LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

I imported it into LB and exported as the three available files- see it this works for you- If not I can open in Illustrator or whatever is necessary.
Are you not Dave V. on the LB forum? I figured that you had LB.

. . .

These are all the Boss test files - if you need a different format let me know

Gene-
Yes, that's me. I have downloaded the trial version twice, but I really like what I can do with Corel and haven't been able to make the change away from it. I know a number of people on the LB forum have asked about a design version of the program that wouldn't necessarily interface with a laser for various reasons. If Oz had something like that that i could play with off and on I might switch over. But I have enough going on that trying to switch cold turkey is not reasonable.

I looked at LightBurn way back before I got my 6445g, but at that time Oz didn't support the Top Wisdom controllers and I was looking at Corel for other reasons. If it had been compatible I might have went that direction to start with, but changing after over a year of work and files will not be an easy process.

Pete-
Thanks for the test files.

I'll go through them all later.

There’s no reason you can’t continue with Corel - there’s a macro like RDWorks has to move content from Corel to LB. I don’t claim that LightBurn is the perfect design tool, and expect anyone serious to use Corel, Illustrator, InkScape, etc.

LightBurn does a few things more easily than other tools, like auto-welding of text, and bending it, and it offers more control over the cut plan than RD, and generates output for the machine in less time.

If you need a while to poke at it, we can extend trials easily.

I do all of that in Corel. Most of my work is one or two or three of an item, then I'm on to the next one. Rarely do I do any kind of 'production' runs.

Since i got the RDWorks color pallet into Corel, the only thing I do in RDWorks is set power and speed and optimize cuts. Once in a while rotate pieces 90 to fit the scrap, but that's it. it is strictly a short stop on the way to the laser.

Part of that path is I do my design work in the office, then save it out to the laptop at the laser. Corel lets me install on two computers with one license, and RDWorks is unlimited. I have one of each on each computer. I can design and dump to RDWorks in the office. Test and tweak and then send to the file to laser laptop. If I find a problem during a run, I can open Corel at the laser, tweak it, and dump to RDWorks out there. Since LB does not have a design but no laser interface version, I would have to purchase two copies to continue in my current work process. That makes it doubly expensive for the only two things I can't do now.

I realize there may be a few other little things it does better or different from Corel, but none jump out at me when I've tried the trial version.

I'm not saying it's a bad program, in fact I think it's a really great program. The camera is good, and the Print and Cut for multi part pieces is fantastic for smaller machines. But for the work I do those are the only two features that dramatically differentiate it from what I already have, and the only one I would like to play with more is the camera. But since LB doesn't recognize my web cam, and RDWorks seems to be in process of doing that, I can't justify the additional cost.

I can extend the trial and play some more if you have any suggestions of things to look at. The trial ID I have is 6053541d-8e63-4310-9f49-973e8b2e3dec

Dave- you will want to request the extension from LB directly I think. The mighty Oz monitors this forum but I suspect he has his hands full with LB. On the layer colors, one of my favorite LB features is the numbers on the colors- that is worth the price in itself- simple but it works a treat.

Dave Vigness wrote: Tue Jan 05, 2021 Since LB does not have a design but no laser interface version, I would have to purchase two copies to continue in my current work process.

LightBurn's default license key allows installation and concurrent use on two computers, and we'll add a 3rd for free. Additional computers beyond the first three are $20. So you're correct there is no "design only" version, but you're incorrect about what that means. I assume most people will have a design system and a dedicated laser system (I do), and some people have a laptop they travel with to show clients, or another household member who wants to use it, so that's the default.

It's not like we're secretive about it either: https://lightburnsoftware.com/pages/how ... ense-works

LightBurn is also dramatically faster than RD at most things, including generation of the job that you send to the laser, and it tends to do a better job with the inside / outside sorting, and path planning in general. For example, the common Eiffel Tower model - LightBurn produces an RD file that runs in a full minute and a half less time than the one produced by RDWorks. The bulk of that file is dominated by cutting time, but the reduced traversals & direction changes mean less wasted time in between cuts, and time is money, and it generates the job data faster too.

I've bumped your trial for a while so you have time to play. We've just added the ability to run a job from an arbitrary point, so you can drag the time slider in the preview to any point, and click 'Start here' to run it from that point forward. I know the controller will do this if the power fails, but that's it - this gives you the ability to re-cut spots easily that didn't make it through, or re-run an aborted or stopped job.

We've also added tool layers, which act as guides, but are more powerful because you can set them to be included or excluded when computing the job origin, but they are never sent to the laser. You can use them to add notes to a design, play with framing, etc. We've also added image masking, so you can crop bitmaps, but it's non-destructive and the mask shape can be edited live while still cropping the image.

I will have to claim ignorance on the two computers per license. That's what I get for taking someone at their word instead of checking with you guys earlier last year. I will play with it some more, thank you for the extension.