This is a large release, so we'll cover the big stuff first.
Art Library:
The Art Library is a place to store and organize commonly used vectors and images, giving you instant access, with thumbnails. Store things you use frequently or seasonally, and have instant access to them when setting up new projects.
The left side is the list of libraries, and you can create as many as you like, organizing content by type, occasion, etc. Each library is a file on disk and they can be copied, shared, loaded and unloaded.
The right side is the view of the current library, showing the contents. You can import new graphics from disk or from a loaded project, and quickly drag content from the library into your project.
New camera system for Windows 8 and 10
The camera capture engine has been completely replaced with a from-scratch system that talks directly to Windows. The capture engine now gives us the ability to choose capture resolution, adjust exposure and brightness, and means that any USB camera should give you full resolution in LightBurn. The new capture engine takes advantage of GPU hardware to display the preview, so the new system uses less CPU as well, so it's easier on older or lower powered systems, like laptops, Mini-PC's, or with really high resolution cameras.
Halftone image mode
Halftone is a process used by the print industry to produce shading with dots of varying sizes. Similar to the Newsprint dither mode in LightBurn, it reduces the effects of dot overlap, and is more forgiving at high DPI settings than regular dithering.
As shown here, you can adjust the number of shading cells and the angle.
Improved node editing, with multi-select
Node editing now allows selection of multiple nodes for moving or deleting. You can quickly shape a line by simply grabbing and dragging it, and insert new points by holding the Ctrl key and clicking a line (Command on MacOS).
TopWisdom controller support
It's still in progress, but the majority of features are working and stable, so we're calling TopWisdom support 'official'. We still have to add rotary support and machine settings, but those are in progress and should be included in the next release.
And much more:
- Save and Load machine settings
- Text on Path now works correctly with grid array, radial array, etc.
- Optimization settings, Cut Selected, and Job Origin now saved with each project file
- Negative preview mode for engraving on dark materials
- Image trace now has a low cutoff, allowing precise selection of brightness range to trace
- Remove Overlapping Lines optimization improved
- 'Open Shapes set to Fill' warning will now select the offending shapes for you
- Continuous Jog for Ruida, Trocen, and TopWisdom controllers
- SVG export now properly handles holes in shapes
- True relative Z moves for Ruida controllers (much safer use of the Z axis)
The full list of changes is below. As always, go to Help > Check for Updates in LightBurn, or download from our download page. Thank you for supporting LigthBurn!
Editor Features:
- New camera capture library for Windows 8 & up. Faster, use any camera, manual exposure and brightness controls
- When 'Open shapes set to fill', click 'Show Me' to select them for you automatically
- Fixed preview thumbnails for all Windows systems
- Images are now included in thumbnails
- Added lower 'cutoff' to image trace - allows tracing 'bands' of gray
- Added fine grid when zoomed
- Added 'Hide Backlash' option to optimizations (similar to Backlash Repay Optim on Ruida)
- Multi-select nodes in node edit mode for moving, deleting
- Drag line in Node Edit mode converts it to a curve if necessary, and drags the curve
- Ctrl+Click on a line in Node Edit inserts a new point along the line
- Art library added
- Added Load / Save machine settings
- Added 'Invert' button to preview window - Allows viewing negative engraving
- Added Test function for rotary steps
- Added interior corner radius on rectangles (use negative numbers)
General improvements / bug fixes:
- Fixed grid, radial, and path copy of Text on Path
- Added Halftone image mode
- Added optimization settings to project file
- Added job log of sent files
- Dim images when layer is disabled
- Improved point insertion / deletion on curves
- Remember which camera was used and restore it
- Radial array goes clockwise now, regardless of controller origin point
- Added hotkeys for Break Apart (Alt-B) and Delete Duplicate Shapes (Alt-D)
- Cut/Paste images from Windows file explorer into LightBurn
- Added option to delete image after image trace
- Remember / restore last used preview speed
- Failed project file parsing will now return an error message
- Split main toolbar for space constrained displays
- New translations, added Turkish, Finnish
- Colorized some of the primary tools when active
- Library save now backs up your old file, then saves, then removes the backup, just in case something fails
- Changed main laser button layout (less likely to press Start unstead of Frame)
- Remove overlapping lines (Optimization settings) now removes any line entirely covered by another
- Skip shapes that are out of workspace when using Absolute Coords mode
- Added a warning if you create a material with no name or description
- Added 'Ludicrous DPI' warning to cut settings window
- Disabled Z controls in cut settings if 'Enable Z' is not set
- Trace Image button in camera window automatically captures first (saves a step)
- Cut Order or Power Scale applied to group is applied to all group members
- Group members retain individual cut order priorities when grouped
- Added Alt+Shift+L shortcut to save cut file
- In Variable Text CutSetting mode, C = Absolute cut layer number, from 0 (different cut setting)
- In Variable Text CutSetting mode, L = Laser Name (L6,2 = start from the 6th char, 2 characters long)
- Improved translations for our international users
- Bugfix: Fixed a bug in the computing offset in scanning offset tables with more than two entries
- Bugfix: arc fit occasionally left shapes open (showed up in welded text)
- Bugfix: Fixed a precision error that sometimes caused rectangles to partially scan the first / last line
- Bugfix: Fixed a double-click launch issue with some Windows systems
- Fixed Table of Contents links in PDF docs
- Bugfix: moving a vertical or horizontal line from the end defaulted to rotation mode
- Bugfix: rare bug that could cause files saved with text/path to crash when loading
- Bugfix: Beginner Mode was overriding user choice of Arrange / Arrange Long toolbars
- Bugfix: Motion planner was ignoring scanning acceleration setting
- Bugfix: crash when undoing a vertex delete that failed
- Bugfix: Fixed shape offsets when using 'Rotate Shapes' with 'Copy Along Path'
DSPs:
- Made network timeout configurable for Ruida & Trocen controllers
- TopWisdom origin modes fix
- Improved DSP layer output conformance with stock software (Ruida / Trocen)
- Added continuous jog for Ruida
- Added Auto Air Assist flag for TopWisdom
- Fixed a small inconsistency in machine file for TopWisdom
- Added 'Go To Origin' button for Ruida
- Added 'Go to Origin' button for Trocen
- Fixed an issue when clicking 'Frame' on Ruida in User Origin mode, when not currently at the user origin
- Added support for real relative Z moves on Ruida controllers
- Added warning for full controller memory on Ruida
- Bugfix: cut-through mode no longer affects later layers on Ruida (is also a bug in RDWorks!)
- Modified cut-through mode to allow start / end delays for all controllers
- Added Continuous jogging for TopWisdom controllers
- Added missing file terminator on failed file transfer (Ruida)
- Bugfix: Trocen controllers in 'Soft Origin' mode would be offset if the Job Origin wasn't set correctly
- Added continuous jogging for Trocen controllers
- Added Z jogging for Trocen controllers (controller only supports Z jog in Continuous mode)
- 'Send' will start job immediately after transfer if Shift is held when clicking Send
GCode:
- Added 'Show all' button to GCode console - echoes all gcode sent to controller
- Fixed a position parsing error for older versions of GRBL where status uses commas instead of |'s
- Added 9600 and 19200 baud for comm rates
- Bugfix: Fixed 'Get Positions' for Marlin
- Auto-setup for XCarve / Shapeoko machines
- Bugfix: Fast Whitespace Scan didn't do fast uni-directional return moves if overscan was enabled
- Warn on close while gcode streaming
Import / Export:
- SVG Exporter now correctly merges nested filled shapes into composite paths with holes
- Added support for PDF Resource table inheritance (some PDF's didn't import images properly)
- Added support for ICC color profile parsing in PDF / AI files
- Bugfix: crash with malformed DXF files missing referenced objects
- Bugfix: incorrect scale when importing SVGs with embedded images using px as units (Affinity Designer)
- Bugfix: SVG style parsing bug
- Added support for LZW compressed streams in PDF files
- Added handling of 'none' for SVG fill & stroke, meaning "discard this"
- Bugfix: Importing an LBRN file will now preserve text on path associations
- Bugfix: rotated DXF text would be mirrored for some machine origins
- 'Export' now evaluates variable text first
- Bugfix: vertex bulge with negative extrusion in DXF files caused arcs to flip the wrong way
- Bugfix: PDF files with custom palette dictionaries could cause a parser crash
- Bugfix: PDF crash when import file with missing colorspace definition