LightBurn Demo 01- A Project From Start To Finish

The Lightburn Software Series

The Lightburn Software is probably the best generic laser cutting software available (I use it for almost all of my laser work). This series has tutorials, hints and tips as well as the occasional speed comparisons between it and RDWorks. In this video session, we are shown a Lightburn Demo Project from start to finish. My thanks to the team at Lightburn for allowing me to embed their videos.

Contents

An older demo, showing a typical use of LightBurn in setting up and running a small project.

Video Resource Files for Lightburn Demo Project

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External Resource Links for Lightburn Demo Project

https://lightburnsoftware.com/pages/trial-version-try-before-you-buy

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Video Transcript for Lightburn Demo Project

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so I thought for this demo I do

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something a little different and

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basically show you LightBurn from

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start to finish making a small project

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so this is a fresh install so the first

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thing I have to do is configure this for

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the laser that I’m going to be using it

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with so if you bring up the settings I’m

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gonna be using a little K40 which

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has a 300 by 200 millimeter bed and it

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is not mirrored so that means the origin

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is down here so the red dot is the

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origin so this the bed is set up

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correctly the next thing I have to do is

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actually configure my devices so LightBurn

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can talk to more than one kind of

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laser so I have in my garage a big laser

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it’s got an Ethernet controllers when

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you set that one up here and it and here

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in my office I’ve got a cohesion 3d mini

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board running Kerbal connected to this

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k40 so I’m going to add that one as well

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I’m gonna set that as the default

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because that’s the one that’s connected

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to this machine so as soon as I hit OK

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it’s going to activate the default

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device and you’ll actually see the k40

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go through it’s homing sequence and down

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here on the screen I see Medi

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so the cohesion board is connected and I

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can jog around on the page by using this

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locate button a little locate in

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clicking so you can see the laser moving

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around there so I’m going to do

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something a little different than usual

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I’m going to actually make a little

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project to set up here so the first

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thing I want to do is import now I have

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hotkeys for all of this but I figured I

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would also show me clicking the buttons

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so this is an Adobe Illustrator file

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that has a bunch of emojis in it I only

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want one of them though I want the poop

Video Transcript for Lightburn Demo Project (Cont…)

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emoji so the dot dot dash line means

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that this is grouped so I’m going to

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ungroup it just remove this one delete

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the rest

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grab that guy and rip down onto my page

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and I want to put a little caption

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underneath it so I’m going to use the

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font tool right OOP

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that is terrible font and it’s way too

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big so I’m going to pick something a

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little different my god Rockwell I’m

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going to nudge this underneath here and

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line it up so they’re centered with each

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other all right so that’s roughly the

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look I’m going for but I want an outline

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around the shape I want to scan fill

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this and then do an outline around this

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so I’m gonna grab both of these use the

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offset tool and you can see I can adjust

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where that offset line is so I’m gonna

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do about two millimeters here so that’s

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roughly what I want but I don’t want

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these little stragglers in the middle so

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if i ungroup this and deselect the

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outline I’m left with just these pieces

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here and delete those this is basically

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what I want but I don’t think they like

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this spawn so I’m gonna go back undo and

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try something more like that that’s what

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I want it’s a little too big

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nudge that up just a touch all right so

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I’m gonna redo my outline again

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remembers my last setting so that’s

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pretty much the shape that I’m going for

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what I wanted to do is cut this outline

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and then scan the insides so I’m gonna

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change this first of all to a skin then

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cut what that means is it’s going to

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rest or fill the inside of the shape and

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then it’s going to run an outline so

Video Transcript for Lightburn Demo Project

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it’ll do that all in one pass you don’t

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have to duplicate the vectors for it the

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outline however I want to be different I

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want that one to just be a straight cut

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out so we’ll just change the cut layer

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for that and then I want to set up my

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skin and cut options so I’m gonna run

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that at 100 to 4% power

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I’m going to do it relatively course at

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only a third of a millimeter step over

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and then the post cut the run after it’s

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done I’m also going to do it three

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percent or sorry four percent so it’s

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going to do a raster over the full shape

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and then it’s going to run the outline

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of the shape and you can see that if I

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select these and I preview the cut

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that’s roughly what it’s going to do so

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you can see these this is where all of

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those lines are gonna go the final cut

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out pass I want this to go at 25

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millimeters a second I’m going to do 75%

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power and I’m gonna go total overkill

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and do five passes just to make sure

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that this cuts through you know normally

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you probably run a lower speed and fewer

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passes your mileage varies I just wanted

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to show off the feature I’m going to

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turn on path optimization I have no idea

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where this is going to end up on my

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lasers so the next thing I have to do is

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figure that out so if you look at the

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laser bit I didn’t use the locate tool

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just click on various places on the

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design and see where the over a bit I

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can also run a frame and this will

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basically trace the boundary around the

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cut basically this box that surrounds it

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with the laser head just show you where

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it’s going to go all right so that’s

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close still not quite

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[Music]

Video Transcript for Lightburn Demo Project (Cont…)

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[Music]

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that’s actually pretty good so once I’ve

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got that laid out figured out how I want

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it cut make sure my laser is on and hit

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start

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[Music]

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[Laughter]

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[Music]

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[Music]

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[Music]

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there it is my happy little poufy buggy

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thanks for watching

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