What Is Offset Fill In Lightburn

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Welcome Back
In todays video I will take you through how and when to use Offset fill in Lightburn. This Cut/Layer mode can be easily overlooked so I want to bring it to as many peoples attention as I can.
Offset Fill has saved me so much time when it comes to batch production, so much so that in this video I prove to you that this single setting made the difference from 13 minutes to 2 minutes.
Although this setting wont be this advantageous on all projects it is still worth making sure to check if there is any time to save by selecting offset fill before previewing your project and sending it to your laser engraver.
Thankyou for your time I hope this video has helped in some way, don't forget to like and subscribe!!!
#laser #lightburn #laserengraving #lasercutting #Lightburntutorial #omtech #diodenlaser #xtool #co2lasercuttingmachine #laserproducts #how #howto

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Etsy Shop Link mbwkdesign.etsy.com

[@Ian-Hall]

I wished I'd known this years ago, I would have saved quite a few days by now. Excellent tutorial. Thanks.

[@antoniomromo]

Lord this is the first time someone has explained this setting.vwill save me ages!! Thanks.

[@ditdat3868]

You could have tested it for yourself, lower quality output.

[@kumarkrishnan8309]

Very good info. From regular fill to flood fill, I cut my time in half. With offset fill, I cut that time by 75%! Huge difference from a 2.25 hr job to just over 35 minutes….WOW!

[@h3rbski839]

for large boarders like this you should give flood fill a try too, i usually find its faster than offset fill and offset fill can sometimes leave burn marks. flood fill is found by double clicking a layer then clicking the advanced tab on the new window that pops up :)

[@anomicxtreme]

I'm really glad that somebody finally found this setting, I have been wondering about this for a very long time because I noticed early on a long time ago that so much time gets wasted when, for example let's say you're drawing a circle and it just travels from left to right blazing a little line when it goes across the part that it's supposed to burn, and I always thought well that's a waste, this thing has an x and y axis it should be able to move in a circle so why doesn't it? It should be able to burn that Circle as one complete line with no brake by traveling in a circular pattern or in your case, the square. I've never seen anybody else figure out how to do it. This is awesome that you figured that out.

[@easymac79]

Depending on the design and material, I can see offset fill being useful. I typically use Flood Fill instead, however. It saves the traversal moves and keeps the heat high in the zone it's working. Maybe you want to trace a border but let the material relax before being hit again, this is where offset would be more useful. Typically when I'm using fill, it's to burn away a good deal of material to make a recess or well, not necessarily engraving art. In such cases, offset fill typically leaves rings of material I need to scrape out. (Could reduce interval size, but my material is crap plywood and too* much power will cut all the way through weak and hollow spots in the wood) To find "Flood Fill" Double click on one of the cut layers in your side panel to open "cut settings editor". Click the 'advanced' tab underneath the first section of speed/power/mode and click the checkbox to enable.

[@fipgauges1305]

Time saved yes, quality goes out the window though. Flood fill seems to work well but depends on we’ll set axis

[@Rexsticy]

I just received my first laser printer today, Atomstack x20 pro, and this is the best tip I’ve seen in all the videos I’ve watched. Thank you. Keep it coming. Appreciate the tips!

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Thank you for watching. I'm glad you were able to come away with some new information. I will do my best to keep the tips coming.

[@trishmadore2104]

Thank you very much for the tip of offset fill compared to regular fill!!! What a time saver!!

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

You are so welcome!

[@sbess1965]

This tip is the best. I made some wooden ornaments for Christmas and couldn't understand why the offset border I created was causing the engraving time to be over 20 minutes, for a simple 4-inch ornament. Didn't make sense. So now I'm very eager to give this a shot and I think you just saved me hours worth of engraving time. Thanks so much.

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

You are very welcome. I have had a couple of comments that say they have had quality issues for some reason so please make sure to test on something disposable first. If you do have a quality issue I recommend using flood fill. It will take longer than offset fill but it will be quicker than a normal fill you can find the setting if you double click on the colour layer that your border is set to, it will be a tick box or a red and green slide box. If you have any problems leave me a message and I'll get back to you ASAP. Thank you for your comment.

[@VigilantPillow]

Another setting to check out is the "flood fill" setting under the advanced tab in the fill settings. Depending on the design, it can save even more time. Sometimes it's slower though.

[@StardustandSeaHawaii]

Would the flood fill work ok on acrylic? 😬 I’m having such a hard time not burning all the way through my acrylic AND attempting to get clean fills at the same time :(

[@BloxiYouTuber]

You might mention its going to be considerably hotter since the laser is constantly on and on in one particular area. Definitely faster in some instances. Great video.

[@jungsomewhat]

Get the air on makes a difference

[@MarkErvin-mr7fb]

Great info! This has saved me so much time and effort since learning of the Fill Offset!

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Glad it helped!

[@Kosmoski99]

Thanks for this info, please keep the videos coming.

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

I will do. Thankyou for taking an interest in my video.

[@KJMarchelak]

top Quality video and enormous tip on offset fill - beautifully detailed explanation.

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Thankyou very much

[@CNCATHome]

That is an interesting feature. I have manually taken something like this and cut it into two pieces to avoid all of the movement across empty space. This is even a better option! I didn't know it was there. Thank you for this video!

[@CNCATHome]

I incorporated this into my latest video. It will come out Jan 1. Using this feature cut the burn time in half in my example. Huge time saver and way easier to use than cutting your images or vectors into sections.

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

That's fantastic. I look forward to watching it.

[@CNCATHome]

@@MadeBetterWithKnowledge - I look forward to any comments you might have on this. I am going to reference this video in the description of that video.

[@ThePOVLife]

I wish I saw this video yesterday LOL. Awesome stuff

[@Fancylooks]

It is great to know!

[@donhayden336]

hell yeah

[@reidjensen569]

Thank you for posting this video! This will be a huge help!

[@LGB2024-1]

I am new and this is so awesome...thank you

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

You are welcome

[@granthogarth8318]

Brillliant! Thank you for this!

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

You're very welcome!

[@outbak2]

A good explanation and something i didnt know, so thanks for that video. Am looking forward your future ones, especially if they are woodwork and laser related.

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Thankyou for your time watching. I am working on several projects at the moment, I hope you get some value out of all my future videos.

[@deaningram3]

great video, thank you for this. I have been avoiding borders due to the time it took.

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Glad it was helpful!

[@onlyeyeno]

Thanks for taking the time and effort of making this video and sharing Your knowledge :) Best regards

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

My pleasure!

[@BobBob-eh5sb]

Makes sense when you think about it. Probably make the border using the offset feature, so it’s an offset, so use offset fill to fill the offset.😊

[@sannyassi73]

Was wondering about this- nice! Thanks for the tip

[@Simeon3]

Invaluable tip, thanks 🙏

[@Alex-je6od]

Nice video!! LightBurn has been sucking in recent releases though and isn't funding development much anymore (unstable, dropping Linux support, etc). I'd invest time/money in other laser burning software at this point.

[@willemjvr8790]

Thanks will save me a ton of time.

[@joh1717]

Thank you. This is useful 😮

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Glad it was helpful!

[@johnagorman]

smart. thanks for sharing this feature

[@nathanwolf5547]

Really useful info

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Glad it was helpful!

[@donalddunn2983]

That is something no one else talks about, Thanks. I have a question that I hope you can answer for me. Can you tell me how to turn that cross hair on and off? Mine does not come on and I need to know if it's a problem with the machine or if something got turned off some how?

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Hi Donald. I'm sorry for the late reply to your message. For some reason, I have missed it. The crosshair, I'm assuming, is for when you are framing in lightburn. If so, if you hold the shift key and click the frame button, it will turn on whilst it frames. If this doesn't work straight away, there will be a setting to turn on in lightburn. I hope this helps. If it doesn't work please let me know and I'll find out for you.

[@hogdog53]

Great tip. Thank you.

[@gerritgeldenhuys2763]

Fantastic tutorial. I do notice though how the laser slows down to change direction. Will this not over burn the corners

[@yankomaceda34]

Thank you very much!!

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Your welcome 🙏

[@SebbyG86]

ive yet to play with a lazer but it seems somewhat apparent that with fill, the lazer overshoots the burn area in order to slow down and change direction without burning the material. this offset fill method, as clearly shown from your square border example, slows down to change direction on the corners, if the software doesnt compensate for this change in speed by altering the lazer strength then surely you will aggressively burn the corners of your work and you should see a decrease in quality. This will probably not apply to a lazer that is driven via ball screws since the head is so light, momentum will not take too much affect and your probably running it very fast. On an entry level diode lazer using belts i would expect potential problems trying to run at speed. You could possibly combat this by running slower with less power so the change in direction is more uniform. This is just a guess, i have zero experience with lazers, but a lot of experience with CNC's (industrial) and 3d printers

[@pistonslapuk]

It’s nice to see a fellow UK laser owner. What do you do about fumes mate? We are getting battered paying for Bofa ad1000 filters from cutting mdf

[@richardsandford1607]

Thank you!

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

You're welcome!

[@Electronics_Collection]

Cool tutorial thanks! I have one question, is there such an option where the laser power is constant but the speed is variable. I mean when the laser is moving fast it doesn't have enough time to burn, and when it's moving slowly it has enough time to burn the wood. So that all shades are based on the speed at which the laser passes

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Hi thanks for your question. My honest answer is I don't know. My guess would be that it wouldn't be possible as software for lasers work on a dot to dot basis. The power is set to fire at a different power depending on the cluster of dots. Or power on for a black dot power off for a white dot. It is an interesting idea though.

[@frankligas2249]

Thanks for the video. Helpful

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Your more than welcome

[@111potatoes]

Brilliant video thank you. You said you imported an image for the picture frame and I can see you have the options - line, fill and offset. But when I import an image, e.g. a banner outline shape, it just says image? Is there a file format I should be importing with that then gives me line, fill or offset fill options?

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Yes absolutely. I'm sorry for the confusion. The image needs to be imported as a vectorised image for example an svg or dxf file. If you are unable to find a suitable vector graphic you can easily vectorise an image in lightburn by selecting the image, right clicking and in the drop down menu select trace. You may need to use the sliders to increase or decrease the amount of detail. I hope this helps.

[@111potatoes]

@@MadeBetterWithKnowledge thank you so much, very helpful 👍🏼

[@StephenBoyd21]

Top tip, thanks for that

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

No problem 👍

[@mudshark1971]

So do you put the border of the name plate on a different color and set it to offset fill, just the border

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

If I have text to be engraved on the same job I put the border on a separate layer. Sometimes people just want a border in different styles in which case I batch out a load with their specifications. Alot of people have their names cut out in vinyl as its easier to change but they want a permanent pattern around the outside. I hope this helps.

[@timg.998]

The Problem I have with Offset Fill is that it leaves a visible line in the middle of my engraving. Let‘s say I‘m engraving a rectangle, then the laser is engraving from the outer border go the middle in getting smaller rectangles, until there is just a line in the middle of the rectangle. But this last line is never engraved, so that it‘s visible if you take a close view. I hope this was understandable.

[@okin8949]

This changes when you change the resolution (line interval) and eventually do a second pass with different resolutions - that equals the "line problem", but takes more time for the second pass. Another option is to set the resolution above your original laser thickness to overlap the lines of the offset fill

[@jrh7647]

Defocus the laser a little bit to soften the edges. 5% out of focus for start.

[@persona5305]

I do Fill first twice and followed by offset fill twice again. it also matters when you change the intervals I used 0.06 to the smallest 0.03

[@KarlBunker]

Argh; why didn't I see this video yesterday? I was engraving a clock face, and it took forever because the laser would do a tiny bit of the "9", then sloooowwly scan across to do a tiny bit of the "3," and so on and so on. According to Preview, this will go much much faster with offset fill.

[@leatherweather1646]

Hi how are you. Kindly I have main issue in diode laser machine. My diode module is not moving correctly on clicking the move arrow key. Right , Left arrows clicking work good , but when I click up and down arrow key it’s not working correctly. When I click on up arrow the laser module move down, and when I click down arrow key the module goes up. Kindly tell me how do I correct the issue. The machine is twotrees.

[@IronWolvesMC-Original6]

Your amount of Overscan on Fill is ridiculously huge.

[@Ziplock9000]

When I go to the preview for a 'Fill', the laser just goes where it's actually doing work. I don't know why you have red bars of wasted time either side @ 0:55. The square takes more time overall too. LB 1.4.05

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Hi thanks for your comment. In all of the previews of the standard fill mode there are red travel lines on either side of the examples. This is to do with over scanning. Overscanning helps to keep engravings accurate by giving the laser time to decelerate and accelerate whilst the laser is not fireing. It also helps with skipping on line intervals as well. Sometimes, the laser can skip a line or two giving botched results in the end product. Over scanning helps prevent this from happening.

[@Ziplock9000]

Ah that makes sense. I suppose you have to set Lightburn up to do that. The official settings I loaded for my TS2-20W didn't enable that. Is it something you added yourself? @@MadeBetterWithKnowledge

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

So with CO2 lasers with a Ruida or Trocen controller its applied by default at about 2.5%. With Diode lasers it has to be applied manually. If you double click your engraving layer, in the layer tab, in the window where it has the settings for bi-directional fill and cross hatch there should be a setting for over scanning with a red/green slide button. By enabling it you should be able to set your desired percentage. This should help you get slightly faster speeds and help mitigate any skipping of lines when trying to engrave quickly, especially as you have a 20W the modules start getting quite heavy after 10W. I Hope this helps Ziplock ( I havent used a diode for 8 months but i checked the settings for my Ortur and thats where i found it) Thanks again. @@Ziplock9000

[@Stevieboy7]

I understand how it can save time with JUST a border... but in your example case with the text on the inside, the laser would be filling the text at the same time as hitting the border..... so I can't imagine how it would be quicker to do a fill on the text, and then come back and do the outline seperately... why not just do it all in one pass?

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

I agree with the point you are making . When it comes to a large area that needs to be engraved without empty space, the normal fill option would be preferable. The application of using any setting is subject to the individual project. As I stated at the end of the video, I wanted to draw the viewers' attention to check and not neglect offset fill as an option as it COULD save time with their projects. In regards to my sample case. You probably assume that the text and the border are done at the same time wich might be better to be done as a standard fill, but as a project or product as a whole they are made differently. Because I make so many of these, I batch them out at 50 at a time. The engravings are done in two stages. The slot on top is cut out for the acrylic or mdf, then are flipped to engrave the border, and they are then boxed ready for when the details are needed to be filled in on the inside. I do thank you for commenting on this though as I am still new to creating videos, and I can improve on executing my explanations better.

[@trerad6773]

Do you run the same power and speed setting as when you engrave?

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

I run the speeds and max power at the same settings. The only thing I change is the minimum power. The only reason for this is when the laser travels to a corner it slows down. The only thing I would suggest is to just run a quick test just to make sure you're happy with the results before committing to a project the first time.

[@michaeldorety624]

@@MadeBetterWithKnowledgeI 100 percent change my settings especially the LPI and power…

[@julinator04]

You could have explained this in way less time

[@MadeBetterWithKnowledge]

Thank you for letting me know.

[@Clockeater578]

To be honest I like this pace in comparison to the shorts. Thank you for sharing your experience in this video.

[@juniordayzmodding4678]

Dude in first engrave you fill the entire box in the second you only filled the borders. This have nothing to do with offset fill or fill. 😢You either fill a box or frame. Useless video. I'm sorry. But there is two different shapes to fill. I know fill and offset fill but this explanation gave nothing to do with learning lightburn. You can fill or off set fill entire box or just the frame. It save time but is not the same.

[@sk8infreek]

Dude, I don't think you paid attention to the video. He explained that with the full box in the first one, offset fill doesn't matter. He said it matters when you have long gaps in a shape, then offset fill is much faster. They were entirely different examples. It is not a useless video at all.

[@roberttroutman7651]

Thanks. You Rock!