What is kerf offset in XCS?
A kerf or cut refers to the width of a cut itself when a cutting tool is used to cut a material.
For example, when you use a saw with a blade of 1 mm wide to cut a material, the width of the cut is 1 mm. In laser cutting, the cutting and engraving tool is a laser beam, which is very small, but it has a width, too. The width causes the pieces you cut or engrave to be slightly smaller than the designed objects.
Therefore, for precision-critical scenarios such as creating inlays and joining pieces, you need to compensate for the cut width.
The kerf offset function is developed to compensate for the cut and engraving width to ensure high cutting and engraving precision.
This function is available only for closed shapes, which are defined as shapes within which the distance between the start and end points of any line is less than 0.05 mm.
Setting range
The setting range for compensation width is [–1, 1], keeping two decimal places. A value out of the setting range is processed as follows:
- If the value you enter contains more than two decimal places, it is rounded to two decimal places.
- If the value you enter is smaller than the lower limit or greater than the upper limit, the lower limit or upper limit is used, respectively. For example, if you enter 2, the value 1 is used.
When you enter a positive value, the laser beam is moved outward away from the shape; and when you enter a negative value, the laser beam is moved inward away from the shape.
After you set the compensated width, the shape does not change on the canvas. The compensated width is used in processing.
For example, after you set the compensated width for an annular shape, the original design is not changed and the laser beam is moved as follows:
Shape on the canvas | When compensated width = 0.05, the laser beam is moved outward, as illustrated by the dashed line. | When compensated width = –0.05, the laser beam is moved inward, as illustrated by the dashed line. |
 |  |  |
Application example 1
Cut a circle and star with xTool P2 and fit the star into the center of the circle after cutting them.
The following are the shapes.
To prevent the star from being loose, after fitting it into the circle, due to reduced size caused by laser cutting, you can set the compensated width before cutting it to ensure high-precision cutting.
Select the star object, enable Kerf offset, and set the compensated width to 0.1.
Note: Theoretically, the compensated width is supposed to be 0.5 × diameter of the laser spot. The size of the laser spot that falls on the surface of a material, however, may change according to the material, processing mode, and accessories used. Therefore, you are advised to test the compensated width for your material before processing to obtain the value that works best.
Application example 2
Score a circle and star with xTool P2.
The following are the shapes.
To prevent the edges of the star from blending into the circle, you can set the compensated width before scoring it.
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