Wondering about file size or number of lines cut

I am using a 50 watt Blue Chinese Laser. Cutting walls to scale model building. I cut the “brick” using 20% power and 70mm speed. The bricks are 1/32 x 3/32. Was cutting from a PDF and some of the bricks are missing. Not doing it by engraving, just cutting lots of line lines and horizontally and many very small 1/32" vertical lines. Then using 60% and 20mm speed cut out the openings for plastic windows and doors. I have done some small 4 x 6 in 3/32" basswood without in problems. But today cutting several buildings at once 8 by 17 inches. Just wondering if the file or the number of lines exceed some figure I am not aware of.
So maybe a limit to either file size or number of lines?
Thanks
Jay Beckham

Is there something in particular that has you wondering? Are you having some unexpected behavior?

Not all of the 1/32" lines were lightly cut. In fact only about 25% of the lines were cut. When I say cut, it is just lightly cutting so as to represent the mortar lines on a brick wall.

When I printed a 4 x 6 building front, all line were cut. However, on a recent 6 x 17 building front, only about 25% were cut.

These lines use 20% power and 70 mm speed so it is just a very light burn line.

It sounds to me like I have exceeded the memory of the cutter. Light Burn sends the file to my cutter. I am assuming there is some limit to how much memory the cutter has and it appears I have exceeded that memory.

Is there specs anywhere about memory on the laser? Or is there a way for Light Burn to control the laser instead of sending the file to the cutter?

Thanks, Jay Beckham

I might look at this differently so I must ask, are you receiving some clear indication this is the issue, like some error message displayed on the controller? I would think you would get a very specific message or failure if the memory was full.

Just so I am clear, you said you can send the file from LightBurn to the cutter, providing no error during that process. The file arrives on the controller and you can find it listed in the control panel display, correct? Are the lines that don’t cut, the last in the job order to process as you preview in LightBurn? Does a part of the job designed to cut later in the process cut as you’d expect?

You have not identified what controller drives your “Winston@2799” listed in your profile which also does not tell much about what you technically have, exactly, and I am not finding much on google either. If you can provide some more details, we might be able to point you to the tech specs for your setup.

Is there a pattern to the 75% that did not cut? Is this happening in the same location on the bed each time you try?

When I send dithered images to a controller, they contain many millions of small lines. A Ruida controller has a limit of about 100Mb as the maximum file size. Without knowing what kind of “my laser” you have, we’re guessing, but I would be very surprised if you were exceeding that size with anything other than a large, finely detailed image.

You should change the ‘Machines’ entry in your profile to list the kind of laser or controller you have:
image

You also haven’t specified if there was any pattern to the missing lines - were they all on one side? Possibly out of the physical area of the laser? Do they show up when you preview the job?

First of all I don’t have a clue where the Winston@2799 came from. I have the typical 50 W Blue Chinese machine from EBay.

As to how many very short (1/16") lines it have. But would estimate about 5500 - 6000 individual lines. I have posted an image on my blog. See link below.

The missing line are random with no pattern. https://jaysoscalelayout.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Jay

And yet I find a JPG file is what is posted on your blog. What is the format of the source file you are having issues with LightBurn? Is it a vector file? Can you provide access to this file so we can review it?

While there are a lot of little lines, there are not A LOT of little lines when compared to this file. Note the number of objects reported at the center bottom of the screen.

I can’t read the image to see how many line. The file starts out as a VIsual Cadd file, then I export it as a PDF and Light Burn imports the PDF. I just checked on my import and it is 4483 objects.

I used to use DXF files but Visual Cadd didn’t export them properly sometimes so went to PDFs. I was actually surprised that Light Burn could use a PDF. But in thinking about it I don’t recall having this problem when I was using DXF files but the brick cutting subjects were smaller.

So now maybe PDF is the problem???

Also I send another forum member a copy of the PDF as he gave me his email address. Couldn’t find a way on here to include a PDF.

Jay

You could post this file to DropBox, OneDrive, Google Drive, or some such. Does Visual Cadd provide other export options in addition to the two you mention?

It has Save As: DWG, DXF, SHP (Esri maps?)
Export as: PDF or images (JPG, TIFF, PNG, EMF, WMF/APM)

Previously I had used DXF on smaller jobs with success. Then Visual Cadd started creating DXF with errors or no data. Don’t know why that happened. But also these were larger buildings I was designing.

Jay

You can send the file to support@lightburnsoftware.com by email and include a link back to this forum discussion. We do not share user files - they’re only ever used for investigating issues. You can send the LBRN project file if you like, as that would include the settings you used. I would suggest checking if the missing lines are visible in the preview - if they are, they should make it to the laser too.

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