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First LightBurn Project

One of the best ways to learn to use Lightburn is to use it. We recommend following along with our laser-engraved QR Code WiFi coaster to start exploring LightBurn. By the end, you'll be familiar with LightBurn's user interface and general workflow, and you'll have a coaster your friends and family can scan to log into your WiFi network without needing to type anything in.

The video above shows the same project in an older version of LightBurn. The overall process is the same, but some tools will look a little different, and the QR Code tool is replaced by the Bar Code tool.

Before you begin, familiarize yourself with your laser and how to operate it safely according to manufacturer instructions. Never run your laser unsupervised.

What You'll Need

  • LightBurn installed on your computer.
  • A laser added to LightBurn.
  • Suitable material for the coaster. Our video uses laser-safe plywood, but you can use any laser-safe material you have on hand if you don't have that available.
  • Your WiFi information to enter into the QR Code.

LightBurn User Interface

Once LightBurn is installed and activated, you'll see LightBurn's Main Window. You can click on the image below to find out more about any of the highlighted portions of the screen.

Before you begin, we recommend that you make sure Beginner Mode is active. If it is, you'll see (Beginner Mode) in the title bar of the LightBurn window. You can turn on Beginner Mode by going to Edit → Settings and turning on the setting for Beginner Mode.

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.

Designing Your Coaster

Moving Around the Workspace

As you're working on this project, you'll probably want to Zoom In occasionally to take a closer look at your design. Scroll up and down with the scroll wheel on a mouse – or use the equivalent gesture on a trackpad – to zoom in and out.

When you're zoomed in, you might not be able to see the entire workspace on your screen. You can Pan by holding down the scroll wheel or the Space bar while moving the mouse.

You can always use Zoom to Page with the shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+0 to reset the zoom level to show the entire Workspace.

The Zooming and Panning page describes those tools in more detail.

Create Text

You're going to start by creating text to engrave onto your coaster.

  1. Click on the Text tool in the Tools Toolbar.
  2. Click in the Workspace to place a cursor and type something out. Our demo coaster will say "WiFi", since that's what the QR Code will be for.
  3. Find the Text Options Toolbar near the top of the screen above the Workspace. When you have text selected, this toolbar becomes active, and provides several options for modifying the selected text. For this project, try the following steps:
    • Select a font you like from the Font dropdown. LightBurn can use any font installed on your computer.
    • Adjust the size with the Height box.
  4. When you're done typing, return to the Select tool by pressing Esc or clicking the cursor icon in the Tools Toolbar. You can come back and edit the text later by double-clicking it with the Select tool active.

Create a QR Code

LightBurn has a built-in Bar Code tool, which can generate QR Codes as well as a variety of other scannable codes. You'll use this to generate a QR Code that automatically logs someone into your WiFi network.

  1. Go to Tools → Create Bar Code to open the Bar Code tool. You'll see the cursor change to a QR Code. Click and drag in the Workspace to set the initial size of your QR Code and start creating it. Put it somewhere near where you want it — you'll improve the placement in the next step.
  2. Make sure the Bar Code Type is set to QR Code and click on the WIFI Tab.
  3. Enter your WiFi login info into the window – be very careful with your spelling and capitalization – and click OK to create the QR Code.
  4. Adjust the size with the Width and Height boxes in the Numeric Edits Toolbar. Make sure the lock icon is closed so the code's aspect ratio is maintained as you make adjustments, and it doesn't get distorted. Enter a size into either Width or Height — somewhere between 40 and 60 mm is generally a good size.

Aligning and Grouping

Now that you have text and a QR Code, you'll want them to line up nicely. This is a great opportunity to try out the Align and Group tools.

No Alignment Tools Option?

New LightBurn installations start in Beginner Mode, which simplifies the user interface by hiding less-used options. Beginner Mode combines all of LightBurn's alignment tools into the Align Tools Helper.

If you aren't in Beginner Mode, go to Arrange → Align → Align V-Center for this step, or enable Beginner Mode in your Settings.

  1. Make sure you have the Selection tool active by clicking on the icon or pressing Esc.
  2. Select the QR Code by clicking on it. Drag to place it where you want it relative to the text. You can quickly spot selected objects by looking for the animated "marching ants" pattern on the outline of the shape.
  3. With the QR Code still selected, hold down the Shift key and click on the text to select that as well.
  4. Go to Arrange → Alignment Tools to open the Align Tools Helper, which will preview different alignment options as you hover over them. Use the bottom Align Centers button to vertically center both shapes.
  5. With both objects still selected, press Ctrl/Cmd+G to Group them. This way both shapes will move together without having to remember to select them both. To move them individually, you'll need to Ungroup them by selecting them and pressing Ctrl/Cmd+U.

Layer Modes

Now we'll preview your design and edit your cut settings. We'll be introducing the Preview function and the Cuts / Layers Window.

View Styles

LightBurn offers Wireframe and Filled options for the View Style. After setting Layer 0 to Fill, if you don't see the shape filled in, you can use Alt / Option+W to toggle between Wireframe and Filled view styles. Read more at View Style Types.

  1. Open the Preview window with Alt/Option+P. This window shows your design as it will be sent to the laser, and can even simulate the engraving to estimate time and visualize what the laser will be doing. Try pressing play to see how it works.
  2. By default, your design will be on Layer 00 and set to Line Mode, which means the laser will trace the outside of the shapes rather than filling them in. Click on the dropdown under Modes and select Fill. Next to Speed and Max Power, set appropriate speed and power settings for the material you're using. Check your laser's user guide for recommended settings.
  3. Turn off the Air toggle to disable air assist for this layer. It's helpful for cutting, but less useful for engraving.
  4. Preview the design again, and you should see the design filled in instead of outlined.

Create a Decorative Border

With the QR Code and text ready to engrave, we'll move onto a different style of engraving.

When you set Layer 00 to Fill, the preview shows that the laser will move back and forth over the area to engrave, very much like printing on paper. A raster engraving like this is the most common way to engrave, but you can also engrave (or score) in Line Mode by using a lower power and higher speed than you would use to cut through the material. This tends to be faster and produce cleaner results on thin lines than a raster engraving. It's particularly effective with single line fonts.

Draw and Position the Circle

  1. Select the Ellipse tool from the Tools Toolbar.
  2. Click near the top left of your QR Code and text to start drawing the circle. Drag toward the bottom right, holding down the Shift key as you go to keep the width and height the same, and then release to draw the circle. Don't worry too much about the exact size and position yet.
  3. Press Esc to exit the Ellipse tool. This should leave the circle you just drew selected. Hold down the Shift key and click to select the Grouped text and QR Code as well.
  4. Center the circle around the rest of your design by going back to Arrange → Alignment Tools and choosing Align Center.
  5. If you need to adjust the size of the circle, use the Width and Height boxes in the Numeric Edits Toolbar to adjust. You may need to repeat Step 4 after doing this.

Layers and Cut Settings

Always pay attention to units of distance and time when entering Speed settings

When entering Speed values recommended by your laser's manufacturer or other LightBurn users, make sure to use the same units of distance and time as those from the recommendation, or to convert the values to your preferred units.

A given number of millimeters per second is much faster than that same number in millimeters per minute. Mixing up units can lead to reduction in power output due to unexpectedly high speeds, or excessive power output — and even fire — due to unexpectedly slow speeds.

Change your displayed units in the Units and Grids tab of the Settings window. LightBurn automatically converts any existing values when you switch between units.

Right now, your circle is on the same layer as the QR Code and text. This means it'll be filled in like them as well. We'll need to move it to a different layer and give it its own cut settings.

My design is reversed!

A filled shape inside of another filled shape will act as a cutout, similar to a donut hole. We'll fix this in a moment.

  1. Make sure the circle – but nothing else – is selected.
  2. At the bottom of the main window, look for the Color Palette. Select a layer other than Layer 00 or the Tool Layers, T1 and T2.
  3. In the Cuts / Layers Window, adjust the Speed and Max Power settings to a higher speed and lower power than your manufacturer recommends for cutting through the material you're using. This will let you engrave (or score) a line without cutting through.
  4. Preview your design. Your QR Code and text should still be filled in, but the circle should be just a line that the laser travels along.

Creating the Cut Line

The last piece of the design is the circle to cut out. You could do the same thing we did for the previous step – draw a circle and center it with the Alignment tools – but this is a wonderful opportunity to get familiar with the Offset Shapes tool.

  1. Make sure the circle is selected.
  2. Go to Tools → Offset Shapes or press Alt/Option+O to open the Offset window.
  3. Make sure the Direction is set to Outward and Optimize / Simplify results is enabled. Adjust the Distance so that it looks good to you – LightBurn will give you a live preview as you adjust it. Somewhere around 6 mm or ¼" should work well, but this is your coaster and it's up to you. Press OK to create the new circle.
  4. As you did before with the first circle, move this circle to a different layer and adjust the cut settings. See your laser's user guide for recommended speed and power settings to cut through the material you're working with.

Previewing Your Design

Tip

It can be tempting to start a design without previewing it, especially when you're in a rush, but it's one of the best ways to catch errors before you start burning your material.

Now that your design is complete, preview it one more time. Remember that you can open the Preview window with Alt/Option+P. Press play to preview what your laser will do. You can use the slider at the bottom to speed up or slow down the simulation.

In the simulation, you should see the following happen in order:

  1. Raster engraving to fill in the text and QR Code.
  2. Vector engraving the decorative border — the laser should follow the outline of the circle.
  3. Vector cutting the outer circle.

It's generally best to do engravings before cutting out your design. If you followed along with the steps above, your layers should already be in the right order. If they aren't, you can drag them around in the Cuts / Layers Window to change the order – by default, LightBurn will run each layer in order from top to bottom.

If you make changes, preview them again before moving on to cutting your design.

Engraving and Cutting Your Design

Now that you've created and previewed your design, it's time to load material into your laser and begin cutting.

Avoid damaging your work area

Since you'll be cutting through the material, make sure that whatever is underneath your material is either scrap that you don't mind burning into or won't be damaged by lasering. This might be a thin sheet of aluminum, a honeycomb bed, or a piece of scrap wood.

Focusing the Laser

Lasers need to be focused correctly to achieve good results.

  1. Place the material in the laser and move the head over the material. LightBurn has jog controls in the Move Window to make this easier.
  2. Focus the laser according to your laser's user guide:
    • Diode lasers have a focusing spacer to set the distance between the laser and the material.
    • CO2 lasers may require manual focusing with a focusing spacer or may support auto-focus with the Focus Z button.

Start From

LightBurn has three different Start From modes: Current Position, User Origin, and Absolute Coordinates. For this project, you'll be using Current Position.

To learn more about the different Start From modes in LightBurn, check out the video below or go to Start From and Job Origin.

  1. Set Start From to Current Position using the dropdown in the Laser Window.
  2. Set the Job Origin in the Laser Window to the center of the artwork.

With these two settings, your engraving will be centered wherever the laser is positioned when you start the job.

Framing

Framing allows you to more accurately see where the design will be engraved. Using either of the two Frame buttons commands the laser head to travel around the outside of your design to indicate where it will be engraved. The Frame button with a rectangle will show the bounding box of the artwork, while the other Frame button will travel in an irregular "rubber band" border around the shape, following more closely around complex shapes.

If your laser has a red dot pointer, it makes framing easier to see. Otherwise, your laser will travel around with the laser turned off. LightBurn does offer the ability to run diode lasers at a very low power for the purpose of framing. To do this:

  1. Go to Edit → Device Settings to open the Device Settings window.
  2. In the Basic Settings tab, toggle on the Enable laser fire button and Laser on when framing settings. Click OK to apply.
  3. The Move Window should now have a Fire button and a box to enter a power level. In our example we used 0.25% power. Keep this value very low to avoid burning the material.
  4. The Fire button will toggle the laser on and off. Now you can use the Frame command with the laser visible.
  5. Adjust the position of the material and/or the laser head until you're happy with the layout of the design.

Danger

The Fire button should only be used for diode lasers, which generally don't have a red dot pointer for Framing.

Always wear proper eye protection when Firing your laser. Consult your laser's manufacturer for information on the proper eye protection required for your laser.

This should never be used for a CO2 laser, which has an invisble beam that could blind you or start a fire.

Running the Job

  1. Press the Start button in the Laser Window to tell your laser to begin running your project.
  2. If all goes well, you'll have a new coaster in a few minutes.
  3. Go and make more stuff!

Note

If the result isn't what you were expecting, revisit previous steps to make sure you followed them all, visit our Troubleshooting section, join our forum to look for advice, or email us at [email protected].

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