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. My thanks to the team at Lightburn for allowing me to embed their videos.
Contents
This tutorial walks you through using a simple project from start to finish, in this case, an engraved card with your WiFi network name and password embedded, so your guests can scan it for access.
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External Resource Links for Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project
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Transcript for LightBurn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project
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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
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Last updated April 25, 2024
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