Technical Support Software

Software Support

User Manuals
Operating Systems (Loading Software)
File Types
Re-load Laser System Configuration File
PhotoGrav Software
General Information - Hints and Tips;

How to Transfer Your Design File to Your Laser Machine via USB Device
File Names
Software Data Checks
Center and Align graphics
Immediate or grid location
Set the origin of your graphics
Corners of shapes are not cutting

Tutorials and Projects (Design)

Additional Software Support;

User Manuals

Operator user manual for laser software version 5.3. PDF

Operating Systems

Your original laser machine quotation will outline information on the computer specification which is required for your laser machine. For any instances where a computer system is being supplied by us, this will be clearly stated on the quotation.

If you are re-loading the software onto a new PC, please be aware that you need to continue using the SAME version of software on the new computer, as the software on your computer and the controller in your laser machine need to match to correspond correctly.

Instructions on how to re-load the software onto the following operating systems can be found here;

Windows XP (straight install, no instructions required)
Windows 7
Windows 10
Disable Driver Signature Enforcement (Windows 7, 8 and 10)

What files types can I use to cut and engrave materials?

When using different design packages to create files to cut and engrave with your laser machine, it is important to choose / export as a compatible file type for the process you are looking to achieve. Some files, such as DXF, are acceptable for both engraving and cutting, but some files can only be used for engraving and cannot be cut. More information can be found here.

How to re-load your system configuration (syscfg.ini) file

Instructions on how to re-download your laser machines system configuration file can be found here. Please remember that it is best to only carry out this step under instruction from one of CTR's technical engineers. It is also important to ALWAYS KEEP A BACKUP of your current syscfg.ini file, in case loading the new file creates an issue with the machine.

General Information - Hints and Tips

File Names

For jobs that you want to repeat, you can save your design file with a name, so that the laser machine can keep a copy of this file name in the machine memory. It is easily accessible for re-running the job as needed. PDF

How to Transfer Your Design File to Your Laser Machine via USB Device

If your computer is located too far from your laser machine, or if you cannot use the USB cable provided for any reason, this is a different way of transferring files from your computer to your laser machine, using a USB memory stick. PDF

Software Data Checks

How to carry out the standard checks for an imported design file, in the laser software. PDF
These checks include how to...

Join lines
Check lines are closed
Check for crossing lines
Check for overlapping lines.

To align or center graphics...

Use the pointer (arrow) to select the graphics you want to move, for example, a letter C.
Hold Shift on your keyboard, and select the graphics that you want the C to be centered within, for example, a circle.
Click the Align Center button, or go to Draw > Align > Align Middle.

You can also use the above steps to align to the left, right etc.

Immediate or Grid Location

The laser offers two options for locating graphics.

Immediate - the laser job will start from the current location of the laser head.
Grid Location - the laser will take the location of the graphics from where they have been positioned on the grid in the laser software. This is the default setting when the immediate option is not selected.

The immediate button can be found on the right hand side of the laser software screen on your PC. Please note that when you change the option from one to the other, you MUST download the file to the laser machine again for the change to be applied (Download > Download Current).

If you are certain that the immediate button is not working correctly (and this is the ONLY issue you are experiencing with the software) then instructions on how to resolve this are available here (PDF).

To set the origin of your graphics...

The origin, or start point of your graphics is the point at which the laser head will travel to, to begin cutting or scoring.

It can be useful to change this from the default start point, as you may want the start point to be in a less noticable area on the final product.

To change the origin on your vector file...

Open the Laser menu at the top of the laser software on your PC.
Click Select Laser origin.
You can now click on the outline of the vector graphics to choose a new start (origin) point for each vector displayed. The origin point is indicated by a yellow square.

The corners of my shapes are not cutting at all

Double click on the layer where the colours are not cutting on your British laser machine.

In the options/settings window which opens, there is an option to enter the corner power.

When a laser machine is operating, it typically has to slow down when it reaches a corner, so that it can change direction, and then resume travelling at the originally specified speed. As such, you have the option to set a lower power for the corners of your shapes, so that the laser does not over-power the material when it slows down.

If you set the corner power too low, or to zero, then the laser will not fire when moving around the corners.

Set the corner power to a value which is lower than the overall cut power, but higher than zero! i.e. for a laser cutting power of 50, set the corner power to around 25-30.

PhotoGrav Software

Information about PhotoGrav image editing software, for engraving photographs. PDF

How to setup PhotoGrav to use with your CTR Laser machine. PDF

Tutorials and Projects (Design);

Additional Software Support

How to re-set your controller language to English. PDF
How to adjust the Backlash, Scaling, Offsets and Squareness. PDF
How to re-set the datum position, if you have accidentally changed this in your machine controller. PDF
Soft Stop error message. PDF
How to engrave circles inside a vector shape. PDF

DLL error

When a DLL error appears on your laser machine, this typically means that a different version of software has been installed onto your computer, which cannot communicate correctly with your laser machine controller. To resolve this issue, you should locate your original software disk, and re-install the software onto your computer, using the correct software version.

NB: the software disk with the correct version of software will have been provided on the day of installation of your machine, or on delivery of your machine.

When re-loading the software, ensure you keep a copy of the MOST RECENT system configuration (syscfg.ini) file for your laser machine, as this will have the specific settings required for your laser machine to operate correctly. Your system configuration file can be found in the root of the laser software folder on your computer (i.e. LaserCut53 > syscfg.ini).

Make a backup of the syscfg.ini file.
Re-load the software from your original software disk - instructions can be found here for installing the software onto different operating systems.
Over-write the syscfg.ini file on your computer (newly installed from the original software disk) with the copy you took from step 1 of these instructions (the MOST RECENT version of this file).

Your computer and laser machine should now be able to communicate correctly, and the laser machine should behave as it did before.

If this does not resovle your issues, please contact CTR for support.

Communication broken for timeout error message

If your laser machine displays the "communication is broken for timeout" error message, please carry out the following checks;

Is your USB cable securely plugged in to both your computer and the laser machine?
What length USB cable are you using? - If you have changed the USB cable from that which was originally provided with the laser machine, ensure the quality and length of the new cable match the original specification. A shorter USB cable is also preferable over a longer cable (i.e. less than 2m length, with no link-cables or chains of cables linked together).
Have you disabled the digital driver signing on your computer?
If you plug the PC end of the USB cable into a different USB port, does this resolve the issue?

If the above do not resolve the communication issue, you should be able to temporarily follow the instructions here on how to download a file from your computer to your laser machine via a USB memory stick to get you back up and running until an engineer is available to assist.

CTR Lasers - Technical Support Software