LightBurn Tutorial 22 – Quick Cut Shapes

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 LightBurn Tutorial Session, we have a quick session on cut shapes. My thanks to the team at Lightburn for allowing me to embed their videos.

Contents

A brief example showing how to use the LightBurn Cut Shapes tool to cut a job into multiple pieces.

A Quick “Cut Shapes” Tutorial

Video Resource Files for LightBurn Cut Shapes

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Lightburn cut shapes example

External Resource Links for LightBurn Cut Shapes

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

There are no more external resource links associated with this video.

If you enjoyed this series of Lightburn Software Tutorials. Why not try out one of our other video series such as:

The Tangerine Tiger Series where Russ has purchased a new 500 x 300mm, 50W laser machine from eBay with a view to modifying and upgrading it. In fact, he rips out the glass laser tube and high voltage power supply and replaces them with an RF laser source and PSU from Cloudray. Find out how the expensive RF laser source compares to a glass CO2 laser tube and prepare to get your hands dirty!

The Lightblade Learning Lab is a series of videos that Russ did for Thinklaser Limited based on using the Lightblade 4060 Laser Cutting and Engraving Machine. The Lightblade 4060 has a 400 x 600mm bed size and was supplied with a 60W EFR laser tube.

The Fiber Laser Series is all about Russ’s adventures and investigations with a 30 watt fibre laser, loaned to him by Dean at Lotus Laser Systems. If you are looking for a laser solution to engrave metal, without the fuss of using coatings such as Thermark, Cermark or Molybdenum Disulphide spray, then this is the series for you.

The Top 10 Ranked RDWorks Learning Lab Videos.

The K40 Xtreeem Laser Cutter Upgrade Series is a series of 6 videos covering how Russ, strips down a generic K40 laser. He then designs and builds a number of new components and completely upgrades and overhauls the K40 into a high specification K40 Xtreeem Laser cutting and engraving machine.

Why not check out The Concise RDWorks Learning Lab Series that condenses all of Russ’s work into an easy to follow encyclopaedia of laser knowledge.

Lightburn cut shapes tutorial - the cut frame — Lightburn cut shapes tutorial – The Cut Frame

Transcript for LightBurn Cut Shapes

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0:00 a user on the lightburn forum asked how

0:03 would i cut this frame shape into four

0:05 identical pieces so that i can cut it

0:08 out with minimal waste i thought this

0:11 would make a good quick tutorial

0:13 so i’m going to show you how i would do

0:15 this using the cut shapes tool

0:18 so first of all if you use the cut

0:20 shapes tool what it does is it will take

0:24 let me just back that up i’m going to

0:26 select this shape shift select that

0:28 shape go to tools cut shapes and you can

0:32 see that it has cut this into

0:34 two pieces one

0:36 everything in the shape that i used to

0:38 cut and one everything outside the shape

0:41 you’ll also notice that these lines are

0:43 not closed and that’s because this is

0:45 currently set to line mode

0:47 and when using the cut shapes tool it’s

0:50 assumed that you will be cutting

0:52 multiple pieces of material or lining

0:55 them up so it doesn’t close things

0:57 automatically if they are in line mode

0:59 however if your shapes start

1:02 in fill mode

1:05 and you cut them with the cut shapes

1:07 tool

1:08 it will automatically close them like

1:10 this

1:11 so now if i was to cut out these two

1:14 shapes i could assemble them back

1:16 together

1:18 like you would so i’m going to undo this

1:21 again

1:22 and

1:23 delete my cutter

1:25 and show you how i would do this cut so

1:27 first set the layer to fill so that it

1:29 will automatically close the shapes for

1:31 you second i’m going to draw a box and

1:34 the first thing that i’m going to do is

1:35 hover the mouse into approximately the

1:38 middle of this frame and you’ll notice

1:40 that when i get to the middle it turns

1:42 into a little x that means that i am

1:45 snapping to the center of this shape so

1:47 from here if i draw a box outward to

1:50 enclose one corner of this shape i know

1:54 that this corner of the box is exactly

1:56 in the center

1:58 next thing i’m going to do is duplicate

Transcript for LightBurn Cut Shapes (cont…)

2:01 i’m going to do that by

2:03 edit duplicate i normally just use the

2:06 control d shortcut then i’m going to

2:08 grab the sizing handle here and drag it

2:11 down diagonally this way

2:13 so that i have an exact copy or close

2:16 copy starting from the same location

2:18 that encompasses this part of the frame

2:21 here

2:22 so

2:23 if i cut this frame the red

2:26 with this box

2:28 i’ll be left with this piece here and

2:30 then these

2:32 or this row here remaining and then if i

2:35 cut this shape here

2:38 with this box i will have this piece

2:42 this piece and this piece remaining that

2:45 may sound confusing but you’ll see what

2:46 i mean when i actually do it so first

2:50 select

2:50 my frame

2:52 shift select the cutting tool go to

2:55 tools cut shapes and so now i’ve got

2:59 this piece

3:00 which is what was inside the cutter and

3:03 this piece which is what was outside the

3:06 cutter

3:07 so again i’m going to select this one

3:09 shift select this one

3:11 go to tools

3:13 cut shapes and now i have this shape

3:16 which was inside the cutting tool and

3:18 then this and this were outside the

3:21 cutting tool and if i ungroup these two

3:27 i now have

3:28 four independent shapes that i can move

3:30 around and

3:33 that is exactly what the user asked for

3:36 in this case

3:37 i technically didn’t need to go

3:40 to all of this work because we know that

3:43 each of these shapes is an exact copy

3:47 it would have been enough for me to just

3:50 cut this one piece here and then just

3:52 make four copies of it and so to do that

3:55 i could quite easily select this one

3:57 select this one

3:59 tools cut shapes

Transcript for LightBurn Cut Shapes (cont…)

4:01 simply delete this and now this piece if

4:04 i control d to duplicate it and produce

4:08 four copies

4:09 i now have four identical copies of that

4:11 frame piece that i can use and obviously

4:15 if i was to cut them

4:16 sort of nested up or nestled together

4:18 like this

4:20 i would reduce my material waste

4:25 and that’s it

What Next?

Did you enjoy this post? Why not check out some of our other posts:

How To Laser Engrave Slate

How To Laser Cut Stencils

What Can A Laser Cutter Cut?

How To Laser Cut And Engrave Acrylic

Concise RDWorks Learning Lab – Video Tutorial Series

How To Laser Cut Foam Inserts For Tool Boxes

How To Laser Cut Paper Without Burning

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Last updated August 26, 2021

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