Free Software for Laser Design

[Sean Glantz]

Our school has lightburn installed on a few computers for our two lasers, but I'd like my students to be able to do their designing on their own computers. What software do you recommend students use for designing files that will ultimately be used for cutting/engraving? I've been directing them to Illustrator and/or Inkscape, but the results never quite transfer over correctly when they export the files as an SVG. 

I'm a complete novice at using Adobe and Inkscape, so I don't know if it is possible to create multiple layers that would equate to different cut settings in LightBurn? 

I also just read that text needs to be converted into paths, so that may solve some of my problems. My temporary workaround is that I've been telling students to export as a PNG then trace in Lightburn, but this  results in a significant amount of re-designing within lightburn after they already put in the work of creating a vector image in Adobe, so I know there must be a better way. 

Any tips or suggestions appreciated :) 

Sean