Let’s start with the most asked and least answered fact: we have had the P3 running 16 hours straight without any problem.
Not just a test run to see if it could handle it. Working, on a real order, with the machine on from morning until late at night. No thermal cuts, no connection losses, no power drops at the end of the day. It finished the job just as it started.
For a workshop that lives off this, that phrase means more than any specification. And yet, after months of serious production, there is a specific shortcoming that makes us lose time every day. Let’s go over both things.
Where the P3 fits in a workshop that already has machines
We don’t have just this machine, and we believe the real distribution says more than any abstract analysis:
The P3 is the machine for large and numerous orders. When an order of hundreds of pieces comes in, it goes here. The large bed, cutting speed, and reliability in long runs are exactly what’s needed.
For small orders, we find it more convenient to use the galvos, the UV and fiber ones. Turning on the P3, preparing the bed, and placing material to engrave three pieces isn’t worth it. The galvos are immediate.
This is not a criticism: it’s the definition of what it’s for. If you’re considering the P3 and your work involves small and varied orders, it might not be your machine. If your problem is turning down large orders because you can’t keep up, it’s exactly your machine.
Our production reality
What we sell the most are wood pieces for weddings and communions. The seasonality is brutal and very marked: weddings, back to school, and Christmas. Outside those windows, the machine breathes; inside, it doesn’t stop.
And then there are the corporate orders, which work differently: they monopolize the machine for continuous days on end. It’s not a hundred pieces spread over two weeks, it’s a thousand pieces that must be completed before a deadline. That’s when 16 hours straight stops being an anecdote and becomes the working mode.
The shortcoming: no repetition by button
And here is what this machine lacks to be a true mass production machine.
When you’re doing a batch — the same piece fifty times — the cycle is: place material, start job, wait, remove piece, repeat. On a machine designed for series, relaunching the identical job is one press. On galvos we have it with a pedal: you press and it goes.
On the P3 you have to do two mouse clicks and also press the machine’s physical button.
Said like that it sounds trivial. Multiply it by fifty repetitions and add a detail often forgotten when designing workflow from an office: the computer isn’t always right next to the laser. So the real cycle includes moving to the computer, two clicks, going back to the machine, pressing the button. Fifty times.
It’s time wasted completely unnecessarily, and it’s the only thing about this machine that annoys us daily.
What we specifically ask for
Because complaining without proposing doesn’t help, and because if someone from xTool reads this, here’s the request:
It should be possible to assign immediate job repetition to a simple press of the machine’s physical button.
Nothing else. No new hardware or pedal needed: the button is already there and pressed every cycle. You just have to let that button, when there’s no job in progress, relaunch the previous one.
That would put it on par with mass-production lasers. It’s a firmware difference that would change the machine’s real performance on long runs more than any speed improvement.
xTool Studio: the good, the heavy, and what’s not coming
With the P3 you can only use xTool Studio. There is no LightBurn support, and this has been a real reason for order cancellations in the owners’ forum. It’s important to be clear about this before buying, because if you come from LightBurn with years of workflow set up, this is a migration, not just an adjustment.
Studio is advancing by leaps and bounds, and this must be acknowledged loud and clear, because it’s impressive: you can see very focused development cycles supporting new machines and adding features, not at a slow pace. In fact: we’ve seen several of our suggestions implemented shortly after mentioning them. To be fair, part of this is because we were among the very first users of the machine, so there was more to refine; but having a brand listen and act quickly is exactly what you want to see. Having said all the good things: it feels heavier than the alternative, and that shows in daily use.
What we miss about LightBurn
Above all one thing: the ease of the material library, and the possibility of having your own library without xTool’s preconfigured ones. When you open the list and see dozens of factory entries to search through, sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming to see so many results.
And here we’re the first to admit the contradiction: we come from a world of tweaking settings, sitting down with a cut to make test grids, and it feels strange that the machine comes with everything decided. But when a new material arrives that you’ve never worked with before, it’s really appreciated to have settings curated by someone else as a starting point. Both things are true at the same time.
Things you need to know to avoid fighting with Studio
- Cut order isn’t controlled by reordering layers. You have to enable layer processing and assign colors. It’s one of the first things that trips you up if you come from other software.
- SVG: use Import or drag the file in. The Open option only opens native projects. It seems obvious written down, but it’s not when you’ve been trying for half an hour.
- Check the scale when importing. Several professional users report that scaling on import isn’t always reliable. Measure the piece on screen before starting.
- The overcut arrived in version 1.3. If you don’t have it, update before looking for it.
- The air assist is global, not per layer. For acrylic, you have to disable it in the device settings.
- There’s no Z adjustment or pause mid-job. What you send runs all the way through.
The cut start point
It’s a recurring request on the forum: to be able to define at what point in the path the cut starts, so the entry mark is hidden. It still can’t be done.
We aren't worried about it for our use cases, and we say this honestly even if it puts us outside the majority complaint. We fully understand that it’s a legitimate request for those working with pieces where that brand is visible.
Will there be LightBurn someday?
We don't know, and we're not going to speculate. The only concrete fact we can share is this: in a brand email newsletter, part of a survey asked about LightBurn support. The fact that it appears in a survey means someone there is measuring it. Whether that means it’s seriously considered or they’re just testing the waters, we have no idea.
There is one move that says a lot about where xTool is headed and that we find revealing: while LightBurn has stopped supporting Linux, xTool has seen the opportunity and is preparing a Studio version for that operating system. It’s the kind of decision—filling the gap left by the other—that only someone seriously investing in their software makes. For those working on Linux, Studio goes from "the only option with the P3" to simply "the option that exists."
The cameras: the feature that makes us happiest day to day
After so many complaints about ergonomics, it’s time to talk about something we truly appreciate, because it improves the workflow: the cameras on the P3. The machine has two, and placing the design on the material is a convenience that, once you have it, you don’t want to let go.
Now, with our usual honesty, because the nuance matters to avoid misunderstanding. There are two ways to look, and they don’t serve the same purpose:
- The top-down view of the lid is the general one, the one you see at a glance. It’s convenient for getting an idea and placing by eye, but it doesn’t provide dimensional accuracy: it has distortion at the edges of the bed—the typical wide-angle distortion shooting from above. If you try to position to the millimeter relying on this view, especially near the edges, it will shift.
- The close-up photo mode is the solution, and it’s very good. Instead of a global photo, the machine takes pictures from directly above the area, whether a single shot of the point you’re interested in or a mosaic that scans the surface. From that perpendicular angle, you get millimeter precision.
The difference in production is huge. Engraving at an exact point on an existing object—a lid, an irregular piece, something you already have—goes from being a lottery to a reliable job: you take a close-up photo, place the design over the real image, and launch. It’s one of those features that doesn’t make the brochure cover but that you use in every delicate job.
The conveyor: we have it and hardly use it
Confession: the automatic feeder was an impulse buy and we've only used it twice. We still haven't gotten much use out of it.
Affiliate link: if you buy through it we may earn a small commission, at no cost to you. The review is independent.
That said, what we can share from those two times is positive:
- It works well. It does what it says.
- No smoke comes out of the conveyor slots, and we have never removed them. It was our main concern when setting it up and it turned out to be unfounded.
- We also don’t remove the front roller. xTool sometimes warns of possible collisions when engraving very close to the front edge, but it has never caused us a problem.
An important limitation to know before buying: xTool discourages multi-pass with the automatic feeder, because the error accumulates with transport — about one millimeter per meter advanced. Perfect for single-pass cutting on continuous material. For jobs requiring multiple passes over the same area, it’s not the tool.
A word about support, which matters here
Much of what we know about Studio is because we asked. And the experience with xTool support has been consistently good: they respond in a reasonable time, show interest, and there’s always someone taking control of the case.
With a distinction we find healthy: some things have a solution and they provide it; others explain that they are not designed that way, and several of those are in this article. We much prefer a "this product doesn’t do that and it’s not planned to" over three weeks of runarounds. If you end up opening a case, send a video of the problem: that’s what they ask for and what speeds everything up.
The balance in production
The P3 can handle whatever you throw at it. That part is solved and it’s the hard part: 16 hours straight without a failure is the kind of data that justifies buying a machine at this price.
What it lacks is not power or reliability, but standard ergonomics: a button to restart the job and slightly lighter software. These are two firmware issues, and one of them is already being addressed. Meanwhile, we keep clicking twice and walking to the computer fifty times a day, and still manage to fulfill orders.
Written by Noemi and Javi, from Picasita. We are affiliates of xTool and our workshop is a brand demonstration space; we bought our P3 on the day it was released. More about this blog and our relationship with xTool.
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