Hello to all
I am getting back into working with my machine it has the smoothie board in it , just got LW3 running yesterday and now i want to engrave a few holiday gifts so here’s my question i see how to make the gcode to cut but how do i set up LW to engrave is it that the program recognizes thing’s to cut in one color and engrave in an other, also i hope i am posting to the correct forum Thanks
Dennis
@Dennis_Fuente Color recognition is not available on LW3. For what you need you the following procedure as reference https://github.com/LaserWeb/LaserWeb3/wiki/Workflow:-Setting-up-a-multi-step-job
Ariel
thanks for the reply, so if i understand correctly there are tabs to select cut or engrave a file just haven’t found them yet i guess.
You prepare each operation as a different file, from there you load the to LW in the order you want the to be executed
Each tab will show at the top, and each one is a file loaded
another question i have is dose LW have to be run online also can i just save the gcode and send the file to the machine or dose it have to be connected.
LW runs on the browser as the application screen but its a completely local application. Its does not depend on your connection to the network or internet. you can beed in the middle of the dessert an use it 
To answer you other question, you can export the file and send it to the machine and run it any time. I find with cutting it does not matter what I use, but over USB engraving has never worked well for me. You mileage may vary.
Thanks Ariel and Kelly for your reply’s but being a newbe how do i get the program to engrave versus cut.
@Dennis_Fuente that is directly related to the file type. An image will only be engraved. A vector will only be cut.
Ariel
Thanks again for your reply and help i have to wrap my head around this new software hope it’s not to steep a learning curve.
I am using inkscape and trying to learn that as well again thanks
@Dennis_Fuente there is a steep learning curve if you have never used a vector software before and a gcode machine, but it can be overcome very easy with determination and lots of youtube videos :). Just a hint: On inskape create your doc nd select save as jpg, bmp or png to raster that file. If you want to cut then you have to save as SVG. Mind the for that to work each item in the screen needs to be a path, to be there are to options on inkscape that you can use: Stroke to Patk or Object to path
Ariel I have several CNC machines in my home shop so i am used to there operation and use it’s the software learning curve and work flow that give me problems, this leads me to my next question what is the setting for the beam width for a k40 machine default is 0.5 mm but first test at engraving show a rough line’s.
@Dennis_Fuente in my experience it should be 0.1 to 0.15. Also i me at no disrespect to you on what I said above just wanted to put things In perspective
none taken just giving a little back round thanks for the reply is there a way to move an image to engrave in an area in the middle of my material
Once you load the file there is an option for offset. Those would move the file in X,Y
Ariel
Thanks after pooking around and hacking at the program i finaly found it
one other item i am having trouble with is after making the setting’s for my machine and doing a save refresh the page my setting’s are there but when i close down the program and next i open it my stting’s are gone and i have to redo them again is this a bug
@Dennis_Fuente the only thing I can think is that when you are closing the browser you are erasing the cache which is not a. Default behavior of a browser. You can export your settings, go to setting and into the last tab on the top
Ariel
you are correct and i didn’t think about that duh i will make a setting and make a back up of it, I have the program set up as an icon to lanuch LW when it launches i have it set up to git updates and the program did that everytime but now it just hangs there i have to go throught the command prompt to access the program was there a change in the program.