LAOS Laser

h1. LaOS VisiCut User Guide

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!>visicut-logo.png!

*VisiCut* is a stand-alone control program that accepts a file to be cut out from any 2D drawing program. It is made by "Thomas Oster":http://visicut.wordpress.com

VisiCut is not a drawing program: once you have sent your drawing to VisiCut you can no longer modify it, but still scale, rotate and move it on the laser-bed. In VisiCut you specify the settings for your cutter and for the material to cut. You can create

a whole set of material settings, so you do not have to enter them each time.

(LaOS can also be used with a printer driver inside a 2D drawing program like Inkscape, as described elsewhere in this wiki).

h2. Installing VisiCut

Available for all platforms from https://amedeo.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/groups/visicut/wiki/a3a46/Download.html and install.

h2. Selecting the HPC

* Open the VisiCut app and go to Edit -> Settings -> Manage Lasercutters... and select LAOS HPC. If there is none yet, click "+" and choose the LAOS driver.

* Click Edit. A window appears with settings for the HPC. 

* If you do not see the following values in the window edit them. If you want to use a different IP-address, enter it. And Save. 

p=. !SettingsHPC.png!

* On the VisiCut screen select LAOS HPC as lasercutter (If this is your only lasercutter, it will be selected automatically and no dropdown-box is shown). 

h2. First move

* If you're using Inkscape, it is quite convenient to install the Inkscape-Plugin (Extras -> Install Inkscape-Extension). After a restart of Inkscape, you can directly

run VisiCut on the selected elements by "Extensions -> Lasercut Path -> Open with VisiCut".

* If you use another program, draw something - a square will be fine - in it, save it as a .svg file and open it with File -> Open in VisiCut. It will appear in the colored window.

* If you do not see it, click 'Everything => Cut' in the mapping box.

p=. !cutline.png! 

* You can move the square around and scale it. If you click two time, you can also rotate it. Right-Click on it to see other options. Position it some 10 cms from the left and top. 

* Now leave the lid of your lasercutter open and click Execute. The job will be sent to the cutter. 

* Neglect the pop-up window about closing the lid etc., just hit OK. The laser head should now draw the square.

h2. Setting speed and power

* Before you can cut you need the set the power and the speed for the selected material.

* Check the ‘Edit settings before Executing” and hit ‘Execute' again. 

* A window will pop up where you can edit the settings for your specific material. 

p=. !edit.png!

* OK will sent your job to the printer. And you can choose to keep this setting if you wish.

* Material settings for the LS3020 are in the (future) Laser Cuttings section

h2. How to use VisiCut with Inkscape

This "tutorial":http://hci.rwth-aachen.de/visicut_and_inkscape explains how to create SVG files with Inkscape that have different layers.

This "second tutorial":http://hci.rwth-aachen.de/visicut_cut_and_engrave how to open files with cut and engrave layers with VisiCut.

The convention in LaOS is to use red thin lines for cutting and black thin lines for marking. A thin line is 1pt or thinner (pt = 0,353mm). Anything else will be rastered (engraved).

h2. Printing directly from Inkscape

A plug-in to directly cut from Inkscape can be installed directly from VisiCut: "Extras -> Install Inkscape Extension" (Inkscape restart required). A Lasercut Path will be added under the Extensions tab. 

p=. !openwithvisicut.png!

h2. Adding new material settings

Most likely that you will want to include materials in the Materials List with your own settings. Just click the "+"-Button next to the material-box to create a new material, or click the "+" button next

to the material thickness, to add a new thickness for the current material.