

thanks, at first it seemed like weird behaviour but now it seems to work.