How to cut following lines and not like printer

[Nick-Nitro]

Hi to All,
i'm quite new in the laser world and i try to make some test in order to fully understand my laser engraver.
i've bought a laser engraver from bangood.

jumping into topic, i tried some images, or text (making them with inkscape) and the results is quite good.
the problme is that the laser acts like a printer, following horizontal lines and turning on qhen it have to engrave.
the results is that i have to print an image can be good, but if i have to engrave a square, is a very long work in this way.

what software i can use in order to follow the line and not act like printer?

i currently prepare my codes using inkscape and the Raster2Laser GCode Generator by 305 Engineering.

thank you for help

[Administrator]

Welcome to the forum Nick...!!!

Both T2 Laser and BenCutLaser can cut lines. They both can be found in the Software section of this forum.

[Nick-Nitro]

Thank you for reply,
this forum is plenty of contents to search in.

my problem is not simply cut lines, but make the correct GCode to use.
horizontal lines are fine.
other lines are mabe by points in sequential row like a printer. i think i should use some other tool to make GCode instead of the inkscape plugin.

both BenCut and T2 take in input direcly the image and manage the code by themselves, is it right?

Looking to T2, i see options like "horizontal engraving" and "diagonal engraving", that is the way of engraving that i want to avoid.
i would like to obtain something similar to a pencil draging, where te laser continuoausly follow the line in order to reduce total time

[Zax]

That's correct for T2Laser, you can save the G-code (in the registered version) and use it how you like.

If you want to laser the outline (vector) rather than scan it as lines (raster), you load an image, trace it and run the machine all in one program.

[Administrator]

>both BenCut and T2 take in input direcly the image and manage the code by themselves, is it right?

Yes...both programs generate gcode themselves.

If you can attach a .dxf file I can take a look at it and tell you if BCL can handle it or not.

Other file formats T2 can handle.

The basic difference between the two programs is that T2 is used for engraving and BCL is used for cutting out parts.

[Nick-Nitro]

Thanks To All,

you find attached the DXF of the item (is a clip frame for track ir).
is not perfect, if it's not good enought tomorrow i will redraw it.

thanks again

[Administrator]

There are some problems with this .dxf file, from a BCL perspective:

1. There are duplicate Line objects. Several of them. I will remove them using BCL.

2. The file has some minor internal corruption and I cannot always load it into BCL successfully. Once I could, inside BCL I did a save as under a new name and saved it to disk with a good internal structure.

3. I'm checking it now to make sure all the drawing objects are flowing in the same direction.

I will post this cleaned up dxf file as soon as I'm done with it.

[Administrator]

I'm attaching your cleaned up .dxf file below. UPDATE: I found another problem with this file. I will upload it as soon as I figure out what's going on with it.

If you want to cut out that part using BCL, you can do that now pretty easily.

I'm attaching some screen shots showing that I assigned my laser cutting tool to all of the drawing objects.

Then I generated the gcode for it...no gcode errors...then I ran the job in the VLM (Virtual Laser Machine) or also known as a gcode visualizer and it ran fine.

The only thing you will have to do if you want to cut this part is re-sequence each drawing object to be in the correct order for cutting. The objects are not now in the correct cutting sequence.

I have made a video tutorial on how to do this and then use the FC/IC/LC tags (also in the video) to tell BCL to treat all of these 49 objects are one continuous object for laser cutting. It will then cut perfectly fine.

BTW this new file should work flawlessly in T2 Laser as well.

If you need more help on this, just email me.

[Administrator]

Here is the updated .dxf file. There was another extra Line object I missed removing.

This file is now (I think!) pretty clean.

BTW I also moved it closer to the 0,0 coordinates, as it was way too far away from the lower left corner of the work area! Your drawing should always be nice and close to the 0,0 reference points.

[Zax]

The original and Ralph's modified version load correctly with T2Laser but your original has various issues, most of which are fixed with my DXF optimizer but it could still be cleaned up.

[Nick-Nitro]

Thank you both for the time and interest.
I now try to spend some time to understand how to manage the work.

For the moment, with BCL, i imported the DXF and set the toolpath, saved it, and then, when i try to load it to generato Gcode, it says is out of date.
On T2, i have to understand how to trace the file in order to setup the tool path.

is there some documentation on those software?

moreover, with Grbl controller i'm able to load GCode and move the tool, with T2 and BCL, both says that are connected but the tool do not jog when i try to move it.

[Zax]

In T2Laser click Help / Manual or press Shift-F1.

You import the DXF (right click the open icon as a shortcut), set your feed rate and then generate G-code, that's it. No tool paths to setup. If you use the DXF Optimizer and Relocate Origin options in the Settings / Advanced Settings menu it will fix most of the problems in your original vector file.

I have YouTube videos which cover the basics, including DXF files.

So regarding the laser connection, on both programs the "Connected" means you have opened the COM port. If you don't get a Grbl Ready message you haven't actually connected to the laser or the Grbl firmware isn't setup correctly.

Double check you have the right port selected, so in T2Laser disconnect (Machine menu or right click the big red button) and verify the COM port is correct.

[Administrator]

>For the moment, with BCL, i imported the DXF and set the toolpath, saved it, and then, when i try to load it to generato Gcode, it says is out of date.

What are the exact steps you are trying to do? I want to see if I can duplicate what you are seeing?

[Nick-Nitro]

>For the moment, with BCL, i imported the DXF and set the toolpath, saved it, and then, when i try to load it to generato Gcode, it says is out of date.

What are the exact steps you are trying to do? I want to see if I can duplicate what you are seeing?

Okey, today i also tried to reDo the DXF in a more clean way.


I've made some screenshot in order to explain what i'm doing.

I import the DXF.
On toolpath windows i setup the toolpath order of cutting and direction, in order to make laser following the entire perimeter.
Once i do that, i go into the toolpath files subfolder and add, rename and save what i think is the toolpath
Then i go into G-Code Generation windows, i click on LoadTPFILE and i get the error.
if i ignore the error and click on Generate GCode, i get another error.

Moreover, after make the toolpath, i get 2 new files in the folder (.box and .ray), and the DXF used become unreadable by most of the programs i use for read DXF (even T2 says it's unreadable)



I also made a new DXF, more cleaner respect to the previous one, and i think it's better. you can find it below.

[Nick-Nitro]

In T2Laser click Help / Manual or press Shift-F1.

You import the DXF (right click the open icon as a shortcut), set your feed rate and then generate G-code, that's it. No tool paths to setup. If you use the DXF Optimizer and Relocate Origin options in the Settings / Advanced Settings menu it will fix most of the problems in your original vector file.

I have YouTube videos which cover the basics, including DXF files.

So regarding the laser connection, on both programs the "Connected" means you have opened the COM port. If you don't get a Grbl Ready message you haven't actually connected to the laser or the Grbl firmware isn't setup correctly.

Double check you have the right port selected, so in T2Laser disconnect (Machine menu or right click the big red button) and verify the COM port is correct.

Thank you, i solved the problem changing the baudrate to 9600. actually i had connection but i didn't receive the Grbl ready message.

About the simplicity, i tried to engrave some tests, but the results was not good as expected.

as results of the bad drawings (my fault) the laser head was jumping on the working area ath the end of each line, and didn't follow a perimetral path. i obtained an incomplete drawing with missing lines and with some imprecisions due to laser that was jumpint somewhere else...

attached you can fine the results.

i'm surely wrong somewhere but i have to figure out where.

Thnak you both for your patience and support.
i'm a newbie in the field, and i know how it feels.