Interval test
Find the tightest scan interval that still produces a solid fill. Faster jobs without losing quality.
For filled engravings, the scan interval (line spacing) trades fill quality against time. The interval test sweeps a range of intervals at fixed power/speed; you pick the largest interval that still looks solid.
Too tight a interval wastes time. Too coarse and the fill shows visible bands.
What you need
- A piece of scrap material.
- The machine connected.
- A target power / speed you already trust (run Material test grid first if not).
- ~10-15 minutes.
Steps
1. Open the Interval Test
- Menu: Machine → Quality Tests → Interval Test.
- Inside the Quality Test Shell.
2. Pick a material preset (optional)
If you already have a preset, the dialog seeds the sweep around its interval. Otherwise, sweep wider.
3. Set the interval range
- Min Interval: smaller than your best guess. For diode laser: 0.05 mm. For CO2: 0.08 mm.
- Max Interval: larger. For diode: 0.25 mm. For CO2: 0.4 mm.
- Samples: 6-8.
Each interval shows its DPI equivalent in the dialog, useful sanity check.
4. Set engraving parameters
- Speed: your tested fill speed for this material.
- Power: your tested fill power.
These should already be from your Material Library preset.
5. Set cell size
- Cell W / H: 15-20 mm.
- Cell Spacing: 2-3 mm.
6. Preview, run
Preview to verify, then run.
7. Inspect
Look at each cell. The cells go from finest interval (left) to coarsest (right), or however your axis is set.
- Fine intervals all look solid, they are correct but slow.
- At some interval, faint horizontal bands become visible in the fill.
- Beyond that, bands get more pronounced.
Pick the cell just before bands become noticeable. That is your target interval.
8. Save the interval to the material preset
- Open the Material Library panel.
- Edit the preset for this material.
- Update Interval to the value you found.
- Save.
Why this matters
A photo engraving on a 100 × 100 mm area at 0.1 mm interval = 1000 lines. At 0.15 mm = ~667 lines. That is a 33% faster job for usually-imperceptible quality difference. Saves hours over a long project.
Verify it worked
- Cells show a clear transition between "solid fill" and "visible bands".
- Pick the largest interval before bands and your future engravings are faster.