I cannot tell how much I love using LightBurn for all of my projects. It is easy to use and has all features and functions that I need for my laser projects. So, thank you to the fantastic team who put it together.
I am converting all my previously created vectors/projects from VCarve to LightBurn and at some point it becomes so time consuming to navigate through all directories to get back to where I originally opened my SVG file in L.B. I have been in software development for a long time too and I think it would make sense to set a “working directory” in LightBurn. I another word, if I open an SVG file in a directory c:\abc, I should be able to save it back in the same location and not to go back to the previous folders or “My Document” folder in the “Save” or “Save As” dialog box. Also, if I decide to save this in a project, I would like to be able to save it within the same directory and not to have to go through all steps to navigate back to the original folder. Finally, the same issue happens when I am trying to import this file to my Art Library.
The only time that this feature works correctly is when you actually “Preview” your project and click on “Save Image” button. Most of the time, it would let you save it within the same directory where you initiated the project or opened your vectors.
I am currently spending the majority of my time going through this so I would appreciate it if you or someone could suggest a way or possibly add this feature in future releases.
LightBurn stores independent paths for project files, imported files, exported file, and a few others, and those are recalled independently for each operation. If you “Open” a project, then click “Open” again, you’ll be presented the same folder. If you “Import” something, that will use the last Import path, and so on.
If you are Importing SVGs and saving them as LightBurn projects, that’s where the disconnect is coming from.
As a stopgap, this could work:
I’d be curious to hear other opinions on this. I’ve tried to set this up for what I think is the common workflow, but I’m willing to be told I’m wrong.
I typically use “project” folders for my laser work and prefer to store all of the related files for a job in the same folder, the name of which will vary by job. For example, I might save a DXF in a folder, import that into Lightburn and manipulate it there, save the LBRN and the related RD file for later use. I store all 3 files in the same folderso if I import the DXF from Folder “A”, I’d like LB to default to saving the associated LBRN and RD files to the same folder.
Thanks to everyone for great suggestions. I guess the conclusion was to first create your project, save it in a location that you want and then, import your additional files into it. ( this is not a crisis but I believe that LB currently does not have a setting that would you set a default certain folder for your LB projects ). My issue starts when, although I create my new project in a “c:\abc” folder, when I try to export my new SVG (from my new abc project), LB’s save dialog takes me to the previous project folder “c:\xyz”. I would need to navigate back to “c:\abc” again. Finally, when I want to “import” this new vector to my Art Library, LB’s save dialog would again take me back to “c:\xyz” which again, I would need to navigate back to “c:\abc”. So, that was my suggestion to set “c:\abc” as my working directory when I create my new project in it.
If no one else is experiencing this, we can close this subject and I will figure out a way to resolve this on my computer with shortcuts, etc. ; otherwise, I would appreciate it if you or LB could share a suggestion on how to avoid this repeating extra (not crisis for sure) work.
I’m genuinely curious to see / hear any other feedback. Like I said, LightBurn is set up a particular way intentionally because it seemed to make sense, but I’m not the last word in how people should organize their stuff, or the way people work.
We could do something as simple as a single flag to say all save/load paths should be shared, regardless of type, or we could have a “use my project folder for everything” setting or something like that. If enough people say they’d like to work that way, I’m not likely to argue. It wouldn’t be the most complicated thing we’ve done.
