New to lasers or LightBurn? Everyone's a beginner once, and we know there's a lot to learn — these resources cover first time set up and other fundamental concepts, so you can hit the ground running, and get to making things with your machine.
We created this guide to get you going with the essential concepts you need to know in order to use LightBurn and your laser, starting with installation and finishing with a step-by-step first project that puts the concepts we covered into action.
At the bottom of each page you'll see a button to direct you to the next step in the process, or return you to the previous page if you need a refresher. You can also jump ahead, or back, using the navigation to the left, but we don't recommend skipping steps unless you're really sure you have a concept down.
In LightBurn, there are four Layer Modes that determine how your laser will cut or engrave graphics in your design. This page explains the effect and purpose of each type of Layer Mode.
Understanding the difference between images and vectors is essential for creating and editing custom projects. It influences the tools and methods used in LightBurn, as well as the settings, speed, and quality of jobs.
Images are made up of pixels — tiny blocks of color in a grid. Sometimes called bitmaps or rasters, Images include digital photographs, flatbed scans, digital drawings, and computer-generated renders.
Vectors are essentially lines made of mathematical formulas. No matter how far you zoom in on a vector it will always be perfect quality, so it's a great way to make logos and graphics.
All shapes in LightBurn are made up of lines, curves, and nodes. Sometimes those nodes are connecting points between lines or curves, and sometimes they represent the start or end point of a segment or sequence of segments.
A shape is closed when it is a complete, continuous loop whose start and end points are the same. When a shape's start and end points are different, it is open.
Some functions require LightBurn to determine the inside and outside of a shape, and in order to make that determination the shape must be closed.
To invert a vector engraving, so that the opposite of whatever area is currently set to be engraved is engraved instead, you need to add an outline around it, and make sure the outline is set to the same layer as the original vector graphic.
Understanding the relationship between Speed and Power is an essential part of being able to produce high quality cuts and engravings, as well as optimizing your settings to finish jobs faster.
This page covers a fundamental concept in the world of lasering: your laser has a work area — the bounds within which it can cut or engrave graphics — how do you tell it exactly where to do that for any given project?
There is a diverse array of laser cuttting and engraving machines, defined by various characteristics. These characteristics — and how they interact with each other — dictate the qualities of results, safety, speed, and ease-of-use for that machine.
The LightBurn layout is highly customizable — you can choose which windows and toolbars to expose and hide, or undock, move, and re-dock them to a location other than their default position.
