User Interface Tour
Once you've installed LightBurn and set up your first device profile, you'll see LightBurn's Main Window. If you've never used LightBurn before, the Main Window might seem a little intimidating. Try not to let it scare you — we'll break down the most important sections to get familiar with below.
Finding Help
LightBurn has some built-in features to make it easier to learn more:
- Easy Access Help Pages: Press F1 while hovering to launch the documentation page for that feature in your default web browser.
- Tools Tips: Hover your mouse over a control to see helpful text pop up, with a description of that button or feature.
Below, we've divided the Main Window into labeled sections. The labeled sections contain the tools and features you'll use most frequently in LightBurn, and we'll give a brief explanation of each further down. You can click in the image or on one of the labeled buttons beneath it to jump directly to the information on that section.
You may notice that some sections are unlabeled — to keep from getting overwhelmed when starting out, it's best to focus on the essentials, and leave those sections for later. At the end of this walkthrough, we'll give you some advice on finding and learning more about tools that are well-suited to your specific needs.
Info
Your LightBurn window may not match the screenshot exactly. LightBurn's user interface changes depending on what type of laser is selected and whether Beginner Mode is active.
Workspace / Edit Window¶
The Workspace, or Edit Window, is the area where you create, edit, and lay out graphics in LightBurn. The grid is a representation of your machine's available work area, determined by the settings LightBurn detected or you entered manually when you set up your device profile.
The artwork arranged and displayed within the Workspace will be processed and sent to your laser — we'll explain how that works in greater detail later.
Main, Arrange, Creation, and Modifier Toolbars¶
These toolbars are comprised of buttons that, when clicked, perform certain actions.
Above the Workspace, between the Menus and Numeric Edits and Text Options Toolbars, are the Main and Arrange Toolbars.
Along the left side of your Workspace are the Creation and Modifier Toolbars. They're usually oriented vertically, but we show them horizontally below.
There's a lot to say about all these tools, but here's a brief rundown:
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The Main Toolbar contains functions for opening or importing files, saving, using the clipboard (copy and paste), and moving or zooming your view.
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The Arrange Toolbar contains tools for positioning objects, both on an individual basis, and in relation to each other.
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The Creation Toolbar contains tools for selecting objects in your Workspace, or creating Primary Shapes, text, lines, and more.
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The Modifiers Toolbar contains tools for combining, altering, and producing arrayed duplicates of graphics.
Numeric Edits and Text Options Toolbars¶
Located just above the Workspace, the Numeric Edits and Text Options Toolbars are special toolbars that allow you to directly edit specific properties of shapes.
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Use the Numeric Edits Toolbar to adjust objects' position, size, or orientation.
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Use the Text Options Toolbar to control the font, size, style, and alignment of selected text.
The options in the Numeric Edits Toolbar are only available when you have objects in your selection, and the options in the Text Edit Toolbar are only available when you have a specific type of object in your selection: text made with the Create Text tool.
Menus¶
The Menus at the top of LightBurn contain almost every tool that's available as a button in one of the toolbars, along with a handful more. Most have icons that correspond with a toolbar button (if applicable), and the keyboard shortcuts for their actions (if available) are listed next to each menu option.
Some tools are only available in the Menus or by keyboard shortcut — for the most part these are advanced options that you don't need to worry about when you're starting out, but we'll cover a couple Menu-only options as we go along.
Color Palette¶
Along the bottom of the Main Window, you'll see the Color Palette.
Lasers don't print in color, so these colors are only used to assign different kinds of operations to the shapes in your design.
With nothing selected in the Workspace, click a color entry and subsequent new shapes will be created in that color. If you have something selected, clicking a color entry will apply that color to the shapes in your selection. The colors currently in use in your design will also appear as entries in the Cuts / Layers Window, where you can choose the operations that each color will represent.
Cuts / Layers Window¶
Located in the top right of LightBurn by default, the Cut / Layers Window shows the layers currently in your design, along with a a handful of essential cut settings like Speed and Power.
You can double-click a layer in the Cuts / Layers Window to open the Cut Settings Editor, where you can access more detailed settings that change depending on the type of operation you have a given layer set to.
Laser Window¶
The Laser Window is located in the bottom right corner of LightBurn by default. It's the hub for setting up and selecting a laser, Framing and Starting jobs, determining job positioning, and more. In short — it's an important window!
Note
This window may look a little different depending on the type of device you have selected, whether or not you have Beginner Mode enabled, and a few other options available in your Settings / Preferences.
Getting Familiar and Learning More¶
We'll have more to say about some of these toolbars and windows as we go along, but, for now, spend some time in LightBurn hovering over buttons to see what they do. As you hover, a tooltip will appear and give a brief description of the action the button performs. In many cases, you'll also see a keyboard shortcut — pressing that combination of keys will perform the button's action, or activate that tool.
Some buttons will be grayed out and unclickable — that means you can't perform that button's action unless you have valid shapes in your selection. We'll explain how to select objects later, but if you ever run into a case where you do have objects selected and aren't sure why a button is still grayed out, try hovering over the button and pressing F1 to go to the docs page for that tool, and learn what types of shapes are required to use it.
You'll also see a few buttons with small arrows in their bottom left corners. That means several tools are collapsed within a single button — click the arrow to expand the list of tools.
Finally, you'll notice labeled tabs beneath the Cuts / Layers and Laser Windows. Clicking on one of these tabs will bring a new window to the front, and hide the previously exposed window behind it. We haven't covered any of the windows that are hidden by default in our brief tour because you won't use them as often, but try clicking tabs to show and hide different windows, just to get the hang of it.
For more help using LightBurn, please visit our forum to talk with LightBurn staff and users, or email support.