In Luban, how does one determine that an SVG is going to be for cutting and another is only for engraving? I cannot find how to do that, I feel dumb…
There is no difference, cutting is just engraving all the way through. It is about the setting, number of passes, cut depth and laser power
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Generally you use an svg file to give it the path for cutting.
You can use multiple files, png svg, jpeg etc. and stack them and choose the settings for each and choose the order you want them to occur. Just run the cutting pass last.
-S
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Oh, so you have to know what parameters achieve which result for which material?
I found this guide
Is multi-pass 1 the same as no multi-pass?
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yes, multi-pass 1 means it will do 1 pass. @sdj544 is also correct about the type of image, generally .SVG files are used for cutting. though i if you are looking to etch an outline i would understand the use of the .svg over another image format, just set it for 1 pass and lower the laser power, i usually do about 40% to engrave on soft wood (pine). though your results may very 
I think its terrible that you not only have to know the exact values to put in but also that
you have to reenter them every fricking time again and again I have used Visicut (https://hci.rwth-aachen.de/visicut) at the maker space I was before I bought the Snapmaker
and its 10 times better than what Luban currently offers…
In Visicut you define which lines the laser should cut, engrave or mark by giving them a different color and then in the software you can define templates what which color should do (but there is a lot of presets already and it also incorporates a wide network of maker spaces who contribute their settings)
Then you can also save templates as for the settings, so you look up the settings for cutting and engraving once and then you save them so next time you reopen Visicut you just select from a dropdown with images what material you want to cut (plywood 3mm - plywood 1.5mm - acrylic - whatever templates you made)
and thats it
then you just press start - since you already told the software what to do by color and the settings as power and speed don’t change - and if you ever notice that the cutting was too weak you just tweak your template - or check if the laser is maybe out of focus
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sounds great, but looks like like it does not work with Marlin. so it cant be used on the SM2… there are other programs out there that work much better, try lightburn.
Sorry but I don’t fancy paying yet another 40 bucks on laser software - The snapmaker team should really get this software into a usable state
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you could always give imagetogcode a try, its free. I agree with you, Luban should work right, but when is that going to happen?
I’m not expecting to see Luban fixed any time soon.
One item on my overpopulated to-do list is to see whether LaserWeb can be made to work with the Snapmaker. It’s free, open-source, and does support Marlin (and is likely at least no worse than Luban), but might need some tweaking to deal with the Snapmaker2’s quirks.
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I hate to say it but I tried to use Luban (installed the latest version and everything) to laser cut this cool looking Enterprise model by JoeSnuffie(https://www.thingiverse.com/JoeSnuffie)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1902315
I spent hours trying to use any of the many file types that Joe made available for download but nothing looked right. I tried using CorelDraw to convert the files and just got frustrated. I probably invested 4 hours trying to get this to work. As an aside I am in IT, I am a developer, I know how to use and own multiple graphics packages. Luban was infuriating.
That brought me to this thread which suggested Laserburn. I installed the trial version and within 15 minutes of adding my settings for laser power and speed to the 3 layers of the design I was able to export my GCode and create the model.
IMO the $40 for Laserburn is well worth it to keep my sanity “intact”.
As for my Snapmaker 2 A350, I absolutely love it so far. I have overcome some hurdles with the 3D printing module and have been successfully printing since. Now I am working on the laser module and so far so good. Next will be the CNC module.
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