0:01 in this video we’re going to learn how
0:04 to use some of the basic features of
0:05 lightburn and in the process we’re
0:07 hopefully going to make something useful
0:09 so I saw something recently that I
0:11 thought was cool
0:12 someone had printed a sticker with a QR
0:14 code on it that encoded their Wi-Fi
0:16 password so that anyone visiting could
0:18 just scan the code with their smartphone
0:19 to get onto the Wi-Fi a QR code if
0:22 you’re not familiar with them is
0:23 basically a 2d barcode and it can be
0:26 used to store information so they
0:27 usually store a website address but they
0:29 can store other things too I found a
0:32 website that will take the name and
0:34 password for your local Wi-Fi network
0:35 and turn it into a QR code in a special
0:38 format that modern smartphones
0:40 understand and I thought this would make
0:41 for a good learning project first we’re
0:44 going to visit the QR code website that
0:46 is qif i.org
0:49 this is the generator that will make the
0:51 QR code image we’re going to use so I’m
0:54 going to enter lightburn WiFi as my
0:56 network name use whatever your own
0:58 network is called here as it appears on
1:00 your router if you don’t know what
1:03 encryption method to use it’s probably
1:04 wpa wpa2 and then enter your network
1:08 password I don’t recommend using my
1:10 password you should probably use the one
1:12 that works for your network when you
1:15 click the generate button here it will
1:17 create your QR code image this is the 2d
1:20 barcode if you hold your phone camera up
1:22 to this it will read it and it’ll ask
1:24 you if you’d like to join the network
1:25 now from here you can click the export
1:28 button and save this as a PNG or with
1:32 lightburn you can do something a little
1:33 bit different if you right-click the
1:35 image in your browser and choose copy
1:37 image then switch to lightburn
1:39 right-click and choose paste it will
1:42 paste the image directly into lightburn
1:44 without the need to save it in between
1:46 which saves you a little time you can do
1:48 this with most images from a web browser
1:52 next I want to create the outer shape
1:55 for our finished card so I’m just going
1:57 to drag out an arbitrary rectangle here
Transcript for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project (Cont…)
2:00 and then I’ll adjust it after so for the
2:03 next part make sure that the lock button
2:06 up here on this toolbar is unlocked
2:08 because we want to set the width and
2:11 height of this rectangle independently
2:12 this lock when
2:14 enabled keeps the relative width and
2:17 height of your shapes the same when you
2:20 change the dimensions with the numeric
2:21 edits so for example if I go up here and
2:25 change this to 50% it resizes the entire
2:29 thing by 50% keeping the original shape
2:32 or ratio of sizes if I unlock this lock
2:36 and enter 50% it just affects the width
2:39 it doesn’t affect the height as well so
2:42 we want to edit both so make sure that
2:45 this is unlocked so these boxes here
2:49 will let you edit the dimensions of a
2:52 shape so I want this shape to be 5
2:55 inches by 3 inches and I’m currently in
2:58 millimeter units so I could open a
3:02 calculator and manually do the
3:03 conversion or I can let lightburn do it
3:05 for me I can click this button here on
3:10 the UI to switch between millimeters and
3:12 inches quickly and then I can just type
3:15 5 by 3 flip back over to millimeters and
3:18 you’ll see lightburn has done the
3:19 conversion there is another way to do
3:21 this without having to flip between so
3:24 let me just reset this to something
3:26 that’s different if you are in
3:29 millimeter or inch mode and you type in
3:32 for example 5i n as in five inches lightburn
3:37 will automatically convert that to
3:39 your current measure I can also type in
3:41 three and a single quote for inches and
3:44 lightburn will convert that to three
3:46 inches now this works whether I’m in
3:49 inch mode or millimeter mode and you can
3:52 also do simple equations as well so any
3:55 of these numeric fields here will do it
3:57 if I enter one millimeter or saved sorry
Transcript for Light burn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project (Cont…)
4:00 one inch times 3 and hit enter lightburn
4:04 computes 3 inches for me so you can
4:07 enter equations you can do division
4:09 multiplication subtraction things like
4:11 that and use mixed units inches
4:13 millimeters and so on so now I have a
4:16 box that’s 5 by 3 inches and I want to
4:19 round the corners so I’m going to make
4:21 sure the box is selected here right
4:24 click and choose show properties to
4:26 bring up the shape properties window and
4:28 you’ll see
4:28 the properties for this rectangle
4:30 including the corner radius which is the
4:31 one we were interested in
4:33 I can type a number and it will round
4:35 the corners for me you can use the
4:37 up/down arrows or the scroll wheel on
4:39 the mouse to change it to your liking
4:42 let’s see I think this looks good
4:46 I also want to move this over here and
4:50 make it a bit smaller when you resize
4:53 you can grab any of these square handles
4:56 on the sides or edge corners now if you
4:59 grab the side you can squish or shrink
5:02 if you grab the corners and move them
5:04 around it maintains the aspect ratio of
5:08 the shape if I press the control key and
5:12 drag I can drag our scale from the
5:15 middle instead of from the corners or
5:17 edges and if I press the shift key when
5:20 I drag from this corner I can drag the
5:24 width and height scaling independently
5:27 so you can change the stretch and squash
5:29 of the shape in my case I actually want
5:32 it to be the original aspect ratio so
5:34 I’m going to just drag scale this down a
5:37 little bit about that big about there
5:43 the next thing I want to do is put a
5:46 small label here with my network name as
5:49 confirmation for my guests so I’m going
5:52 to use the text tool place the text
5:56 cursor here this is too large so I’m
5:59 going to change this to 10 millimeters
Transcript for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project (Cont…)
6:01 type the text that you want so in my
6:04 case just my network name I’m going to
6:08 adjust the size and position a little
6:11 bit here get this roughly where I want
6:14 it I want this text aligned or centered
6:19 with the image above now the best way to
6:21 do that is to use the alignment tools so
6:23 I’m going to select the text hold the
6:25 shift key and select the image and then
6:28 with both items selected I’m going to
6:30 click this to align their horizontal
6:33 centers so if I click that the first
6:36 item will be aligned to the second item
6:39 the last item that you choose is always
6:41 what we call the
6:42 and so all of the other items will be
6:44 moved to a line to that so I have my
6:48 image the text and an outline I want to
6:51 change the options for the image but
6:53 first I’m going to run a quick preview
6:56 just to see what it looks like so if I
6:59 click the preview button up here on the
7:02 toolbar the preview window pops up and
7:04 already we can see a problem my outline
7:08 is filled and it’s supposed to be cut so
7:10 now what I need to do is change this
7:13 from fill to line now this would be the
7:17 correct way to do things however I
7:19 actually want to put this line on a red
7:21 layer I normally use red for cuts just
7:24 because it makes them very visible
7:26 they’re easy to see so by selecting the
7:29 line and then clicking down on the red
7:31 palette entry at the bottom I’ve changed
7:32 it to a different layer then I can set
7:35 the black layer back to fill the black
7:37 is used for the text and so I can see my
7:40 three layers here the image the fill and
7:43 then the outline cut all in a row and
7:46 everything looks good therefore the
7:48 settings these entries in the cuts
7:50 window are called layers in lightburn a
7:53 layer is just settings to control the
7:55 power and speed of the laser options for
7:58 a fill or an image and so on so to
Transcript for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project (Cont…)
8:00 change the options for a layer you just
8:02 double click the entry in the cuts list
8:05 to bring up the Settings box for it so
8:08 if I double click the image layer here I
8:09 can see all of the settings for this
8:11 image including the dithering modes that
8:13 can be used for the image processing up
8:17 here at the top I can see speed and
8:19 power settings and so on dots per inch
8:22 any other options that are available for
8:25 this now for this specific image because
8:28 it’s simple black and white we just want
8:29 threshold so that’s just a straight cut
8:32 on cutoff for black and white images
8:35 images that are already black and white
8:38 everything else here looks pretty good I
8:40 want to change my interval to 0.1
8:43 millimeters interval is the distance
8:46 between lines that the image is going to
8:48 be scanned at you can also set it by
8:51 setting dpi dpi and interval are two
8:55 ways to set the same number the dots per
8:58 inch value is calculated from the
9:01 interval and the interval is calculated
9:02 from dots per inch so if you change one
9:05 the other one changes and you can see
9:07 that reflecting here they’re both two
9:10 ways of setting the same value it
9:13 doesn’t matter which one you use
9:14 everything else looks good so I’ve
9:16 clicked okay I’m also going to adjust
9:19 the settings for my fill layer which is
9:21 used for the text here so if I wasn’t
9:24 sure which layer my text was on I can
9:27 right click on the cut list entry in the
9:30 cuts list and it will highlight the
9:32 artwork that’s using that layer you can
9:34 also select an item in the workspace and
9:38 it will highlight the layer that is used
9:40 by that item so that’s a quick way to
9:43 find which layer is associated with
9:45 something so if I select the text it
9:47 highlights the fill layer for me
9:49 double-click that to bring up the
9:51 options now in here I want to make sure
9:54 that there are no settings applied that
9:56 are strange so I’m going to click reset
9:58 to default that wipes out everything in
Transcript for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project (Cont…)
10:01 the cut layer settings in this cut just
10:05 for this layer two reasonable default
10:07 and then I can set my power and speed
10:10 values to something reasonable for this
10:13 layer but now I’ll know that there
10:15 aren’t any other options on so set my
10:18 power and speed min power looks good
10:20 everything else is fine and I click OK
10:23 so if I preview again now by clicking
10:25 the preview button I can see that
10:27 already things look better the image and
10:29 text are surrounded by my cut outline
10:31 around the outside the preview will also
10:33 show you the order that your operations
10:36 will happen in so you can watch the path
10:38 that the laser is going to take if I
10:40 grab the slider button over here and
10:43 drag it backwards you can see my cut
10:45 happening in Reverse dragging it forward
10:48 you can see it’s going to scan the image
10:50 first then when the image is done it’s
10:53 going to do the cutout that’s actually
10:55 wrong and then it’s going to do my lightburn
10:59 Wi-Fi text now this isn’t what I
11:01 want if I do this cut outline second and
11:04 then engrave the light print text if my
11:07 piece were to drop
11:09 my knife bed or something before it
11:10 engraved the text that would cause me
11:12 problems and I wouldn’t get the result
11:14 that I want so the order is clearly
11:16 incorrect so the first thing I’m going
11:18 to do is check my optimization settings
11:20 they’re off that’s my first problem so I
11:24 turn the optimization settings on and
11:26 open up my optimization settings box
11:28 just to check them
11:29 I can see order by layer is here cut
11:31 inner shapes first the other options are
11:33 set so that was my problem that I had
11:35 the optimization settings turned off so
11:37 I’m gonna click preview again and double
11:39 check this now I can see that the image
11:42 is scanning first followed by the lightburn
11:44 Wi-Fi text and finally the cut-out
11:46 path and so that’s what I want so
11:48 everything looks good next I want to add
11:53 something to this empty space what I
11:55 want is a Wi-Fi logo to let my guests
11:58 know what this thing is actually for so
Transcript for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project (Cont…)
12:01 I found a website called clip art –
12:03 library comm if you go to clip art
12:07 library com
12:09 go to the website bring up the search
12:13 I’ve put a shortcut here so I’m going to
12:15 back up in the search field enter Wi-Fi
12:19 symbol and hit enter you’ll see a bunch
12:23 of different symbols now I think this is
12:26 the one that I want so I’m going to
12:27 select that this guy here so again right
12:33 click copy image click in lightburn and
12:36 hit paste now in this case I used the
12:39 shortcut key ctrl V is to paste ctrl C
12:43 is to copy if you learn the shortcut
12:45 keys it’s a little faster so scale and
12:48 position this now you can just paste it
12:51 the shortcut keys are quicker and it’s
12:53 actually a good idea to try to learn
12:54 them you will also notice that this is
12:56 currently on the red layer that’s not
12:59 what I want I want it on the black layer
13:01 it’s got a red outline right now if I
13:05 click down here on the palette click it
13:07 to black now it has a black outline so
13:09 it’s on the correct layer now in this
13:11 case I don’t actually want to leave this
13:13 as an image I’m going to convert this to
13:15 vectors so with this image selected
13:18 right-click and choose trace image
13:23 that will bring up the image in lightburns
13:25 internal image trace if you zoom
13:28 in with the normal zoom and pan you can
13:30 see this purple line here is what lightburn
13:34 has chosen as the vector outline
13:37 for this shape it’s a little bit tough
13:40 to see at the moment so if you click the
13:42 fade image button it makes it a lot
13:44 easier to see lightburn also will let
13:47 you choose a rectangle so you’ll notice
13:52 down here on the bottom there is a small
13:55 black line on the image and it’s picking
13:58 some of that up and we don’t want that
Trans cript for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project (Cont…)
14:00 we just want the logo so if I click and
14:02 drag a rectangle around the area that
14:05 I’m interested in now the software is
14:07 just capturing or tracing the logo
14:10 within this rectangle and if I look down
14:13 at the bottom you’ll notice that it’s
14:14 ignoring all of this down here so you
14:17 can adjust the rectangle I could cut the
14:19 image in half if I wanted to you can
14:22 also clear it by double clicking so if I
14:25 drag a rectangle and I didn’t want it
14:27 double click will clear it in this case
14:30 I do want the rectangle just around the
14:32 Wi-Fi logo click OK lightburn has now
14:34 created the vectors and placed them
14:36 where the original was so if I drag the
14:38 image out of the way you can see it I’m
14:41 just going to delete the image and
14:43 position the vectors here and scale them
14:46 to the right size so with this one
14:52 positioned properly I’m going to switch
14:54 back over to the clipart website and try
14:57 to find one of these Wi-Fi logos that I
14:58 like I specifically want a rounded one
15:00 like this however this one you’ll notice
15:03 has watermarks on it so it’s got the
15:06 iStockphoto thing on it if I copy it and
15:08 paste it into lightburn you can see
15:10 those watermarks on the logo and that
15:13 would normally be a problem if I was
15:15 engraving this as an image it probably
15:17 wouldn’t work so let’s try a trace so if
15:20 I right click and choose trace image
15:23 you’ll see that the trace is picking up
15:26 that watermark you can see the purple
15:28 around the gray text however if I adjust
15:31 the threshold point here that’s the
15:33 cutoff where lightburn is going to put
15:35 that tracing line
15:37 you can see that you can change where
15:39 that line goes so if I put it all the
15:41 way to the bottom here you get all of
15:44 those stock logo texts if I slide it up
15:48 just a little bit it starts ignoring the
15:50 lightest text or the lightest pixels and
15:54 catching the gray if I slide it up a
15:58 little bit more you’ll see it starting
Transcript for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code LightBurn Project (Cont…)
16:01 to ignore that gray as well and so now
16:04 I’m getting outlines of the gray so you
16:07 can tune which parts of the image you
16:10 want to capture by adjusting this
16:12 threshold so slide it back hit OK and
16:15 now I’ve got a nice trace so I can
16:17 delete this image and now I have my nice
16:19 Wi-Fi logo scale this down and position
16:23 it here above this one and I’m just
16:25 going to adjust the sizing and
16:28 positioning of these two items a little
16:30 bit here to try and get them to fit
16:34 properly so I’m going to align their
16:41 centers as I showed you before so now
16:45 I’ve got both I can grab the two of them
16:47 and line them up
16:56 so this is all pretty much what I want
16:59 I’m going to select this logo let’s have
17:05 a look here check out the preview
17:09 preview looks ok there’s a little too
17:13 much white space on the side of this
17:14 here maybe not quite as much on the
17:17 other side of the QR code there so I
17:19 might play with the spacing just a
17:21 little bit
17:22 grab the logo I’m gonna nudge it over
17:26 with the cursor keys you can use the
17:29 arrow keys on the cursor if you hold
17:31 shift it moves them in big jumps if you
17:34 hold the ctrl key it moves them in small
17:36 jumps and without any of the key
17:38 modifiers it moves them in sort of
17:40 regular sized jumps and you can change
17:43 that in the settings here so I think
17:47 that’s about where I want maybe move
17:51 this light bar and Wi-Fi logo over just
17:53 a touch again just to kind of Center it
17:56 in in the card check my settings make
Transcript for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project (Cont…)
18:01 sure that my power and speed are correct
18:03 for cutting this out maybe change this
18:06 to two passes just to make sure that it
18:08 cuts so it will do one pass and then
18:11 another pass around that line I’m going
18:13 to hit OK take one final look at my
18:17 design bring up the preview it looks
18:23 like everything is going in the right
18:24 order so it’s doing the scan first then
18:27 the text and the Wi-Fi logo and finally
18:30 the cutout is doing its two passes so I
18:32 think everything looks good so we’re
18:35 gonna take this to the Machine and cut
18:37 it I’m going to save the file here as
18:41 Cassatt lightburn and we’ll head over
18:46 to the machine and run this job so we’re
18:51 over at the laser now and I have a piece
18:54 of wood loaded in I’ve moved the laser
18:58 to the
18:59 upper left corner of the object or the
19:02 shape and I’ve hit the origin key to set
19:04 that origin on my laser in lightburn I
19:08 have the start from value set to user
19:11 origin and I’m using this same upper
19:14 right corner so you can see the little
19:16 green dot over here is telling me that’s
19:19 where my laser head is relative to my
19:22 job so my job is going to go to the
19:24 right and below where the laser head
19:27 starts so you can actually see this if I
19:31 click the frame button in lightburn the
19:34 laser should trace the outline of what
19:37 it’s going to cut and so you can see how
19:42 it’s lined up on the material everything
19:44 looks good so I’m going to close the lid
19:47 and run this job
19:56 [Music]
Transcript for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project (Cont…)
20:13 you
20:44 [Music]
20:56 and it looks like we’re all done so I’m
21:00 going to do a light sanding pass over
21:03 that and we’ll see the finished result
21:05 shortly so after a bit of sanding here
21:10 is the end result it looks nice and
21:13 clean there’s quite a bit of difference
21:16 you get in the contrast and just the
21:18 overall look if you just do a really
21:21 light bit of sanding over top of it with
21:23 about 200 grit sandpaper you can also
21:27 use masking tape or something like that
21:29 to mask the surface before you do your
21:32 engraving that helps certainly but with
21:36 something that’s complicated it would be
21:37 very hard to weed the individual bits of
21:40 masking tape out of that something like
21:42 this not so bad something like this
21:44 pretty terrible and if I bring up the
21:48 result on my phone you can actually see
21:50 it asking if I would like to join the
21:53 lightburn software Wi-Fi network and
21:55 you can see the lightburn QR code being recognized
21:56 in the phone the little yellow
21:59 highlights so there you have it a little
22:05 way to share the Wi-Fi network in your
22:08 home with your guests
