I purchased a cheap 2.5w diode laser because the makerspace is an hour+ from my house and it will do 90% of what I do with a laser.
The software it came with was not great, very limited and buggy, one of the scan modes even had gaps in the image.
I got in the Facebook groups and started looking for better software. I went through 3 other pieces of software, all very limited, and didn’t support many file types and weren’t able to do the basic things I wanted then to do. RDworks is only compatible with lasers using ruida controllers, most of these cheap Chinese lasers use an arduino running GRBL.
That’s when someone finally suggested LightBurn. The difference is night and day and it rivals RDworks. The Ui is much better and much more intuitive, the first and really only thing I noticed in my limited use of the software is that it’s missing the “reverse interval offset”. It seems their goal is to make a better RDworks, and I read the reverse interval offset is supposed to be added in the next update.
I believe someone has already looked into LightBurn for the makerspace and there was something missing,but I think we should keep an eye on this software for use at the makerspace.