RDWorks Materials Library Manager

[Raymond Scott]

I know that so many people on this forum want to share information about each of their laser machines, projects that we have made, and the settings we use for specific materials. I noticed that it can be a bit difficult to share material settings, but RDWorks has started a method for saving and loading settings. I have been working on extra software to help improve our ability to share the materials libraries.

The Material Library Manager is a new and developing software for me to write. I am trying to use every parameter that RDWorks has available in the "Layer" properties. I am collecting all of the available material properties from the manufacturer's library and try to make them manageable. We can now delete materials, create new materials, edit existing materials, create a new material based on a previous material, backup the library, import someone else's library, create a small library of materials to send to a friend .... and more.

This hasn't gone perfectly smooth, so I am continuing to work on the software. I expected to open the manufacturer's library and find every setting saved from the project settings. This is not always the case. It appears that the manufacturer does not save every setting with each material. Maybe some values are expected to be default or some parameters aren't used yet.

I have been making some improvements from time to time and would prefer to just leave a link to the directory of where I put the software on my server. The current version seems pretty good. The "Scan" and "Cut" modes seem to be done. I still need to finish the "Process Modes" of "Dot" and "Pen". I have worked out many of the bugs I found, but I am always willing to listen to more input.

My software (RDWorks Library Mod-Manager) is available for free for... For all users to download.

As of 24 June 2019, the Materials Library Mod-Manager is at Beta Version 0.1.1.16
http://www.rabbitlaserusa.com/DriverDis ... ryManager/

I will also be posting some default libraries and specialty libraries. Glass, Woods, Plywoods, acrylics, styrene ..etc.

I would greatly appreciate for more users to try using the Library Manager software .. and tell me what bugs they might have found. .. and some feedback for how beneficial they found it to be.

Thank You,
Ray Scott

[Gene Uselman]

That is really slick Ray- I have always used Notepad++. What would be great would be to be able to make headings [such as cut-engrave or wood-acrylic-plyw] and rearrange the file order. Thanks for sharing with us. Gene

[Daryl Lyons]

What exactly do "Dot" and "Pen" do in the software? I understand the Scan and Cut functionality as well as what the Dot does, but not what it would actually be used for. Pen doesn't show up in the manual, or at least I couldn't find it. Any help would be useful.
Thanks,
Daryl

[Pete Cyr]

RDWorks Learning Lab 167 Auto Focus Frustration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE

Russ goes into some depth - @14.54 he starts to answer your specific question but you need the earlier info to understand the process - which is jack up of course.
Our manual says

"
Pen up and down: If the machine includes a lift platform, this function can be enabled to set a
different platform height during processing. This function enables the write position to be set to a
level such that the auto focus sensor will not interfere with processing of the work piece. If it can be
determined that there is no problem with the processing of the work piece, there is no need to
adjust the pen position. This setting may also be used to de-focus the beam to create wood burning or
possibly laser origami. "

[Daryl Lyons]

Thanks for the response. As soon as I get home I will watch the video to see if this is something we can implement into our process here at work. jumping over parts on a board instead of knocking them off would be a huge benefit. We have been using the laser to clean off the solder mask on PCB boards to allow parts to be soldered in other areas where they were not intended to be. Thanks again.

[Gene Uselman]

That is a new use I have not heard of... good on you. You can change the path to some extent in RDworks but LightBurn may be a better way to go as you can actually interface with those good people.