What this update is for
Over the past few months, Materials Lab has gotten the basics working: you can publish your own settings and search what other makers have shared. We now have a solid first library of community settings to build on.
This release is about making that library work harder for you: easier to find, easier to adapt to your own machine, and more likely to get you a good result the first time you hit start.
To get there, we've added settings conversion, a machinability check, processing tips, upgraded filters and search, personalized recommendations, and an AI Assistant you can just talk to — so the path from finding settings to finishing the job is a lot shorter.
1. Cross-machine conversion: someone else's settings can now become yours
Until now, a set of community settings was really only useful if you happened to own the same machine. Now, within the same machine type and the same processing head range, you can convert settings shared for another model into values that suit your machine — then save them to xTool Studio, or open them and start right away.
One good set of settings no longer serves just one machine. The same library now covers a lot more makers.
2. "Can I make this?": check what your machine can handle
Not sure which materials your setup can actually cut or engrave? Now you can just ask. Pick your machine, processing head and processing type, and you'll see exactly which materials — and which colors — that combination can handle.
And if the answer raises more questions, you can hand them straight to the AI Assistant from the results and keep digging into the specifics.
3. Processing tips + safety notes: the experience behind the numbers
Community settings can now carry more than power and speed. Contributors can add the know-how that surrounds the numbers — focusing, masking tape, air assist, exhaust, material prep — and we show safety notes matched to the material you're working with.
So what you get isn't a row of numbers to copy and hope for the best — it's the whole method. Fewer of those "I used the exact same settings and it still didn't come out right" moments.
4. Smarter filters: get to the settings your machine can actually run
We've rebuilt the settings cards and the filter panel so you can go from a wall of results to the handful that actually apply to you. Switch on Fits my machine, or narrow things down by Machines, Processing Head, Mode, Processing Type, Material, Thickness and Color.
5. Better search: find settings by photo or by product code
Half the time you're holding a piece of material with no idea what it's officially called — and that's exactly where the hunt for settings stalls.
Image search now covers both official materials and community settings: snap a photo of the material and you'll get visually similar materials, along with the settings people have already shared for them.
You can also search official materials by xCode or SKU, and see the community settings tied to that material in the same place.
Don't know the name? Photograph it. Got the product code? Search it. You no longer have to identify a material before you can find settings for it.
6. Personalized Recommended: the settings most likely to be useful to you
The Recommended sort in the Community tab is now personalized. It factors in the materials you tend to work with and what you've saved, alongside what's popular and what's newly published.
Less digging on your side; more of the useful stuff surfacing on its own.
7. AI Assistant in Materials Lab: find settings and ask questions in plain language
Materials Lab is now connected to the AI Assistant. Describe your machine, your material and what you're trying to make, and it will help you track down settings — then stay for the follow-ups: why a job failed, whether a material is safe to process, what to change in your settings.
Try it out
Everything above is live now: https://www.atomm.com/materials-lab/community
If a set of settings works well for you — or doesn't — leave a note or publish your own. Community settings only get better when makers share what they learned.
