Lightburn Tutorial 05 – Basics #1: Importing, Selection, Grouping and Movement

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. This session is the first to cover Lightburn Software Basics.

My thanks to the team at Lightburn for allowing me to embed their videos.

Contents

LightBurn Basics is a new set of short tutorials covering a focused set of topics for new users.

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Lightburn software basics
Lightburn Software Basics

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External Resource Links for LightBurn Software Basics

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

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Lightburn software basics - objects aligned for optimum material use
LightBurn Software Basics – Objects Aligned for Optimum Material Use

Video Transcript for LightBurn Software Basics #1: Importing, Selection, Grouping and Movement

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0:00 hey guys welcome to the first video in a

0:03 series of getting started videos to

0:06 introduce you to the interface and the

0:09 inner workings of lightburn and get you

0:11 jump-started in your first designs in

0:14 this video we’re going to show you how

0:15 to import your work different ways of

0:18 selecting your drawings as you’re

0:19 navigating it and how to position the

0:22 work in the workspace so to get started

0:24 let’s go ahead and import some drawings

0:27 to get our work going so to import we

0:32 can either use the import selection on

0:35 the toolbar or we can also go to file

0:39 and import or use the hotkey control I

0:43 now in this video I’m going to import

0:47 multiple DXF files to do that I’m going

0:50 to shift select all three of them and go

0:55 ahead and hit open to bring them into my

0:57 drawing

0:58 now the first thing we need to notice is

1:01 all three of these files came in on top

1:03 of each other that’s because light Byrne

1:05 imports from the origin so if all three

1:09 of these were drawn with 0-0 at the

1:12 center of these which is how they were

1:14 drawn they’re all going to import on top

1:17 of each other so to select them I’m just

1:21 going to select anywhere in the biggest

1:25 drawing because that’s the easiest and

1:28 because of the way light Byrne imports

1:30 files with the fully grouped together

1:33 with all the geometry in that file

1:36 completely grouped it makes it very easy

1:39 to initially select and navigate them

1:42 notice these two actually have holes

1:48 right on top of each other so if these

1:51 weren’t grouped fully grabbing these and

1:54 having everything come with it might be

1:56 very difficult depending on how the

1:58 drawing was done so the first thing I

Video Transcript for LightBurn Software Basics #1: Importing, Selection, Grouping and Movement

2:02 like to do when I bring in DX s

2:04 especially DX FS that were created in

2:07 Autodesk fusion 360 is I like to

2:11 highlight them all by hitting ctrl a and

2:15 go into the Edit menu and click delete

2:19 duplicates and this is because for some

2:23 reason when you use the save DXF file in

2:30 the sketch menu in Fusion it makes

2:33 duplicates of certain pieces of geometry

2:35 and this is the quickest easiest way to

2:39 make sure you avoid double cuts in your

2:42 drawings so I’m going to go ahead and

2:44 click yes and notice all of my geometry

2:47 is still there it just got rid of the

2:51 duplicates so now I can go about

2:56 selecting my drawing and placing things

2:59 the way I want them to be cut now we can

3:02 do that in two ways when we click and

3:05 drag much like other CAD systems lightburn

3:09 has an enclosing selection box

3:11 which

3:12 from the left so to click-and-drag from

3:16 the left and this will only select

3:19 things that it fully encompasses so if I

3:23 fully encompass this one but only

3:25 partially encompass this smaller one

3:28 over here it will only select the one

3:31 that the Box fully enclosed now if we

3:35 want it the easy way we can use what’s

3:37 called a crossing selection box and

3:39 that’s anytime you drag from the right

3:41 and this will select anything that it

3:45 touches so when we are selecting all of

3:51 our geometry it’s really nice to be able

3:53 to exclude certain parts or include

3:57 everything very easily now as we’re

Video Transcript for LightBurn Software Basics #1: Importing, Selection, Grouping and Movement

4:01 positioning our drawings there’s a

4:03 number of different ways that we can do

4:05 this let me zoom out and encompass the

4:09 whole workspace here now if I wanted

4:12 this part to be up in a top corner or in

4:16 the center of my workspace that’s very

4:18 easily done by using the snaps in the

4:23 toolbar and we can move to the upper

4:26 left the upper right lower lower or dead

4:32 center

4:34 and personally I find that pretty cool

4:36 the other way to move things around is

4:39 we can use the X&Y positioning in the

4:45 toolbar up here now we can use the

4:50 arrows to move things around and just

4:52 hit enter notice it doesn’t activate

4:55 until I actually hit Enter or we can use

4:58 the arrows on the keyboard or the mouse

5:03 scroll wheel as well

5:06 all very cool for fighting positioning

5:09 the other thing we can do is we can just

5:11 drag them around and I’m going to drag

5:16 these and get them pretty close to where

5:18 I want them and for my cut when I cut

5:23 these I want these all perfectly aligned

5:25 along their centers now the easy way to

5:28 do this is I can hit ctrl a and then hit

5:34 the align selected objects along their

5:38 horizontal centers button now they’re

5:41 all perfectly aligned and ready to go

5:44 but I want to nest these a little closer

5:47 so I could get the maximum of my

5:49 material so I’m going to use the

5:51 exposition and just get it as close as I

5:57 reasonably can without my lines

Video Transcript for LightBurn Software Basics #1: Importing, Selection, Grouping and Movement

6:05 overlapping so I don’t double cut and

6:09 that looks pretty good so I have

6:14 everything positioned the way I want it

6:16 but you know now I’ve decided that I

6:19 don’t necessarily like where these holes

6:23 lined up so what I can do is I can

6:27 highlight these both of them and click

6:31 on group selection and now I’ve decided

6:37 I want to move these three holes up to

6:43 millimeters now I can highlight this one

6:50 and regroup it same for this one now

6:58 these are regrouped and as I drag them

7:00 around they are easily repositionable so

7:05 this is a really nice way to make quick

7:08 edits kind of on the fly as you go so

7:14 that’s it for this first video we

7:17 covered importing how grouping we’re

7:20 selecting and positioning your work in

7:24 your workspace I hope you guys learned

7:27 something good and be on the lookout for

7:30 the next tutorial

7:31 Thanks

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Last updated August 26, 2021

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