How to Use a Standard Router Toolpath in Vcarve to Generate a Laser Toolpath 

They are all imperial, however, they are easy to change. Just open them up with a text editor, and change the g20 to g21, and the g70 to g71, the the UNITS to mm. Keep in mind my post processors are specific to the ESS controller (thats what the AVID machines use).

@@JNWoodworks Thanks Jim. I have an AVID machine. I had an old OPT laser that I never could get working well, but inspired by the great work you have done with Warp9 I have an XT8 being delivered today.

Funny you should mention that. I was just playing with CV mode a few days ago trying to fine tune it because I found that on certain types of shapes (ovals especially, because Vectric creates an oval with many small segments of straight lines) I got more jerky motion. Mach4 has a few different CV tuner wizards, and I was hoping to find one that made the toolpath run smoother. In the end, I got the best laser performance (the best quality laser line) with exact stop mode, so that is now what I set my machine to. As far as the Vectric Laser Picture Toolpath, that is not going to be improved by CV mode, because it is really limited by the fact that its running as Gcode and not real rastering.

Yes, Lightburn can do rastering correctly. Unfortunately Lightburn doesn't work on too many CNC controllers, mostly just Grbl based arduino ones, so I can't use it. However, fortunately, the ESS controller has a great rastering capability built in, so no extra software needed for that on an AVID cnc.

Well that is an interesting question, I totally forgot about that toolpath. I have not actually tried it yet with anything. So I just did a quick experiment. That toolpath lets you use a few different tools, but not an end mill. I chose an engrave bit, set the angle to 1 degree (thats as small as it would let me), and set the bits flat tip diameter to 0.007", and then generated the image in the simulation and it looked good. So I'm sure it can be done. Thanks for the idea, I may do a quick video on that!

It’s to bad they don’t give the option for laser would allow you to do even more things than just tracing a bitmap and doing outlines

I was doing the sketch carve on a family photo and the toolpath preview looks good but there’s no way to make vectors to laser from that other than saving preview image and import bitmap and trace and never looks as good

I'm burning an image right now. So far so good....I'll post a video tonight.

Ok thanks you make some of the most detailed videos I have both versions of the 6 watt opt laser bought because of your videos