Switch between two machine settings

LightBurn Software Questions
1

Good morning

I will get a second laser engraver soon.

Can I easily switch between two machine settings with a command line argument during startup of LightBurn?

Or is LightBurn only meant to be used with just one machine?

thanks in advance
richard

2

When you set up the other machine, LightBurn will select this machine that is physically connected, ie. this profile. Or, when both machines are connected, you can manually select the profile you want. Besides that, it should be possible to run several sessions of LightBurn on the same computer, each with its own laser. As long as the communication ports are not mixed up, there are no problems.

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3

You switch between machines in the laser window, there is a drop-down selection box. Once the other machine is selected, all settings are reloaded and even the last used communication port is selected.

You can create as many profiles as you like, even for the same machine. Just try.

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4

When I did this, all of my layer/cut settings don’t seem to be assigned to the machine. I ended up just arranging it so the first half of the layer buttons were for one laser and the second half for the other, I start on blue, and the other laser starts on darker blue.

5

Ah, that’s because layers are not intended to be used that way. There was a discussion about this recently because newer versions of LB now have the standard behavior to reset all layer settings each restart. This is because you shouldn’t save material / speed information in a layer. You have the material library for this.
In your case, if you open a file that someone else created, that file overwrites all layer information for the layers used in that file. So profiles set in layers are never permanent. (Best example is if you load a material test file that uses all layers. This would override all your layers and this can’t be undone)

So, do not store any information in a layer, use the material library. And those can be created for each device.

6
7

ohhhh, you just answered my newest issue. creating a gcode on my PC and then loading it to lightburn on a raspberry pi and my layers all become one. I knew I was doing something wrong. thanks I currently don’t even use the material library. I’m about to now

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8

If you transfer from one LB to another, don’t use gcode. Use the LightBurn file (lbrn2). Then all settings and layers are retained. Only save as gcode if you want to transfer it manually to a laser.

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9

oh nice, thats not the way I was trying it. Why I don’t know lol, makes perfect sense.

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