Tarkin Laser Fill+Line settings added

I added a 0.25mm, 0.5mm, and 1mm deep Fill+Line setting in the materials library.

It is actually rather agnostic as to which material is being cut. Material thickness is irrelevant. The depth you get will vary depending on what type of plywood or wood is being used, but it is not intended as a precision number anyways.

Ruida basically has 3 modes here- cutting, Fill (with or without line), and Image (grayscale or dither).

Fill is only for closed vector shapes. It does not apply to bitmaps (as a CAD object type, the source file could be bitmap, gif, jpg, etc). Conversely bitmaps work only with Image mode and not Fill.

FYI, quirk of Lightburn- for the Fill+Line mode, the Line will overwrite the “regular” line speed and power. So if you load this setting and change mode the Line with the intent to cut, you will only get the engraving line intended to finish the Fill.

The Fill settings are totally separate from Image settings, BTW. So, if you used one of our ULS lasers, many instinctively want to start testing for bitmaps by making a vector rectangle, select Fill, and pushing around settings. This will not have the effect intended as a Fill is not a bitmap and the Image mode will not even appear as an option in Layers.

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Thanks for this info @dannym. I’m planning to take the full Tarkin class with @Bwarez or @TravisGood at some point to hopefully learn more about my questions below, but wanted to go ahead and throw it out here in the meantime as I can’t imagine I’m the only person that does this sort of thing with the lasers…

What do we do about raster images that are part of a vector graphic? One example, I’ve done a few laser photo prints for friends where I add additional vector lines to the raster image to make things pop more. My vector lines need to stay in the exact right position on my raster image. On our ULS lasers, this was no problem as I could have them in the same file but from what I’m reading here it doesn’t sound like that’s an option in Lightburn. Is there some way to achieve this or does Lightburn require these to be two separate file imports thus compromising alignment?

Is fill always interpreted as one solid fill despite variances in color/shade? If so, how are we to achieve that variation in vector graphics with fills when it is a single object with multiple variations (e.g. pattern or gradient)?

Is printing from Illustrator at all possible with Ruida controlled lasers?

In the Lightburn workspace, bitmaps will just be another object that can be overlaid on top of vectors. It will be its own color Layer and have its own settings. Their spatial relationship is whatever it is on screen, and it is exact.

Is fill always interpreted as one solid fill despite variances in color/shade?

Fill is nothing but a solid, it has no variance. For example, you have text in Blue Layer. You go to Layers and if it’s just “Line”, change to “Fill”. This may or may not turn the text solid on the PC screen itself, that depends on settings. It has no texture or shade. Under Layer settings, you enter the speed, power, and line interval you want and that’s what the laser uses for the entire Fill area. It will not have any dithering or pattern.

That’s if you start with vectors and fill them. I pulled the Asmbly logo off the website as a bitmap. I used Trace to create a vector outline of the Asmbly logo text, and it stays superimposed over the bitmap. The bitmap could also be deleted leaving those vectors, which are closed objects so that text can be Filled. The original bitmap, if not deleted, could only be done as Image in that form.

“EDIT->CONVERT TO BITMAP” turns selected closed vector objects into a bitmap, and that includes an option to fill it when it creates the bitmap object. This is the likely use case. Note unlike Trace, this is a conversion and the original vector object is gone. Not a bad feature suggestion to have a button that leaves the original vector object intact, that allows you to enhance the Image outline with a light engraving along the original vectors.

Is printing from Illustrator at all possible with Ruida controlled lasers?

Corel and Illustrator jobs must be saved and imported into LB. They cannot print to a laser.