Machine profiles
Updated v2.5.4At a glance
- Choose CO₂, Fiber Galvo, or Fiber Cutting without changing the top-level Laser machine type
- Fiber Galvo profiles separate the Balor controller from the machine class and keep a library of installed lenses
- The selected Galvo lens supplies the usable field and its own optical correction; CO₂ beds still follow axis travel
- Existing Laser profiles without a class remain CO₂ and are not rewritten just by opening them
Laser machines live in the same centralized Machines... dialog as every other JetCad3 machine type — open it from the Edit menu or the Machine section of the Laser browser panel. The Laser workspace filters the list to Laser profiles. Machine → General → Type remains authoritative, while Laser Machine Class distinguishes CO₂, Fiber Galvo, and the future Fiber Cutting workflow. Each workspace remembers its own active machine. Existing Laser profiles without the class field continue to load as CO₂ and are not rewritten merely by opening them.
General settings
Alongside name, units (inches or millimeters), and the MCS origin corner, laser profiles add a Feedrate Timebase choice: display speeds as Units / min or Units / sec. This is purely a display preference — operation speeds are stored canonically in inches per minute, so switching timebase never changes what your machine actually runs. Simplify Tolerance controls how aggressively imported curves are simplified; new laser profiles default to a tight 0.0002 in, since lasers hold detail that a plasma profile would just smooth away.
CO₂ axes and bed
For CO₂ profiles, the axis table sets travel, max velocity, and max acceleration. X and Y travel define the bed drawn in Laser, and edits sync live. Acceleration also drives automatic engrave overscan—the run-up needed to reach full speed before the laser fires.
Fiber Galvo controller and lenses
A Fiber Galvo profile adds Controller Adapter and uses Balor LMC for the current experimental Windows and Linux support. macOS hardware testing is still pending. Controller identity/source setup remains separate from the machine class. Add every lens you use to the profile with a recognizable name, usable width/height, and its own optical correction values. Selecting that lens makes its usable area the Laser field; Cartesian axis travel and the CO₂ Post page do not define Galvo output. See Fiber Galvo.