Trotec Ruby Software User Manual

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The Laser Tool Page provides a higher level overview and context for this page.

Table of contents

Overview

This isn't meant to be a comprehensive manual. The intention is to:
  • Provide a broad overview of the process
  • Provide context specific to our space, our laser and our processes
  • Plug the gaps in the official documentation

The official Ruby manual provides more detail on features and steps.

Overall workflow

  1. Prepare your job file - create your design in Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator etc
  2. Prepare the laser cutter - power, access, maintenance and cleaning
  3. Load Ruby
  4. Design - import your SVG or bitmap into Ruby
  5. Prepare - align your objects, set the material (cut/engrave, power and speed)
  6. Produce - run the job on the laser
  7. Cleanup

Prepare your job file

Avoid editing on the Laser PC

  • Ruby has VERY rudimentary object creation and manipulation tools - nowhere near as sophisticated as Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator etc - so rather use a proper tool for the job!
  • Whilst the Laser PC does have Inkscape etc on it, doing design work on the Laser PC ties up the laser preventing others from using it.
  • There are laptops available in the space that have Inkscape on them.

Colours

  • Ruby uses the outline and fill colours of your objects to assign cut and engrave settings to each.
  • Ruby has a 16-colour palette and your objects must use one of these 16 colours, with no opacity.
  • You can download the Ruby palette for your design software to make it easy to use the right colours.
    – Inkscape Trotec Palette.zip (358 Bytes) source
    – Adobe Illustrator Color Trotec palette.zip (118 Bytes) source
    – Affinity Designer Trotec Palette.zip (554 Bytes)
  • All objects must have an outline (stroke) colour. if your object has no stroke colour, it will not import into Ruby. This can be easy to miss if you are importing a complex design with multiple objects.

Text

  • Text should be converted to paths in case your chosen font is not installed on the Laser PC.
  • Alternative, bring the font file with you and import it into Ruby.

Vector cutting

  • The stroke width can be set to anything (including zero) as the cut will just follow the centre of the line.

Vector engraving

  • If the stroke has a colour and a thickness, the LINE will be engraved.
  • If the object has a fill, the OBJECT will be engraved.
  • If the stroke and fill colours are different, then the line and the object can have different engrave settings.

Instructions for Inkscape

  • You can use an SVG file produced using Inkscape (tested Version 1.1.1).
  • “Internal” Inkscape objects (ovals, rectangles, text) are fine, and don’t need to be converted to paths in order to import into Ruby.

Instructions for Adobe Illustrator

Nothing so far

Instructions for Affinity Designer

Nothing so far

Prepare the laser

Important maintenance tasks

You must do the maintenance tasks before and after each Laser Session.
Failure to do so may damage the laser.
If you need a refresher on these steps, please watch the induction video .

Load Ruby

  1. Go to Start / Ruby or click on the Ruby desktop icon
  2. Wait for the app to load in the web browser
  3. Login
  4. The Manage screen will load, showing your previous jobs

Note: If Ruby didn’t prompt you to login, but took you straight to one of the edit screens, then the last user forgot to logout. In that case, logout and then login with your own credentials.

Design screen

Provided the file has been created as per the requirements in “Job preparation” above, there are no special instructions for importing the file into Ruby.

  1. Go to the Design screen
  2. Press the Import button.
  3. Select the SVG file.
  4. The file will appear on the left sidebar.
  5. Click on it to select it and it will appear in the main window.
  6. Move the objects to the required position on the bed (if needed).
  7. Change the object order if required (see notes below).

Notes on cut and engrave order (tested with Inkscape only, so far):

  • The objects will appear in a list on the bottom right, but not the order in which they appear in the main window.
  • The default object order is newest to oldest.
  • The order will influence the order of laser operations (in conjunction with “inner geometries first” covered later in this manual). If you have a complex job containing numerous objects, the extra travel time as the laser moves inefficiently from one object to another can significantly increase the total job time.
  • You can manually reorder the objects, one at a time.
  • If objects have been grouped or combined, then they will appear together, in the order in which they were modified.
  • Objects that are combined are treated as a single object in the list.

5. Ruby “Prepare” screen

Done on: PC next to laser OR any device connected to the local network (see “Working remotely”)

Instructions for cutting so far. Need to add engraving and rotary.
Instructions on cut, vector engrave, raster engrave

Understanding parameters: Trotec documentation

  • Power - the output power of the laser
    – applies to both cut and engrave
    – specific to the material (e.g. wood more, paper less)

  • Speed - how fast the laser head moves
    – applies cut or engrave, but speeds for cut and engrave are not comparable
    – specific to the level of detail, the material and the intended effect

  • PPI - determines how many laser pulses per inch are used
    – applies to engraving only
    – suggest setting to auto

  • Frequency - the number of laser pulses per second
    – applies to cutting only
    – specific to the material - e.g. acrylic

5.1 Output options

  • Inner geometries first - inner objects are cut and engraved before outer objects, to prevent objects “falling out” of the sheet, and then being cut again in the wrong place [fix clumsy wording].
  • Overlapping lines - where objects share a common border, there are options for determining whether to cut the overlapping line twice.

6. Ruby “Produce” screen

Done on: PC next to laser only. You cannot do this step on another device.

Instructions for cutting so far. Need to add engraving and rotary.
Running jobs

Check that the laser is in Ruby mode, not JobControl mode:

  1. Right click on the Ruby Control in the Widows notification tray
  2. Go to Laser mode
  3. Select Ruby

7. Cleanup

Include the existing documentation here.

If you forget to log out of Ruby, the next user may automatically be logged in as you, and would therefore have access to your designs and jobs. They would not be able to see your email address. They could change your password.

Normal users can see each other’s material database entries, but not each others designs and jobs.
Directors and lasertechs have administrator access and can see and edit everything.

Working remotely

You can import and set up your job from any device connected to the makerspace network.
You can only start the cutting/engraving from the Laser PC.

3.2 The Ruby web app

Done on: PC next to laser OR any device connected to the local network (see “Working remotely”)

  1. Check that the Ruby web app is open in a web browser (Chrome and Edge are fine).
  2. If not, open you preferred web browser and go to https://slms-05.local:2402.
  3. You have to proceed from one Ruby screen to the next, as each provides context for the next.

You must already have an account on the Laser PC. If this is your first time logging in, you’ll need your temporary password sent to you via email, and you’ll need to change your password on first login.

  1. Make sure the Laser PC is on, and that Ruby is running
  2. Login to the makerspace wifi (password is on the blackboard)
  3. Open your web browser
  4. Go to https://slms-05.local:2402
  5. Bypass the security warning - in Chrome: Advanced / Proceed to slms-05.local (unsafe)
  6. Login

Resetting your password

There is no provision for this in the Ruby software.
Kyle created a workaround:

On the Laser PC:

  1. Go to Desktop / Reset Ruby Password
  2. Enter your email
  3. It will confirm you’re found and your temporary password has been set (or say not found).
  4. Users will have to set their own password upon login. The temp password (printed when you launch the script) is Aaaaaaa1

Privacy statement

In order to use Ruby, you need to register an account on the Laser PC.
This account includes your email address.
This means that the lasertechs have access to your email address (as opposed to just being able to talk with you via Discourse).
The lasertechs will only use your email address for direct communication in the context of Ruby administration, and only if we cannot reach you via Discourse.

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