Laser cutting and engraving software for the Mac

July 15, 2023 10:04 AM

I use Simplify 3D to convert STLs to gcode for my 3D printer. Now I need an app for laser cutting. I'll need to massage the gcode regardless so anything that can generate basic paths from a drawing will do. Any favorites?
posted by Tell Me No Lies to Technology (6 answers total)

Best answer: If lightburn is available it's pretty great to use.
posted by Iteki at 1:40 PM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wait, you mean just to get paths? I export from Inkscape as DXF which can be used in most laser software, but you also need to take into account what your cutter requires. What's your system?
posted by Iteki at 1:42 PM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah I think the main question here is, what is your laser engraver, and what formats/inputs does it accept? Like I use a cheap chinese "k40" laser and the software that came with it is junk but I use "k40 whisperer" and it accepts SVG files with color coding to indicate cuts and engraving. I don't know that I've seen any laser cutters or engravers that take gcode directly but there may be some.
posted by RustyBrooks at 2:40 PM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: My system is heavily custom. There won't be any support for the platform so I'll be taking the path instructions from the gcode and making something usable out of them.

It looks like Inkscape has a gcode output extension. I'll give that a shot.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:08 PM on July 15, 2023

You could also just be taking the first layer of your simplify gcode, I sometimes output from my 3d program when I need to visualise better than Inkscape lets me.
posted by Iteki at 4:20 PM on July 15, 2023

Response by poster: Other than a little flakiness with serial port connections, Lightburn has been fantastic. It has required very little customization to run my ex-3d-printer-now-laser-cutter directly.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:15 PM on August 14, 2023