
If you have a GCode controller, particularly if you also use your system as a CNC or 3D printer, there may be additional configuration required. Then you can follow the set-up steps here for real this time and use your laser! Configuring ¶ When you finally do get your laser, you can come back to this screen, select the 'dummy' profile you set up, and click 'Remove'. To start using LightBurn without a laser, use Create Manually and configure the things you can, and guess at whatever you don't know. If you use a laser that accepts files on a USB drive, for example, LightBurn needs to know which controller it uses so it can produce the correct output files. You don't ever need to connect a laser to LightBurn to use it, but LightBurn will not run without a device profile configured, because it needs a place to store some settings, and wants to know what options to show you in the interface. You can import a LightBurn Device profile by dragging and dropping it into your main window. lbdev (LightBurn device) file, which contains all of the device specific information LightBurn needs to make that machine's profile on the new computer. You can also import and export laser configurations to move them between computers using the Export button on this page from the source computer, and then import it to the new install using the Import button.

If you're using a LightBurn Bridge device, you can use the LightBurn Bridge setup. If that doesn't work, your laser connects with Ethernet, or you have a Marlin device, you'll need to use ' Create Manually'. The simplest way to proceed is to click ' Find My Laser' and let LightBurn try to figure out what you have. Here you will see a list of all the laser devices you've added to LightBurn, or an empty list when you're first starting. If you don't pick one, we have nowhere to put these settings, and a number of features within LightBurn will not work until this is set up. LightBurn can also be configured to control more than one laser, and there are settings stored for each device. If you've done this before, but want to change your laser, or add a new one, click the 'Devices' button in the Laser Window to bring up the devices list. If you don't have a laser to connect to yet, you can create a placeholder device It is important that you pick something because the interface in LightBurn will change depending on the capabilities of the laser you choose.

If you've never configured a device in LightBurn, you'll be brought here automatically when you run the software. LightBurn can't control every laser, but it can talk to a number of different types of laser controllers, all of which use different ways of communicating, and have different abilities and settings. Beginner Docs First Steps Adding & Configuring for Beginners ¶
