This is the only change between 1.5.03 and this version.
]]>Here’s the full list of changes for the 1.5.03 beta (since the 1.5.02 release):
Here’s the full list of changes for the 1.5.02 patch (since the 1.5.00 release):
For anyone currently having issues with the camera overlay in the transition from 1.4 to 1.5, please know that we are aware of the issue and hope to have a new patch for it shortly. But we are still working to reproduce the issue locally so that we can debug it.
]]>This is the only change in this release, so if you’ve installed 1.5.00 you should update to this version.
If you have files that flipped images, just select them, press H or V to flip horizontally or vertically to correct the orientation, and resave.
]]>I'm excited about this one. Holding the Alt key while dragging a shape or a scale handle will display temporary guide lines and let you snap to other shape sides or centers.
We've also added guide lines that can be dragged out from the rulers on the top and left sides of the main editing window. These lines are just standard line shapes, created with the T1 tool layer. Hover near the edge of edit window until you see the cursor change shape, click, and drag.
You can now press the up/down arrows to cycle through previous commands used in the console window.
Our new Taper Warp tool can automatically correct the distortion of your design when engraving onto tapered objects. Just enter the top & bottom diameters of your cup, and the overall length.
The corner rounding tool now supports complex geometry. It will now work on curves as well as corners with multiple nodes.
There are more additions and lots of bug fixes, all listed below. Download from our Trial / Download page, or use the Check for Updates feature in the LightBurn Help menu.
As always, thank you for supporting LightBurn!
All machines:
GCode lasers:
DSP lasers:
]]>
One of the biggest fixes here is for a crash that often happened after or during long sessions of node editing, often using break apart, or deleting nodes. If you have experienced this, we strongly recommend this update. We have also "back dated" this update, so anyone who was able to use 1.4.01 to 1.4.04 will also be able to install this one.
Here's a list of what's changed:
1.4.05:
From 1.4.04
1.4.03:
1.4.02:
1.4.01:
LightBurn for galvo lasers will now control an external linear or rotary axis for the purpose of running a job multiple times in a row while advancing the workpiece for you automatically, making it easy to run batches of pens, business cards, and so on. You'll find this feature in the Laser Tools menu.
On Windows, launching another instance of LightBurn is simple - you just double-click the app icon. On Mac and Linux, however, the operating system will try to re-use the open one, so it's historically been difficult to run a second copy. 1.4 adds the 'New Window' option in the File menu:
Click this, and LightBurn will launch a new instance of the application for you.
For people who do rotary work on tapered objects, or are looking for a way to bend or deform generic shapes, the new Warp and Deform tools should help.
Warp is a simpler, 4-point envelope warp, linearly stretching your graphics within the control rectangle, like this:
The intention here is to allow you to compensate for the shape of a tapered tumbler.
The Deform tool is a more complex 16-point deformation using Bezier splines, allowing you to curve, stretch, or compress shapes in more organic ways, like this:
Both of these tools support vector graphics and images. Deforming images is computationally expensive, so to keep the UI responsive they only update after a drag is finished. Note: Holding Ctrl or Shift while using these tools will update the control points while enforcing horizontal or vertical symmetry, and double-clicking a control point will reset it back to its original position.
There are more additions and lots of bug fixes, all listed below. Download from our Trial / Download page, or use the Check for Updates feature in the LightBurn Help menu.
As always, thank you for supporting LightBurn!
Changes:
Bug fixes:
]]>
We’re thrilled to announce the first ever LightBurn Experience - three days of classes, speakers, and social events, all focused on growing your network and building your skills.
Learn more about lasers, design, and project techniques. Get a preview of LightBurn’s development roadmap and future plans. Show off your work to LBX attendees and the public. Meet fellow makers, and the LightBurn team!
Tickets are $125 and include admission to all 3 days of events, food, an LBX T-Shirt, custom badge, and one year LightBurn license renewal. Vendor tickets are available for $150, and also include one 8’ table at our Sunday (Oct. 29) LightBurn Market, which will be open to the public.
Limited space available. Register for LBX 2023 here!
LBX 2023 will be held at Embassy Suites by Hilton in East Peoria, Illinois from October 27th - 29th. When booking, please use this link for special rates
A full speaker lineup and event schedule will be announced soon. Interested in being a speaker? Apply here
]]>The following small additions were made:
( No bugs icons created by Freepik - Flaticon )]]>
One of them was a quick bug that caused GCode devices to stop communicating, because I grabbed a file that wasn't intended for this release. If you downloaded it and see a 'Critical Update' message, re-download and install the 1.3.00 version over the one you have. It's been corrected.
Here's an overview of what's new:
Many have requested this, and as LightBurn has gotten more popular and added more features, it's become harder to find free hotkeys that will work on all the keyboard layouts around the world. With the addition of the new hotkey editor, you can customize most of the shortcuts in LightBurn to your liking. Any button on the toolbar can be given a hotkey, and it includes a search function to help you quickly find them. You can find it near the bottom of the File menu.
If you've ever gotten a tabbed box file or slotted '3D Puzzle' meant for a specific material thickness and wanted to make it a different size, or with different material, you'll understand what a pain it can be to adjust them. The new "Resize Slots" tool will search for slots or tabs for a specific thickness and let you choose a new size for them. There's still room for improvement, but we're excited about this one.
Anyone with more than one laser knows that loading a file designed with a different origin causes designs to flip or mirror. This version of LightBurn will automatically flip loaded project files to the correct orientation, regardless of where the machine origin is. (Note: you have to choose the device first, then load the file)
Breaking and joining shapes in node editing could result in paths ordered in a way that confused some of the code in LightBurn. We've done a lot of work to improve this, making it easier to join paths together, and no more crashing when doing lots of node editing.
The preview now simulates the overscan moves added automatically by DSP controllers, giving much more accurate time estimates.
Go to Edit > Device Settings, click the 'Additional Settings' tab, then 'Read from Controller'. This will sync the settings in the preview with your machine.
The corner radius tool can now be used to remove rounded corners from shapes, making it possible to adjust the corner radius on existing shapes.
When using the Bend feature for text, you can choose whether the text distorts or not.
When node editing, hover over a line and press 'A' to align it to the closest axis (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal).
Download it now from our Download / Trial page, or use the 'Check for Updates' feature from the Help menu in LightBurn.
We hope everyone has a great holiday, and a fantastic 2023. Thank you for supporting LightBurn.
The full list of changes and bug fixes appears below:
]]>
1.2.04:
1.2.03:
Bugfix: Identified a missing startup command for Raycus and IPG fiber devices that would result in lower power output.
1.2.02:
Improvements:
Bug fixes:
]]>
The additions:
The fixes:
If you're really impatient, here's the quick version:
Download from our Download/Trial page here.
Read the documentation for galvo setup here.
This release of LightBurn includes support for EzCad2 based galvo controllers, more commonly referred to as "fiber lasers". It supports both fiber and CO2 laser sources driven by an EzCad2 supported control card, using USB to connect to your PC, Mac, or Linux system. UV laser support will be added soon, along with support for BSL (SeaCad) based galvo systems.
Galvo devices are enabled in the trial version. If you have a current (not expired) license key, you will also be able to test galvo devices until July 15th without having to use a trial version.
Note: The galvo license will not be available for purchase until July 15th. Everyone gets a couple free weeks on us so we have a little more time to fill our documentation, website, and ordering system, as well as to gather a little more compatibility info to make sure everything is solid before we start taking your money.
We've removed the Fill+Line mode and replaced it with something much more powerful: Sub-layers. Any layer can now contain up to 11 layer passes, run in order, and each sub-layer can use any of the existing options like Fill, Line or Offset Fill. This allows for some tricky uses that we'll be covering in upcoming tutorials on our YouTube channel.
Loading designs that use the Fill+Line mode will automatically convert them to a pair of sub-layers, with a Fill followed by a Line pass.
Important: If you save a file that was previously using Fill+Line mode, it will not load correctly in older versions of LightBurn, so please keep a copy of the old file if you want to be able to switch back.
We've added a powerful new docking feature, which is a little like manual nesting. Select some shapes and click one of the directional docking buttons, and LightBurn will "dock" all your shapes together in that direction, moving them together until they touch. The short clip below illustrates this:
The material library is now more powerful thanks to a new feature we call Material Linking. When you assign material settings to a cut layer, LightBurn now remembers the name of the material entry you used and keeps a link to the material entry. If you change the material, the next time you use a file that uses that material, the settings will update automatically.
On top of this, if you change to a different laser, and have a material library that contains the same material but with different settings, LightBurn will automatically apply those settings. The documentation will cover this in more detail, and we'll have a video tutorial coming soon as well.
We're really excited about this one, and we hope it's been worth the wait for all of you.
The full list of changes is below. You can download the release from our download/trial page, and as always, thank you for supporting LightBurn!
General:
Import / Export:
GCode systems:
DSP systems:
]]>
If you've been anywhere near a laser group on the internet in the last 6 months, you've likely heard that LightBurn is working on a version for galvo lasers (commonly called fiber lasers).
We're close enough that we've decided on a release date: June 30th, 2022
On that day, you will be able to download LightBurn 1.2.00 from our download page. Anyone who has a current LightBurn license (purchased or renewed in the last year), or activates a new trial will be able to try the new galvo functionality at this time.
The product will be available for sale shortly thereafter: July 15th. This will let you enjoy a couple of weeks of free use on us while we make any last minute tweaks and give our docs and support teams a little extra prep time.
Please note that if we find something horrible between now and then, this date could change, though we're pretty confident at this point.
If you are purchasing a brand new, galvo only license, the price will be $150.
If you are adding galvo devices to an existing LightBurn license, the price will be $90. This will require that your update period has not yet expired - if it has, you will also need to renew your license ($30), or you will not be able to install the update.
There is not a separate galvo version of LightBurn - it's just galvo support added to the existing application, and it works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
At this time, only devices that are supported by EzCad2 or EzCad2 Lite software will work with LightBurn, and only those that connect to a computer over USB. Raycus, JPT, IPG, and Max Photonics fiber sources, as well as CO2 laser sources are supported. (Max Photonics are JPT compatible)
We hope to add support for EzCad3-based devices as well, but we do not have a time frame for this.
]]>
The 1.1.01 patch:
The 1.1.02 patch:
Small additions:
The 1.1.03 patch:
The 1.1.04 patch:
If you have more than one laser, and they're different types or wattages, there are new features in LightBurn that will make moving between them cleaner, and we'll be continuing to improve this in the future. Your speed / units settings are now remembered with the laser, so switching to a CO2 from a diode will switch you from mm/min to mm/sec (or whatever you use), and auto-load your material library for the machine. The specific windows enabled are also saved / restored, so the console window will hide for a CO2 system, and reappear for diodes.
If you use one machine to design, and another to run the laser, you might have run into the problem of not having the same fonts installed on the laser system, so when you load a project, the text looks wrong. This release of LightBurn stores a copy of the generated text shape in the project file, and will use that if it can't find the font. You can't edit the text, but for just running the file or tweaking cut settings, this will work, and should save you a few trips back to the house.
Every once in a rare while, the preferences file in LightBurn may get corrupted. If this happens, the prefs get reset, so it might seem that you've lost all your devices and settings. LightBurn automatically creates backups as the prefs change, and stores the last 50, but it hasn't been obvious, or simple to find them. In this release, you go to File > Load prefs backup, and you'll see a browser that lets you see your backups by date. Choose the one you want and it loads it from there.
We've also done this for machine settings - Any time you change your machine settings, a backup is automatically created for those too. The backup browser in the machine settings window will let you walk through the list and load one easily.
You'll notice a new pair of control handles in the edit window - these are for skewing shapes (technically called 'Shear').
The 'Tools' menu was getting a bit long, so we've taken things that are laser specific and moved them into the new 'Laser Tools' menu. Print and Cut, Rotary Setup, and the Camera tools are all there, along with some new ones, including the new Center Finder tool.
If you regularly work with round shapes, and need to center your work, this tool should help. You simply follow the prompts, jogging your laser to three points around the outside of the circle, and LightBurn will calculate the center for you and move the laser there automatically.
Many of you are familiar with test grids - a grid that lets you test a range of varying settings on a new material quickly, to help you find what works. We've added a generator for these that lets you choose which parameters to change, and their ranges, size, and more. It also gets around the 32 layer limit in Ruida hardware, so no more having to use Power Scale.
In an effort to improve overall use with other software, we've added the ability to import text from SVG files. This currently does not support embedded glyphs / fonts, but that is something we're working toward as well.
The Adjust Image tool now allows you to save, export, and import presets - this makes it easy to store and re-use your favorite image adjustment settings, and makes it simple to share them with others.
Since this one is among the first things you'll see, I figured I should mention it here too - we've added toggle switches to disable certain kinds of mouse actions in the edit window.
These appear in the bottom of the main display, and will let you selectively turn off the ability to move, scale, rotate, or shear shapes in the edit window. This is similar to locking shapes, but doesn't alter your file, and affects everything at once.
You'll also notice the toggle switches are a little cleaner, and easier to read (we hope).
GCode users will notice that as long as the 'Fire' button is enabled, the default behavior of LightBurn is now framing with the laser enabled at low power, no longer requiring you to hold the Shift key.
We received reports from a handful of users about issues with the load & save windows - sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. This has been fixed with this release. There were also some Mac users running LightBurn in Spanish, French, or Portuguese who weren't able to see the Rotary Setup window, and this is fixed as well.
There's far too much to go into great detail here, so I'm going to follow with a list of all the changes, and we'll be posting a video over the next few days that walks through some of the changes as well.
And as always, thank you for supporting LightBurn.
Editor:
Import / Export:
DSPs:
GCode:
]]>
It's no secret that we've been wanting to add support for galvo marking (aka fiber) lasers for quite a while. We've been actively working on this since November 2021.
We haven't decided on pricing yet, but we expect this will be slightly higher than DSP pricing, because of the scope of work involved.
Please do not ask us when it will be ready - we honestly don't know yet, and there is still a good amount of work to do before we release this. We have a modest group of testers working with it already, and we will be looking to expand that as we approach the release. If you are interested, please keep an eye out here and on our user forum for an announcement. Our current release estimate is the end of Q2 of 2022.
The same ones you're used to - Windows (64 and 32 bit), MacOS, and Linux.
Can I beta test it?
Most people think “beta testing” means “using it normally”. It really means hammering on it in weird ways and reporting back to us how you got it to break with a painful level of detail so we can fix it. It’s really not fun. Be careful what you wish for.
Will I need a new license?
If you already have a license you will need to upgrade it to add galvo devices to it, similar to the way you add DSP controllers to a GCode license. Pricing hasn’t been decided yet.
Which boards are supported?
USB-based EZCad2 boards (LMC4 and USB-Lite) are now working on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. We have partial support for BSL boards, and we're hoping to expand to support others in time. PCI cards found in “all in one” units are not supported.
Will EzCad3 boards work?
EzCad3 boards will not work yet. I cannot give an estimate for when that will happen.
Which laser sources are working?
We support Raycus, JPT, and IPG / IPG-YLP laser sources, with control of frequency and Q-pulse. CO2 sources are working as well.
Does it support rotary marking?
Rotary marking is supported - split size is arbitrary, and you can run the rotary as either X or Y, and it supports running individual objects up to a max size before splitting.
We currently support foot pedal triggering of jobs, and a configurable red-light port. We don't support arbitrary I/O or on-the-fly marking yet. We also do not support job splitting or multi-marking with a conveyor, flat rotary platform, or X/Y table. These are all planned additions, but will likely happen after the initial release.
]]>It is fixed with this release - a single line of code has changed between 1.0.05 and 1.0.06, but sometimes that makes all the difference.
]]>We weren't quite ready to do a full release, but this is something we wanted to fix quickly, so this version is nearly identical to 1.0.04, with just this fix and a couple of other small stability improvements included.
]]>
]]>
LightBurn Bridge: You can now manually edit the IP address of a laser in Edit > Device Settings, and there is a 'Scan' button there to redo the search for LightBurn Bridge devices.
Snap improvement: Holding the Alt key now increases the snapping distance by 3 times. If you are trying to drag-snap one shape to another, holding Alt makes this much simpler. Holding Alt before you click-select a shape also makes snapping much easier.
Shortcut keys have been added to the tool-tips for most functions on the left toolbar. For example, if you hover over the 'Edit Nodes' button, you'll see this:
The Grid Array tool now has a Shift by Half button, making it much easier to create staggered grid layouts:
The complete list of changes is below:
This release of LightBurn has built-in data rate throttling to keep it under the maximum rate supported by the Ruida. This fixes the communication issue for nearly every Mac user we've gotten early feedback from.
We're also working on another option - it's still being tested, but should be available soon, and will allow you to use WIFI to talk to a Ruida controller without any communication dropouts: https://lightburnsoftware.github.io/NewDocs/LightBurnBridge.html
Download from our Download / Trial page or use the Check for Updates feature in LightBurn.
The full list of changes for this patch is here:
Please - if this happens, shoot us an email before you complain on Facebook, so we know there's a problem and can collect the info we need to fix it quickly. There are dozens of groups on Facebook, and many are private. It's not possible for our small team to be everywhere. If you have an issue, email support@lightburnsoftware.com or post on our forum and we'll work to fix it.
If no one tells us directly, sometimes it takes days to gather the info we need, and that doesn't help anyone.
Fixes in this release:
Other minor changes:
]]>
This doesn't mean that there is a whole new look, or massive changes, but we've grown our feature list to a point where we think this version has earned the 1.0 label.
There are a bunch of new features, but a lot of the work in this release has gone into things that are more under the hood, adding stability, fixing crashes or common user errors, and improving overall usability. You'll be seeing more of this in the coming months.
Price change:
We're also going to be raising our prices for the first time in several years, to allow us to expand our support and development teams. The new prices are $60 for the GCode version and $120 for the DSP version, and will go into effect on Monday, August 16th. Renewal pricing is not changing at this time.
If you create a grid array, you now have the option to make it virtual, meaning that the copies are generated on the fly. The array properties and content can be changed, and the array updates automatically:
With this in place, we'll be working on adding support for these virtual arrays on DSP controllers.
Print and Cut is great, but it hasn't been very easy to use. The new Print and Cut wizard walks you through it, making the whole process simpler. We also have a new video up, showing how to salvage a job without markers in it, using the Print and Cut feature. You can find it in Tools > Print and Cut.
Ever have trouble remembering which Boolean option is the right one? You're not alone. The new Boolean Assistant lets you preview the different Boolean options, then pick the one that works. Press Ctrl+B to bring it up.
Lets you pick a rotation point on a shape, and rotate / scale it freely around that point. Designed to let you align one shape to another, like trying to align text to a slanted edge. Press Ctrl+2 to start the tool, and follow the prompts at the bottom of the screen.
If you normally use LightBurn in 'Filled rendering' mode, life just got a little bit easier. You can now click anywhere inside a filled shape to select it.
As always, you can download the latest version from our Download / Trial page, or by using the 'Check for Updates' feature in the Help menu in LightBurn. Thank you for supporting LightBurn.
The complete list of changes is below:
Editor:
GCode:
DSPs:
Import / Export:
This release includes a number of improvements to that system. We've sent this to any user we know has been affected, and with only one or two exceptions, the issue has been resolved.
If you are using a Ruida controller connected with a USB cable and still have intermittent problems with connectivity, please contact us directly through support@lightburnsoftware.com so that we can gather some info about your setup.
If you do need to revert, the last version before the communication system changes is 0.9.20, and can be found in our release archive here.
The full list of changes is below:
]]>
This patch fixes an issue in the sharing system that could cause a crash if you loaded a file, edited nodes on a shape, then undid all your changes, and re-saved. Since it could also crash when auto-saving, it is likely the cause of a number of seemingly random crashes, so we're very happy to have this one fixed.
This is the only change for this patch.
This shouldn't be able to happen, so we're in the process of adding a tools to help us track what's changed from one release to the next, and which parts of LightBurn might be affected by those changes, so we can better focus our testing. We're also going to be adding tracking and metrics to our internal test versions, so we can tell which features have been tested, and how much - again, to help make sure we don't repeat this.
All of this is on me - I'm Jason Dorie, and I'm the owner, creator, and development lead on LightBurn. The changes to the communications system, and the Adjust Image feature are all mine, and I control the releases. Bugs are unfortunately part of software development, but this was sloppy, and I'm going to do my best to prevent it from ever happening again.
And please, if you do have issues, tell us. The sooner you let us know something is wrong, the sooner we can fix it.
Fixes:
The 0.9.23 release addresses the communication issues with Ruida & TopWisdom controllers, the crashes in the Adjust Image tool, and a few other issues that we found along the way.
There is still an apparent issue with camera use in Big Sur on MacOS - It's quite possible this is a problem with the framework LightBurn is built on, but we're actively working on it.
LightBurn is moving (again)
LightBurn HQ is also going to be moving - we've found a home with a secondary structure that has an office and a reasonably large shop floor which will soon be dedicated entirely to LightBurn. This will mean room for more permanent machine setups, a wider variety of test hardware, and will make it easier to more thoroughly test releases, in addition to helping us continue to expand.
We're in the process of hiring and training more support and development staff, filling in the holes in our documentation, and have a number of internal changes happening as well, as we transition from a startup into a more stable, mid-size business.
]]>
Specifically, if you used "Convert to Bitmap", there was an internal error in the way that was done that skipped the image sharing system, meaning that your image would not be saved, and then when loading, the image was empty, and that would crash.
Both of these issues are now fixed - loading a file with an empty image will not crash so you can repair your file, and the 'Convert to Bitmap' function now properly integrates with the image sharing system.
Those were the two critical changes. In over a month of testing, neither of these were encountered, so we're going to be expanding our beta testing group, and putting some new protocols in place to ensure better coverage testing of new code.
In addition, we've made the standard LBRN file format bypass all the sharing logic, which will allow users to save their files in a format that is compatible with older versions of LightBurn, in case you need to share a file with another machine or person using an older version. LBRN2 still uses the image and shape sharing logic.
The complete list of changes for this version follows:
]]>
Fixes include:
We have a video walkthrough of the changes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHuUhC62gig
First, LightBurn has a new project file format - LBRN2 stores the same content, but in a more efficient way, making files about 4x smaller on disk, and about 6x faster to load. This will vary depending on the file content, but unless you have to share files with older versions of LightBurn we recommend using LBRN2.
We've also added a "sharing" system for vector and image data. In older versions of LightBurn, if your file contained 10 copies of the same thing, it would store those copies in memory as well as on disk. Now, the copies will just refer to the original until you edit them, saving additional memory and disk space.
We've added a new measuring tool - point the mouse at anything to see length, angle, perimeter, area, and more. Click and drag to take linear measurements.
LightBurn has had the ability to adjust gamma, contrast, brightness, edge enhancement, and more for quite a while, but it seems most people don't realize these options exist, so we've made a new tool specifically for adjusting image controls. Right click and choose 'Adjust Image', or access it with Alt+I or from the Tools menu.
All the controls are live, and the dual-pane window shows the original and adjusted image side by side, making it easier to see the results.
LightBurn will now let you specify the same options for grouping images as you can with filled shapes - Fill groups, fill all at once, or fill individually. When filling multiple shapes together, the images are composited as displayed in the edit window, and transparency is correctly preserved.
Ruida, Trocen, and TopWisdom users should now have fewer issues with connectivity. LightBurn now connects to DSP controllers only when active. If you run multiple copies of LightBurn and have had issues sending to the laser from your 2nd copy, this fixes it.
These are the big ones. There are many more additions and fixes, and the complete list is below:
Editor:
Import / Export:
GCode:
DSP: