Material Utilization
No one likes it when unusable scraps pile up in their workshop, so the more you can get out of a sheet of acrylic or piece of wood, the better. These tools will help you lay out and arrange graphics so they're close-fitting, directly next to each other, or perfectly positioned for the material you're working with.
Grid Array¶
The Grid Array tool creates copies of an object (or objects) in regularly spaced rows and columns, and includes options to adjust spacing, mirror the shapes, randomize orientation, and more.
It's a powerful tool for duplicating graphics and creating patterns, but that's not all it can do — you can use the X/Y Spacing, X/Y Shift, and Mirror options individually or in combination with one another to efficiently lay out objects for maximum material utilization.
Docking¶
The Docking tool moves selected objects left, right, up, or down, until they meet the edge of the Workspace or another object. Docking can bring objects together or move them in unison, making sure they maintain their relative position to one another.
Distribute and Move Together¶
The Distribute tools move selected objects to evenly space them either vertically or horizontally, with options to set the same distance between the centers, or edges of each object.
The Move Together tools move selected objects so that they are evenly distributed, and their edges are abutting along horizontal or vertical planes. a Learn More
Align Tools¶
The Align tools reposition selected objects to align them along their:
- Top, bottom, left, or right edges
- Vertical or horizontal centers
- Center points
By default, the Align tools move objects in your selection to align them to an edge or center of the last object you added to your selection.
Using a Camera¶
With a properly calibrated and aligned camera, you'll be able to position graphics directly over objects shown in your Workspace Overlay, and they'll be cut or engraved on the objects, using Absolute Coords positioning.
Cameras are especially helpful for getting the most of out of oddly shaped or previously cut materials.
Nest Selected¶
Nesting is method of arranging objects to maximize material usage. LightBurn does not have a built-in nesting feature, but you can use Nest Selected to automatically create and export an SVG of selected graphics, upload it to SVGnest.com, and re-import it after it nests the graphics contained in the file.
Snapping¶
LightBurn's automatic Snapping tools help align objects to other shapes in your Workspace, or to the Workspace grid itself — when you move objects close to a valid location, they will snap to that point.
As you hover your cursor over an object, the icon will change to indicate when it is over a node, line, midpoint, center, or intersection. Use these Snapping points when selecting, moving, or creating objects to ensure exact alignment.
| Snapping Point | Icon | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Node |  |
The cursor is over any node in a vector graphic, or the corner of an image. |
| Midpoint |  |
The cursor is over the exact halfway point between two nodes. |
| Center |  |
The cursor is over the center point of an object. |
| Intersection | |
The cursor is over the intersection of two lines. |
| Line |  |
The cursor is over a line, but not a node, midpoint, or intersection on that line. |
Move Laser to Selection¶
The Move Laser to Selection tools move your laser in its physical work area to a location that corresponds to a position on your current selection in your LightBurn Workspace.
Use these tools to align your laser and physical objects to the positions of graphics in your LightBurn grid.
Warning
In order to use Move Laser to Selection, LightBurn must be connected to your laser, and it must be capable of reliably homing and reporting its position accurately. If the position reported by the laser is inaccurate, using this feature may cause your laser to attempt to travel outside of its physical bounds.
Move Selected Objects¶
The Move Selected Objects tools move objects to a corner, midpoint, or center of your Workspace. If you have a Gantry style laser, it can also move objects to the last reported position of your laser head.
Use these tools to rearrange objects in your Workspace, or to align graphics in LightBurn to the location of material placed in your laser's bed, when using Absolute Coordinates positioning.
Remove Overlapping Lines¶
The Remove Overlapping Lines setting of the Optimization Settings window tells your laser to cut lines that are shared by two graphics just once.
The Distance field to the right of the switch controls how close two lines need to be in order for the Cut Planner to remove one of them when sending the job to your laser.
Tool Layers¶
There are two colors/layers at the end of the palette labeled T1 and T2. These refer to Tool layers — special layers that have no cut parameters and will never be output to the laser.
You can use them to describe the boundaries of your material in your LightBurn Workspace, and position graphics within to maximize usage.
For more help using LightBurn, please visit our forum to talk with LightBurn staff and users, or email support.