I am an experienced VCarve user. I’m going to buy the new 44 watt laser on release day next week. Should I buy Lightburn or the Vectric Laser Module? My heart says buy the Vectric because I’m familiar with the software, but my head says that Lightburn probably has more functionality and will support the high powered lasers directly. Thoughts?
While I’ve never used Vectrics laser software, I have used both Vcarve and Lightburn. I also use a stand alone Diode laser, not an attachment for my CNC. So if you factor in those two points, I don’t know how valuable my opinion will be. That being said:
The core vector editing and manipulation between the two different software packages are almost identical. All of the same tools you’d expect to see are there, althought the trimming tools in Lightburn aren’t as robust.
Generating a ‘toolpath’ in both is very similar as well. I use all my machines ‘offline’ as I do a lot of batch work, and I don’t want a PC in my shop. From what I’ve seen MOST people use Lightburn with direct communication with their lasers. Because of this I can’t speak to how/if Lightburn talks to the Onefinity directly. But generating stand along GCode for offline use is very easy.
If you can use Vectric software, I don’t think you’ll have much trouble picking up and using Lightburn. And since Lightburn is so commonly used, if there’s something you don’t know how to do, someone has made a tutorial showing you how.
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I have not used Lightburn, but I can tell you that the Vectric Module has served all my purposes. I am sure that Lightburn is a bit more robust and probably has things that I will never use, but I have not had anything that I can’t do with VCarve to date… I have been using it with the 7W diode and air assist and it is pretty seamless and fits in my workflow without a hitch…
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The Vectric site only mentions the Jtech 7 and 14-watt versions. Is there any reason to think it won’t support the 44-watt laser?
I dont see why the Vectric laser module wouldnt work with the more powerful laser. It’s simple to use and lets you enter the laser parameters.
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I have used Vetric and LightBurn. I have found that designing in Veteric is a lot easier than LightBurn. LightBurn is probably better than Vetric for burning, so . . .
Most of my projectes are designed in Vetric and then exported in LighBurn for cutting.
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Perhaps the 44w is still too new to show up in Vetric. Give it some time.
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I have used both.
I prefer using vectric on my onefinity simply because it makes my workflow simpler on hybrid projects utilizing both the cnc bits and lasers.
I find that i prefer the old stopgap of putting a “laser endmill” in as a tool for cutting, as it gives fine control of the z axis by altering the depth per pass. I don’t believe the settings in the laser module influence that. So you dont absolutely need the vectric laser module. You can cut perfectly fine and you can also tell vectric that the laser is an endmill with a very fine diameter and tell it to do engraves. It will competently do hatches and fills just as well as it would with an endmill. Photo engraves are a bit touchier in that manner.
Lightburn does offer z axis control… i think. I’ve not tried with that.
Lightburn is far superior for image drawing. With the settings for scanning white area (overscan i think?) your burn times will be much faster. If you try to use the “laser endmill” workaround in vectric you will have extremely slow burn times. The logical order it follows for an endmill means a boatload of travel time that isnt necessary. Even when rastering i had overall poorer results in both speed and resulting image quality. Acceptable, but slow. And you better be johnny on the spot with your line spacings and spot size.
The laser module in vectric is quite decent for engraves in my opinion, i just find the lack of z control when using that irritating. And maybe it is there and im overlooking it. It just drives me nuts to not have a feature i liked be implemented with their main laser control scheme. I have 11.0 I think? And Lightburn is still faster with my settings, particularly when an image has lots of white space.
The preview option in lightburn is invaluable. It is way better than the preview in vectric where lasers are concerned. For a laser heavy project it may well be a deciding factor. Its hard to fix screw ups on laser projects. Both have good image modification, although i prefer doctoring vectors in vectric, lightburn might actually do a slightly better job tracing images, especially where there are lots of gradients. Lightburn also has many more options for output types and five zillion methods of dithering and rastering and what not.
So ultimately I still use both. They’re both good and I do not feel put out by either, those are all ultimately small gripes. Large laser engrave or panel or acrylic? Going to use lightburn. Project using both cnc tools and the laser? Going to use vectric. Like i said i think z axis control is available in lightburn as well, but i haven’t investigated, and i found the laser endmill hack to be a very good workaround and i like it for laser cutting jobs. I just don’t do that many jobs involving tons of small cutouts with the laser, and while my first forays with lasers used a direct connection to a computer and could utilize framing, i just got on the habit of using vectric and setting my offsets and zeros that way… if that sounds roundabout, it is, but the laser to me is a fairly niche (but valued) tool so I’m hardly claiming to have the most refined workflow.
For vectric MAKE SURE that you make a separate post-processor that will not activate the laser until it is time for the job to actually initiate by the way. If you are sending the spin-up signal so to speak it WILL fire the laser… and what that means is that when traveling to the start position or when it would be sitting awaiting a confirmation for the next job (if you provided multiple laser toolpaths with different settings in a single file) it WILL idle with the laser on which could be really bad. The post processors are very easy to tweak but i have definitely left some “idiot marks” on pieces when i used the wrong PP and it dragged a full power laser beam across the project when started. Now i have my postprocessors labeled in all caps “ONEFINITY CUTTING TOOLS ONLY” and “ONEFINITY LASER ONLY” so now i only forget it very rarely.
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