Kern: Advanced Kcam

Previously, the only steps taught in KCam were the steps used to set up a basic print

This guide will cover more indepth settings changes, and other things that KCam can do such as arrays that can make setting up parts easier

The settings tab will bring you to import or create cutting settings

Info will tell you how long a job will take

This is dependent on the settings you have imported

Cut will bring you to the cut/engrave dialog

Test will bring you to the test dialog

Many of these are in the others' menus as well. You can get to the settings or test from the cut menu, and vice versa

This is where jobs are started and stopped

You can see the order the lines will be cut and start on a specific line using the position in file area

You can also pause the laser, skip certain lines, and continue if needed

This area allows you to set up an array of objects or repeat cuts over and over (explained later)

Set the correct gas to match your recipe here

Change the user offset position to what suites the cut best

Go to a specific position on the bed (relative to 0,0)

Change the speed the gantry moves when using the arrow keys

Perform manual cuts using this section (normally only used when refocusing the height of the lens in the assembly and explained in the online guide)

This is the main vector settings page where each of the vector settings can be changed

The first two are speed measured in inches/second and power measured as a percentage

Speed and power have the greatest effect on cutting so try increasing power or decreasing speed if a material isn't being cut all the way through

The start percentage adjusts the laser power as it ramps through corners and arcs

In the Advanced menu: frequency adjusts the laser modulation from 50Hz to 10000 Hz

Overriding air settings will use a different air when cutting lines of that color

Color mapping can be used to adjust each of these settings for each of the colors listed

You must enable the color in this menu in order to see the cut lines of the same color on the preview

Laser setting will let you select assist gas and pressures for different parts of cutting

Pierce delay will pause the laser after starting the first pierce on a line

End delay is an extra amount of time in the end and will only run if selected

Between parts selects pressure to be used as the laser is moving between parts and can be much lower than pressures used in other steps

During cutting is the pressure and gas used while cutting

The cut optimizer tries to optimize the way parts are cut

The other box to check is Cut outside lines last which will optimize cutting by trying to cut inner objects before cutting the outside part

For example if cutting a mounting bracket that has bolt holes, the cut optimizer will cut out the bolt holes then the bracket

Sometimes this doesn't work, so it's worth checking the cut order, especially on metal parts, in the cut/engrave menu

When disabled, kcam will cut in the order of the layers from corel, bottom to top

Sorting by color and reversing order can be used to go in the order of colors in the front settings page. This is useful for some parts where the cut optimizer isn't working well

These settings adjust the engraving settings

Power adjust the power for engraving and can be adjusted for both black and white pixels

Setting power to the white pixels and no power to the black pixels is the equivalent of inverting the colors

The engraving speed adjust how fast the head will move

Ramp distance adjusts how far beyond the engraving the head will move

the default is .5", so the laser will move .5" to the left and right of the image engraved as it is moving

The head of the kern weighs about 15 pounds, so the engraving speed is limited to 130 inches/sec and may be lowered further if the engraving is small. Increasing the ramp can increase the engraving speed because it allows more time for the head the accelerate and deccelerate

These settings change the file import settings

DPI is the biggest one to change and can range from 150 upto 1200

DPI affects the resolution of the image where a lower dpi will be a lower resolution but faster engraving time than a higher DPI

This page contains all the misc settings that can be adjusted

The array settings are useful for setting up an array of parts

For example if you have 1 circle, but want to cut 4 circles, you can check array and select if you want a box of 4 or a line of 4 by adusting how many you want in the x direction and the y direction

The automation selects when cutting will pause and can be useful for automatically pausing mid-job to see how parts are coming out

Leave pause just before first line checked especially during metal cutting to prevent the head from crashing

The advanced settings tab contains settings that will affect cutting regardless of color (no color mapping)

The vector path speed control has settings to adjust speed when coming to point and corners to slow the head down the improve cutting performance in some situations

Line smoothing will produce corners with fillets to make them smoother

All these tips and many more are documented in the manual (it even has a whole section to itself) if you want to learn more!

Congrats!! You are now finished with all the Kern Dozuki Guides

Post any questions in #equip-kern slack channel and happy kerning!