About this manual
What ALPS is
ALPS is the software you use to get a job from your computer onto your Epilog laser. You bring artwork in, decide what gets cut and what gets engraved, see it on the bed, and send it.
It talks to the machine directly, in the machine's own language — not through a print driver.
What this manual covers, and what it does not
⛔ This manual is about the software. It is not the manual for your laser.
Your machine came with an Epilog owner's manual covering installation, exhaust, electrical connection, optics cleaning, the control panel, and the laser safety rules for that model. That manual is the authority on the machine, and nothing here overrides it. Where the two overlap — focusing, the control panel, material settings — this manual describes what ALPS does and points you back to Epilog's for the machine itself.
Keep both. They answer different questions:
| question | manual |
|---|---|
| "how do I clean the optics / connect the exhaust / what is the fire risk?" | Epilog's |
| "why did everything come out as one setting?" | this one |
| "what does this button in ALPS do?" | this one |
| "what speed and power for 3mm acrylic?" | Epilog's appendix as a starting point, then Material Test in this one |
How to use this manual
If the machine is new to you, read Section 2 and then Your first job straight through, at the machine, running the job as you go. It is written to be followed rather than read.
If you know lasers but not ALPS, read Your first job anyway. It is short, and it explains the one idea the rest of the software is built on — that colour decides what happens. Almost every confusion on the support line comes from not having that idea yet.
If you are looking something up, use the Contents. The Tools section is reference material, one page per tool, and is meant to be dipped into.
⭐ The tool pages assume you have read Your first job. They do not re-explain processes and colours each time.
Icons used in this manual
These three appear throughout and they are not decoration. Each one means a specific thing:
| icon | meaning |
|---|---|
| ⭐ | Worth knowing. The insight that saves time, or the thing experienced operators do differently. If you skim, read these. |
| ⚠ | Be careful. A place where it is easy to get a wrong result — often one that still looks right. |
| ⛔ | Do not. Something that wastes material, damages a part, or is unsafe. |
Skill levels
ALPS grades every feature by difficulty, using ski-trail marks, and hides what your level does not need:
| mark | level | who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| ● | Green | everything needed to run real jobs well |
| ■ | Blue | cameras, jigs, registration — production work |
| ◆ | Black | accuracy measurement, long-material panelling, verification |
| ◆◆ | Expert | technician and developer tools |
You set this in Settings ▸ General.
⭐ Start on Green and mean it. The gating is not a limitation, it is the teaching: a feature you cannot see is a feature you cannot get wrong, and you will go looking for it on the day a job needs it — which is the day you will remember the answer.
⚠ Pages in this manual are marked with the level they require. If a tool described here is not in your Tools menu, your skill level is below it.
Conventions
- Menu paths are written as Tools ▸ Material Test — open the Tools screen, then that entry.
- Things you click are in bold: Generate grid.
- Values you type are in
code. - Measurements are in inches. A thou is one thousandth of an inch (0.001″); 40 thou is about 1 mm.
If something here is wrong
Tell us. ⭐ Every menu name and button label quoted in this manual is checked automatically against the software each time it is built, so the names should always match what you see. The explanations are written by people and can still be wrong or unclear — that is worth reporting, and it is the part we cannot test.