Galvo-Specific Cut Settings
Several settings are only available in the Cut Settings Editor when working with Galvo lasers with EZCAD2 or BSL control boards.
Among these settings, some options are only available for specific types of Galvo lasers, or specific Layer Modes.
Note
See Main / Shared Settings for information on applying essential settings like Speed and Power.
See Additional Options for information on specialized settings not covered on this page.
Main Settings¶
For Galvo lasers, the following settings are available in the top portion of the Cut Settings Editor, along with other essential settings shared by all types of layers.
Frequency¶
The Frequency, in kHz, at which the laser will pulse during operation. Relatively low Frequencies yield fewer pulses at greater power output with each pulse, while relatively high Frequencies yield more pulses at lower power output with each pulse.
Frequencies in the mid-range of your laser's capability will often produce the most even markings, but the exact effect of given Frequency values varies greatly depending on your laser, material, and other settings, such as Power, Speed, and Line Interval.
Tip
Use the Material Test to try out different combinations of Frequency, Q-Pulse Width, and other settings on a given material.
Q-Pulse Width¶
Note
This setting is available for MOPA Fiber and UV Galvo lasers only.
Q-Pulse Width determines the duration of each pulse of your laser, in nanoseconds. As with Frequency, the exact effect of given Q Pulse Widths varies greatly depending on your laser, material, and other settings, such as Power, Speed, and Line Interval.
Note for UV Lasers
For UV lasers, the Power setting is grayed out because power output is controlled solely by adjusting Frequency and Q-Pulse Width.
Max power is achieved by applying the correct combination of Frequency and Q-Pulse — your laser may have come with a chart that shows expected power outputs at different combinations. In general, you will see power increase as you increase Frequency and Q-Pulse values, a leveling off of power output in the middle-to-high values, and then a tailing off with very high values.
Global Passes¶
Enable this setting to repeat all Sub-Layers in the layer, in sequence, the specified number of times.
Specialized Settings¶
For Galvo lasers, the following settings are available in the bottom half of the Cut Settings Editor.
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Auto-Rotate and Angle Increment are only available for layers set to Fill Mode.
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Dot Width Adjust is available for layers set to Fill or Image Mode.
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3D Sliced Image Mode and its related settings are only available for layers set to Image Mode.
Wobble¶
Because Galvo lasers are not optimized for cutting, it can be hard to apply enough power to a given area while using Line Mode to cut through material.
Enable Wobble to tell the laser to trace small circles along the path of the line, creating a thicker line and forcing the beam to spend longer in each section of the line. The Step value refers to how far apart the circles are, and the Size value refers to the diameter of the circles (in millimeters).
Auto-Rotate¶
Enable to adjust the Scan Angle by the Angle Increment with each run of a given job, such as when you enable Run Continuously, specify a Repeat count in the Galvo Framing window, or manually Start a job multiple times.
Click Reset Count to reset to the original Scan Angle.
Angle Increment¶
For layers set to multiple Passes or Global Passes, adjusts the Scan Angle by this increment with each successive pass.
Dot Width Adjust¶
Dot Width Correction compensates for the thickness of the laser's beam by shortening the length of engraved scan lines. The ideal Dot Width Correction value is about half the total thickness of the laser's beam. Due to varying affects of power output on different materials, this ideal value can vary depending on the material you're working with.
The number should always be smaller than whatever you’re using as your interval setting. The valid range is from 0 to your Line Interval value.
3D Sliced Image Mode¶
3D Sliced is a special Image Mode for Galvo lasers only, which uses multiple passes to engrave a design one layer at a time. This mode is intended for use with depth maps – sometimes called height maps — which are specially designed grayscale images in which a pixel's brightness represents depth, rather than shading.
Lighter pixels are engraved with fewer passes than darker pixels, resulting in a deeper engrave in darker areas of the image. Enabling Negative Image inverts brightness, leading to lighter areas engraving deeper than darker areas.
See 3D Sliced Engravings for more detailed instructions on creating and working with grayscale depth maps.
Enable cleanup pass¶
Toggle on Enable cleanup pass to add a Cleanup Sub-Layer, where you can specify how often automatic cleanup passes should run, and adjust the settings for those passes.
Cleanup passes are typically run with a tighter Line Interval, higher Frequency, and lower Max Power than the main engraving passes, and are used to clear debris and produce a better finish.
Clean after # of passes¶
Specify the number of passes to run in between Cleanup passes.
Clean whole image¶
Enable Clean whole image to run Cleanup passes over the entire image, rather than recent passes only.
Timings¶
Click Show Timings to adjust per-layer timing settings. Click Hide Timings to return to the main tab of the Cut Settings Editor.
Override Default Timings¶
Enable Override Default Timings to set custom timings on a per-layer basis. If you leave it disabled, your laser will instead use the timings established in your Device Settings.
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Jump Settings control how the laser moves between cuts. Each jump causes the mirror to shake, with higher speeds and longer distances increasing the shaking. If you have wobbly lines at the start of a marking move, you may need to increase the delay and/or reduce the speed of jumps.
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Delay Settings control the delay between starting (or stopping) mirror movement and firing the laser. Laser On/Off TC and End TC control the delays for the start and end points of a path. Polygon TC controls the delays for other corners within a path.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Jump Speed | The speed at which the galvo mirrors move between cuts. Higher values will make your job run faster at the cost of increased vibration for the mirrors. |
| Min Jump Delay | The minimum time the laser will wait to allow the galvo mirrors to stop shaking. |
| Max Jump Delay | The maximum time the laser will wait to allow the galvo mirrors to stop shaking. |
| Jump Distance Limit | Any jump above this limit will use the Max Jump Delay setting above. Jumps below this limit will use a delay value between the minimum and maximum settings. |
| Laser On TC | Microseconds the laser will wait to fire after the mirrors begin to move. Too high a value will leave gaps, while too low a value may cause excessive burning at the start of a cut. |
| Laser Off TC | Microseconds to delay turning off the laser at the end of a marking move. Too high a value may cause excessive burning at the end of a cut, while too low a value may cause gaps. |
| End TC | Microseconds to pause the laser's movement after completing a cut. |
| Polygon TC | Microseconds the galvo head will pause when turning corners. Too long a delay may cause excessive burning, while too short a delay can cause rounded or cut-off corners. |
Pause Before¶
The number of milliseconds to pause before starting a Sub-Layer. Click the Show Timings button to show this setting or Hide Timings to hide it.
Pause After¶
The number of milliseconds to pause after finishing a Sub-Layer. Click the Show Timings button to show this setting or Hide Timings to hide it.
Additional Options¶
The settings presented in the Cut Settings Editor depend on the selected Layer Mode and the type of laser you're working with. Select an option below to learn more about different groups of settings.
Note
Some options in the Cut Settings Editor are hidden if you have Beginner Mode enabled.
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