Lightburn Software Tutorial 04 – WiFi QR Code Project

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