Material test grid

The material test grid helps you find good cut and engrave settings for a material. GPath Laser builds a grid of squares that step speed by row and power by column, each with its own laser settings.

---

Open the dialog

From inside a project:

• Laser operations → Material test grid…

The Material test grid window opens with 2 panes. Settings on the left, Output and Placement on the right.

---

Dialog layout

Left pane — Grid settings

Grid

Field	Description
Rows	Number of speed steps (1–25)
Columns	Number of power steps (1–25)
Cell size	Width and height of each square, in your machine’s length units (mm or in)
Gap	Space between squares

Power & speed

Field	Description
Min / max power (%)	Power range for the grid (0–100%)
Min / max speed	Speed range for the grid, labelled in your machine’s feed display (mm/min, in/min, mm/s, or in/s)

Operation

Option	Description
Line / Fill	Outline or fill each square
Line spacing	Shown when Fill is selected. Distance between scan lines, in your machine’s length units. Applied to every cell — smaller spacing is denser fill and more burn time
Show power and speed labels on the grid	Engrave speed and power values along bottom/left side

Line spacing is saved with the grid. Older grids that never stored a value use the same default as a normal Fill operation.

Border

Optional cut-out rectangle around the whole test block, with its own passes, power, and speed.

Control	Description
Enable border	Add a rectangle around the grid and a Line operation named Material test border
Passes	How many times to cut the border
Power (%)	Border cut power (0–100%), independent of the grid power range
Speed	Border cut speed

Use the border when you want the finished test pattern cut free from the sheet. On the Run test grid tab, Re-run border only sends just that cut again if the first pass did not break through.

---

Right pane — Output and placement

Output

Two tabs choose what happens when you finish configuring the grid. The dialog opens on Run test grid by default.

Tab	What it does
Run test grid	Frame or Run on the connected USB laser without placing shapes or operations on the canvas.
Add to canvas with operations	Place the grid and its laser operations on the canvas for editing, reordering, or running later.

Placement

Place the test block at the material center, or pin a corner of the grid to the matching material corner.

Control	Description
Placement preview	Click the centre or a corner of the material thumbnail. The grid (and border, when enabled) moves to match
Margin X / Y	Spacing from the material edge when a corner is selected (disabled for center)

For Run test grid, placement applies when work origin is Absolute. In Current mode the job follows the laser position instead — see Absolute vs Current origin. Placement is saved with the grid when you add it to the canvas.

---

Update an existing grid

After a grid is added to the canvas, it appears as one group in the Vectors list (Design sidebar).

Action	Result
Click the group name	Reopens the Material test grid dialog with the saved settings
Update grid	On the Add to canvas with operations tab — replaces the existing squares, labels, border, and operations with a new grid from the current settings

Use Update grid when you want more/fewer steps, a different size range, a border change, a different fill line spacing, or to switch between Line and Fill — you do not need to delete and recreate the grid manually.

Use the Transform tool to move or adjust size on the canvas.

---

Delete a grid

Deleting any part of a material test grid removes the entire grid and all of its laser operations (including labels and border). This removes the large amount of manual work involved in deleting all of the inidividual vectors and laser operations.