Camera Alignment

After calibrating your camera's lens to correct for distortion, you'll need to go through the Camera Alignment process to tell LightBurn where your camera is positioned relative to your machine's work area.

Unlike the lens calibration, which is only based on the camera and can be reused when you move the camera, the Camera Alignment needs to be redone each time you move the camera, although it can be reused if you're migrating to a new computer and haven't changed the position of the camera in your laser.

If you're using a head-mounted camera instead of the more common overhead cameras, skip ahead to Head-Mounted Camera Alignment. The process is similar, but there are some differences.

Skip to Head-Mounted Camera Alignment

Open the Camera Alignment Wizard¶

There are a few ways to open the Camera Alignment Wizard outside of creating a new camera:

• Click the Alignment button for the camera you want to align in the Cameras / Overlays Window.
• Click the Align to Workspace button in the Edit Camera window.

Before You Begin¶

1. Select the correct camera in the Cameras / Overlays window.
2. Calibrate your camera lens.
3. Make sure your camera is mounted where and how you want it mounted for actual use.
4. Make sure you have laser-engravable material to burn the test pattern on. The material should be big enough to burn a pattern that fills most of your workspace.
5. Place your material into the laser and focus your laser to the material.
6. Make sure your Start From is set to Absolute Coords
7. If you have Material Height and/or Support Height available in the Cut Settings Editor or the Cuts / Layers Window, make sure they're set correctly for the material you'll be using.

Quick Start¶

Need more help? Jump ahead to the full directions.

Camera Alignment Walkthrough

1. Select your alignment method. Automatic alignment is faster and easier, but if you don't have good lighting or can't get a good high-contrast mark, you may need to go with Manual Alignment instead. The Alignment Wizard will show you an overview of the steps you'll need to take.
2. Set up your alignment pattern, following the on-screen directions, then click Next to move to the next step.
3. Make sure your material is centered in the laser bed and the laser is focused. Burn your alignment pattern, following the on-screen directions.
   • You can adjust your Speed and Power directly from the Alignment Wizard, use Import to select a setting from your Material Library, or click Settings to open the Cut Settings Editor.
   • Use Preview and Frame to make sure your alignment pattern will burn where and how you expect, and start your job as usual with the Start or Send buttons.
   • The Machine Control section in the bottom left will let you jog and home your machine.
4. After burning your pattern, do not move the material. The location of the pattern needs to remain unchanged.
5. Follow the on-screen directions to complete the alignment procedure, then click Next to continue.
6. For the Automatic Alignment process, you may need to adjust camera settings and lighting to make sure at least 4 tags are detected.
7. For the Manual Alignment process, you'll need to click to indicate the centers of the crosshairs in order.
8. Check that the alignment appears correct in the preview, and either click Next to save the alignment or Discard to try again.
9. Success!

More Camera Information

Walkthrough¶

More detailed help on completing Camera Workspace Alignment.

1. Prepare Material¶

As described above, you'll need to have a suitable large piece of material, appropriate cut settings for a crisp, dark mark, and your camera securely mounted in the location you want to use it from.

2. Open the Camera Alignment Wizard¶

There are a few ways to open the Camera Alignment Wizard outside of creating a new camera:

• Click the Alignment button for the camera you want to align in the Cameras / Overlays Window.
• Click the Align to Workspace button in the Edit Camera window.

3. Select your Alignment Method.¶

You can use automatic or manual Camera Alignment. The automatic method is quicker and easier, but requires good lighting and high contrast between the marked pattern and the background material.

4. Set Up Your Alignment Pattern¶

Next, you'll set up your alignment pattern. The screenshot below is from the Automatic Alignment wizard, but the only difference for Manual Alignment is that there are no AprilTags - all the settings work the same between the two.

Place and Scale Pattern¶

When creating the pattern, it should be:

• Roughly centered in the camera view.
• Sized to fit on your engraving material.
• Created with features large enough to be clearly visible in the camera, but not so large they take an excessively long time to engrave.

Fill Features¶

Enable Fill Features (new in LightBurn 2.2) to make the numbers and crosshair markers easier to see.

Pattern Size Parameters¶

• Feature Width: The size of the calibration features.
• Pattern Width / Pattern Height: The width and height of the overall pattern.
• Preset: You can choose one of several presets as a starting point. To go back to the defaults, you can select Center from the dropdown.

5. Burn Alignment Pattern¶

Place your material in the laser cutter and get ready to burn the alignment pattern.

Use the camera preview to make sure the material is near the center of the image and clearly visible. Use Frame to make sure the pattern fits the material, and use Preview to see what will actually be burned. Use the Machine Control section in the lower left to move your laser head around if needed.

Adjust your cut settings to engrave a dark, crisp mark without cutting through the material. You can adjust your settings in a few ways:

• Adjust speed and power right in the Alignment Wizard window, just below Laser Settings.
• Click the Import button to load a layer from your Material Library.
• Click Settings to adjust your layer settings in the Cut Settings Editor.

Run the job using Start or Send, however you'd usually control your laser.

Do not move the pattern after you burn it, or you will need to burn a new alignment pattern.

6. Target Alignment¶

Depending on whether you chose Automatic Alignment or Manual Alignment, you'll see one of two screens.

Automatic Alignment¶

Automatic Alignment uses the camera to read the AprilTags you've engraved and automatically calculate the placement of the camera relative to the material.

If LightBurn Can't Automatically Detect the Tags¶

If LightBurn can't detect the alignment tags automatically, you can use the Revert to Manual Alignment button to switch over to the Manual Alignment process. You don't need to reburn the alignment pattern to do this - both the automatic and manual alignment patterns have crosshairs in the same place.

Manual Alignment¶

If you're unable to use Automatic Alignment, or just don't want to, you can also use the Manual Alignment process. Manual Alignment does the same calculations as Automatic Alignment, but requires you to identify the center of four crosshairs engraved onto the material yourself. If you aren't able to get a clear, well-lit, high-contrast alignment pattern or if your camera is particularly low resolution, you may need to use Manual Alignment.

When you're done selecting all four manual targets, you should see something similar to the screenshot above, with red marks at the center of each crosshair, and red lines connecting each corner. Click Next to continue onto validation.

Multiple Alignments for Different Material Heights¶

If have Material Height and/or Support Height available in the Cuts / Layers Window, each alignment you do will have the material thickness included in the name of the alignment. Creating a new alignment will replace an older alignment with the same Material Height, but won't overwrite alignments for different Material Heights. You can switch between these alignments in the Alignment Dropdown.