Material Test¶

About the Material Test Function¶

LightBurn has a built-in feature for generating test patterns. You can use this to identify the best settings for your laser and material combination. You can find it in the LightBurn menus by going to Laser Tools > Material Test

The settings in this dialog box will let you configure your test pattern. To the right, you'll have buttons to preview the test pattern, frame it on the material, start, pause, and stop.

Material Test Example¶

The example to the right shows what you can expect after running a material test. On the left side, you can see a range of speeds, and on the bottom you can see a range of power levels. At the top, you can see the settings for interval, passes, and frequency. The material test generator defaults to varying power and speed, but you can choose to make your grid with any 2 of the avalible settings with the "param" dropdowns.

Galvo lasers with the appropriate source can also test Q-pulse combined with the above options.

Using the Material Test Function¶

The rows and columns can be controlled independently, using the settings in the dialog box.

At the bottom of the dialog box, you'll see buttons for "Edit Material Setting" and "Edit Text Setting". Each of these buttons will open a cut settings editor window for you to adjust the settings you want to use. The material settings will control the settings for the test grid, aside from the two parameters being tested. The text settings will allow you to set the cut settings for the text labels.

Saving and Exporting¶

At the top are buttons allowing you to save, delete, export, and import presets. There is also a dropdown allowing you to select a saved preset. This is useful if you have custom settings you like to run frequently, for instance a smaller test pattern you want to use on metal tags or a range of settings you want to test on different woods.

To access presets for the material test, go to File > Open prefs folder And then in that opened directory the presets will be under ./presets/material_test_presets.lbmt