Material test grid
Baseline settings get you close — a test grid gets you exact. Pick your machine and operation, run the generated grid on a scrap of your material, and keep the cell that looks best. This is the reliable way to dial in settings for your specific machine, lens and material batch.
Work through them in order: focus, then power/speed, then kerf — each step relies on the one before it.
Power / speed grid
What this test does
Burns the same shape 25 times, each at a different power and speed, so you can see with your own eyes which combination your material likes — instead of guessing.
- Pick your machine and what you want to do (cut, engrave…). Everything below is filled in with sensible starting values — you can run it as-is.
- Download the SVG card and open it in your laser software.
- Put a scrap of the same material on the bed and run the job. Watch it — the numbers tell you the order, coolest first.
- Look at the result and find the best square. Its row and column are your power and speed.
Reading the result: Take the row and column labels of the square you liked and enter those numbers as your settings. Write them down — that's your recipe for this material.
Start with focus. If your focal distance is off, every cell in the grid comes out equally wrong — and comparing them teaches you nothing. Run the ramp test first, then the grid.