Skip to content

Collections

Lasers are versatile machines, and what you do with them is up to you. No matter your aim, it's likely LightBurn has a tool to help you achieve it, as long you know where to look. We've assembled a range of tools, features, and resources into collections below, organized according to the goals they'll help you accomplish.

Getting Started

New to lasers or LightBurn? Everyone's a beginner once, and we know there's a lot to learn — here are some resources that will help you hit the ground running, and get to making things with your machine.

Identify Your Laser

What you can do in LightBurn – and what license you need – depends on what type of laser you have. This page can help you identify it.

Install LightBurn

Get help installing LightBurn on Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu Linux, as well as links to current and old releases.

Add a Laser

Get help adding a laser to your LightBurn installation.

Connect to a Laser

Get help making sure your computer is able to communicate with your laser.

First Project

Follow along to create your first LightBurn project – a coaster with a QR code to connect to your WiFi network.

Next Steps

Next steps for beginners getting started with LightBurn.

Coordinates and Origin

Get familiar with LightBurn's coordinates and origin settings.

Layer Modes

Learn the difference between the four Layer Modes that determine how your laser will cut or engrave graphics in your design.

Laser Types

The type of laser you have determines what it's capable of, what type of license you need, and what the LightBurn UI looks like.

Job Optimization

The faster your laser finishes one job, the sooner you can start another. These tools will help you learn how speed up your project runtimes, without any loss in quality of the finished product, so you can spend less time waiting and more time making things.

Line Interval

Read more about how Line Interval affects your design and how to adjust it.

Optimization Settings

Learn more about how you can speed up your jobs using Optimization Settings.

Fill-by Modes

Learn to control how filled objects are grouped together when you send a job to your laser.

Preview

Learn more about the Preview window and how to use it.

Additional Settings

Learn to adjust your Device Settings to make the time estimate in the Preview window more accurate.

Speed vs. Power

Learn more about the relationship between speed and power.

Material Test

Learn to use the Material Test tool to determine optimal cut settings for your laser and material.

Material Library

Save cut settings to a Material Library to be reused in the future.

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

Creates copies of an object in rows and columns.

Circular Array

Creates copies of an object in a circular pattern.

Docking

Moves objects in a particular direction until they meet the edge of either the Workspace or another object.

Distribute and Move Together

Moves objects to space them evenly.

Alignment Tools

Repositions selected objects to align them along edges or center points.

Camera

Helps you postion your design on oddly-shaped material using a camera.

Snapping

Align objects to other shapes in your Workspace or to the Workspace grid.

Move Laser to Selection

Physically moves your laser to a location based on your current selection in LightBurn.

Move Selected Objects

Move objects to a corner, midpoint, or center of your Workspace. Can also move to the last reported laser position for gantry style machines.

Position Laser

Click in the Workspace to jog your laser to a new location.

Remove Overlapping Lines

Removes overlapping lines that would cause your laser to cut in the same place twice.

Batch Production

Once you've mastered the craft of making one thing really well, you're going to want to make many more of that thing really well. Use these tools to lay out copies of your design, or set your laser up for several runs in succession. If you're a small business owner with orders to fill, these features will help you scale up and expedite your production process.

Grid Array

Creates copies of an object in rows and columns.

Circular Array

Creates copies of an object in a circular pattern.

Material Library

Save cut settings to a Material Library to be reused in the future.

Variable Text

Automatically replaces specially formatted expressions with data you choose, similar to how Mail Merge works.

Coordinates and Origin

Various ways to tell LightBurn where to output your work within your laser's work area.

Feeder Setup

Set up an Auto-feeder to feed material into your laser.

Repeat Marking

Use a Rotating or Linear axis table with Galvo lasers to run repetitions of identical jobs.

Optimization Settings

Learn more about how you can speed up your jobs using Optimization Settings.

Print and Cut

Aligns a current project to existing Target Positions in a previously output design.

Rotary Mode

Set up LightBurn to engrave cylindrical objects with a rotary.

Bar Codes and QR Codes

Creates bar codes, QR codes, and other similar formats.

Design Tools

Looking to get creative? LightBurn contains a suite of tools for designing projects from scratch. If you have a background in other design software, many of these tools may be familiar to you — instead of bouncing between programs, you can keep all your laser-design work under one roof.

Create Text

Add and edit text in LightBurn.

Primary Shapes

Create and edit Primary Shapes, including Rectangles/Squares, Ellipses/Circles, and Polygons.

Edit Nodes

Make precise edits to individual nodes of vector paths.

Draw Lines

Create vector paths out of straight and curved line segments.

Tools Toolbar

Tools for selecting, creating, and editing objects.

Transform Controls

Directly edit selected objects using control handles to alter their position, dimensions, orientation, or shape.

Selection

Overview of methods to select objects in LightBurn.

Grouping and Ungrouping

Combines selected objects into single units and splits them back up.

Boolean Tools

Combine existing shapes into more complex new shapes.

Locking

Locks selected objects, preventing accidental editing.

Automatic Guidelines

Guidelines help place and align objects within your Workspace.

Distribute and Move Together

Moves objects to space them evenly.

Alignment Tools

Repositions selected objects to align them along edges or center points.

Tool Layers

Create layers that will never be output to the laser and can be used for positioning and placement.

Grid Array

Creates copies of an object in rows and columns.

Circular Array

Creates copies of an object in a circular pattern.

Image Tracing

Convert imported images into vector graphics.

Shape Properties

Displays editable properties of selected objects, making them available for adjustment.

Working Quickly in LightBurn

LightBurn is packed with tools that speed up the process of getting from idea to finished product. We've listed some of our most powerful workflow optimization features below — check them out to become a LightBurn ace.

Automatic Guidelines

Guidelines help place and align objects within your Workspace.

Alignment Tools

Repositions selected objects to align them along edges or center points.

Snapping

Align objects to other shapes in your Workspace or to the Workspace grid.

Distribute and Move Together

Moves objects to space them evenly.

Locking

Locks selected objects, preventing accidental editing.

Quick Tip Videos

Short videos with tips for using LightBurn effectively.

Grid Array

Creates copies of an object in rows and columns.

Circular Array

Creates copies of an object in a circular pattern.

Transform Controls

Directly edit selected objects using control handles to alter their position, dimensions, orientation, or shape.

Variable Text

Automatically replaces specially formatted expressions with data you choose, similar to how Mail Merge works.

Two Point Rotate and Scale

Turn and resize objects around custom pivot points in your Workspace

Move Laser to Selection

Physically moves your laser to a location based on your current selection in LightBurn.

Hotkey Editor

Customize LightBurn's hotkeys to suit your preferences.

Equation Support in the Numeric Edits Toolbar

The position, width, and height boxes in the Numeric Edits Toolbar accept units of measurements and equations.

Offset Shapes

Create a new shape by outlining selected shapes at a distance you specify.

Delete Duplicates

Find and remove duplicated objects in your project.

Make Same Width and Height

Resize all selected objects to the width or height of a single object in the selection.

Move Selected Objects

Move objects to a corner, midpoint, or center of your Workspace. Can also move to the last reported laser position for gantry-based machines.

Getting a Design Laser-Ready

So you've imported a design into LightBurn that wasn't made with laser engraving in mind, and it's going to take some work to get it ready to go. Don't worry — the tools below are up to the job and then some.

Preview

Learn more about the Preview window and how to use it.

Edit Nodes

Make precise edits to individual nodes of vector paths.

Delete Duplicates

Find and remove duplicated objects in your project.

Boolean Tools

Combine existing shapes into more complex new shapes.

Grouping and Ungrouping

Combines selected objects into single units and splits them back up.

Tool Layers

Create layers that will never be output to the laser and can be used for positioning and placement.

Open vs. Closed Shapes

Learn more about the difference between open and closed shapes.

Close Path

Create a closed path from an open one by connecting the start and end points with a line.

Close Selected Paths with Tolerance

Create a closed path from an open one by connecting the start and end points with a line. Set a tolerance to determine how close together these points must be in order to be closed.

Optimize Selected Shapes

Simplifies and smooths selectd shapes. Often useful for imported or traced artwork.

Trim Shapes

Cut line segments back to the next intersection with another line. Deletes the entire shape if it doesn't intersect with any other lines.

Auto-join Selected Shapes

Automatically connects line start and end nodes of shapes when they are direclty on top of each other but not technically connected. Often useful for imported graphics.

View Styles

Control the appearance of vector graphics in your Workspace

Convert to Path

Transforms LightBurn's built-in shapes into paths editable by the Edit Nodes tool.

Resize Slots

Adjust the size of slots or tabs in selected objects.

Kerf Offset

Compensate for the extra material removed by the laser when cutting without modifying the underlying shape.

Measuring Kerf Width

Learn to measure your laser's kerf in a given material for use with the Kerf Offset setting.

Working With Images

Engraving images is one of the coolest things your laser can do, but it's also one of the hardest processes to get just right. Check out the following pages to learn the basics of image engraving with LightBurn, along with some advanced techniques for when you're a seasoned pro.

5 Steps to Perfect Image Engraving

Learn more about how to make your image engravings even better in this guide.

Image Mode

A special engraving mode for images, which is similar to Fill Mode but with additional image processing.

Adjust Image

Streamlines the process of tweaking Image Settings and Layer Settings.

Shape Properties

Displays editable properties of selected objects, making them available for adjustment.

Images vs. Vectors

Learn more about the differences between images and vector objects.

Mask Image

Use a closed shape to hide unwanted portions of an image.

Convert to Bitmap

Turns selected vector graphics into bitmap images.

Image Tracing

Convert imported images into vector graphics.

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