F1 Specific functionality

  • Ability to choose scan directions for Engrave mode 
    It'd be nice to be able to choose Horizontal (X axis aligned lines), or Vertical (Y axis aligned lines) or both in a multi-pass (sometimes known as crosshatch)
    I recognise this may not be suitable for non-galvo machines, or potentially when using the slide/rotary attachments.
     
  • Ability to chose to add a score outlines as part of the engrave on Engrave mode. Depending on your lines per CM setting, this could be a neat way to smooth out and tidy up edges on certain materials. (I know you can achieve this with multiple layers, but why not make it automatic and user-friendly?)
     
  • Third framing option - rather than a rectangle (example 1), or the detailed outline (example 3), a semi-detailed, more shrinkwrapped version.
    The middle example in the screenshot is a mock-up of how it could potentially appear.

     
  • Flood-fill for Engrave mode
    Like how 3D-printing slicers handle their solid infill - the laser does not scan over whitespace to fill an engrave - what it could do is take one path then the other.
    E.g. imagine engraving capital Y - currently the laser scans over the triangle in the middle of the two arms of the top part of the Y. If the engrave speed is slow, this travel movement can waste time as it appears to match the speed of engraving. Instead, the laser would complete one arm, then either do the other arm, and the lower portion, or complete the lower portion before doing the second arm. 

General XCS feedback
 

  • Ability to convert text to vector. Even though this will make the text non-editable. Sometimes it's useful to achieve this in XCS without doing this in a seperate vector program.
     
  • Offset engrave (similar to concentric infill in 3D printing) - fills a shape with concentric lines each the width of the laser spot rather than scanning along an axis. Being able to do this natively in XCS rather than relying on other programs would be good.
     
  • A/B preview of destructive combine operations - for operations where the order (front to back, order selected) of shapes matters to the output (e.g. a subtraction) - XCS could display a popup with a preview of the output of both options and let the user pick the intended result
    e.g. subtracting the shapes:

    Prompt: Which output do you want? Left or Right

     
  • Show a history list of recently used files to open (this may already be there on Windows, it isn't on Mac)
     
  • Toggle Onion skinning between different canvases. Lets you check alignment between different canvases, by showing one greyed out and non-editable.
     
  • As well as visibility toggle, show the output/ignore toggle in the layers box:

Hopefully some of these will be useful, if they aren't already in the development backlog!