Coordinates and Job Origin

There are three options for telling LightBurn where to ouput your project within the work area of your machine, each available in the Start From menu in the Laser Window.

Absolute Coordinates tells Lightburn to output graphics in your laser's work area at a location that matches their position in your Workspace.
Current Position tells LightBurn to output graphics relative to the position of the laser head at the moment you start a job.
User Origin tells LightBurn to output graphics relative to a custom-defined origin that you set before starting a job.

The 9-dot Job Origin selector beneath the dropdown menu determines the orientation of output relative to the Current Position or User Origin. It will be grayed out if you have Absolute Coords selected, but clickable if you choose Current Position or User Origin.

Note for Galvo Users

If you have a Galvo laser, you won't see the Start From mode dropdown menu or 9-dot Job Origin selector in the Laser Window — that's because Galvo lasers always use Absolute Coordinates positioning.

Absolute Coordinates¶

Absolute Coordinates is the the most inuitive option. The grid in your LightBurn Workspace has a coordinate system that matches the physical work area of your laser. The 0,0 position is always the location of your laser's Machine Origin.

With Absolute Coords selected as your Start From mode, anything you place in the LightBurn grid will be output in the corresponding location in your machine's work area.

Note

Using absolute positioning requires a laser with a a fixed origin. If you have a small diode laser that does not have homing switches, you will need to manually home the machine. See: Machines without homing sensors / limit switches.

In the image below, the four hexagons placed in the middle of the LightBurn grid will be cut in the middle of the machine work area. The green square in the lower left of the image represents the Job Origin, and the red square in the same place shows the Machine Origin. When using Absolute Coords, these are always in identical locations.

Current Position¶

With Current Position selected, your job outputs relative to wherever the laser head is located when you press the Start button. The Job Origin control in the Laser Window tells LightBurn how to orient output relative to the laser head.

In this image, we're starting from the Current Position, with the Job Origin set to the lower left:

Notice that the green Job Origin indicator has moved. This represents the position of the laser when you start the job, so the laser is going to move slightly up and to the right from wherever it is, cut the four hexagons, and go back to where it started.

Now imagine that you want to etch this four hexagon pattern onto a coaster or a phone case. Lining it up from the lower left is not easy. If you change the Job Origin setting to center, you get this instead:

The job will be centered around the current position of the laser head. If you position the laser head directly over the center of the item you want to etch, the output will be centered on the item.

Jogging Your Laser

Both Current Position and User Origin require you to jog your laser into a desired position to define a custom origin. LightBurn has a few tools for adjusting the location of your laser's head within its work area — the most straightfoward option for beginners is to use the arrow keys in the Move Window. By default, the Move Window is hidden behind the Cuts / Layers Window — click the Move tab to expose it.

The arrow keys move your laser up, down, right, or left. You can set the amount the laser travels with each click in the Distance field, and the rate at which it travels in the Speed field.

User Origin¶

User Origin works almost exactly the same as Current Position, except that the starting location is programmable. To set a User Origin, you must first jog your laser to the location you want your job to start from, then set the origin.

Some lasers with digital displays, such as those with Ruida controllers, have an Origin button which you press to set the origin. GCode-based systems use the Set Origin button in the Move Window in LightBurn to do the same thing. For supported systems, use Clear Origin to remove and reset a custom-set origin.

After setting the origin, you are free to jog your laser around its work area. With User Origin selected as the Start From mode, the laser will always move back to that programmed location and start the project from there.

You can also use the Go to Origin button in the Laser Window to command your laser to travel back to the origin you've set.

As with Current Position, the Job Origin setting determines how output will be oriented relative to the user-defined origin.

Finish Position¶

Note

The Finish Position option is only available for GCode-based controllers. DSP controllers manage this internally.

LightBurn allows you to control where you want the head of the laser to return after a job is finished. By default, it will return to 0,0, but this is not always optimal for all machines.

To change your laser's Finish Position, go to the Move Window and use the arrows to position your laser head wherever you would like it to return to after the job is finished, then click the Set Finish Position button. Your machine will now remember that spot for future jobs. Finish Position can be adjusted at any time by repeating the above steps for a new location.

Users with GCode-based lasers can also adjust or disable the Finish Position in Device Settings.

For more help using LightBurn, please visit our forum to talk with LightBurn staff and users, or email support.