EzCad3 & JCZ

Building an EzCad3 Parameter Library That Survives Reinstallation

Don't lose your carefully calibrated laser settings. We'll show you how to back up your EzCad3 parameter library and other critical machine files, step by step, for peace of mind.

25 September 2026 · The HagoLaser team · 10 min read

Anyone who runs a fiber laser with EzCad3 knows the sinking feeling: your computer dies, you reinstall the software, and all your carefully dialled-in material settings are gone. We’ve been there, losing precious sterling silver to problems nobody had written down. The good news is that protecting your laser's memory is simple, if you know where to look.

Your EzCad3 software keeps all your material recipes – the "pen library" – in a single file called MarkParamlib.ini. This file, along with a few others, is your machine's brain. Backing it up takes minutes and saves you hours of recalibration, and potentially many grams of ruined material.

Your Laser's Memory: The PARAM Folder

Your galvo fiber laser, whether it's a 30 W, 50 W, or our own 100 W MOPA machine, is controlled by a BJJCZ (often just "JCZ") board. EzCad3 is the software that talks to that board. While the board itself runs the job, the PC sends it a list of vector and marking commands, along with all the laser settings you define in the software.

Crucially, EzCad3 stores your machine's entire configuration – its calibration and your material recipes – in one specific folder. This is usually located at C:\EzCad3\PARAM (or wherever you installed EzCad3). Inside this folder, you'll find a few files that are absolutely critical:

• MarkParamlib.ini: This is your pen library, where all your material settings (speed, power, frequency, passes) are stored. This is the main file we are targeting today.
• Motors.ini: If you have a motorized Z-axis or rotary attachment, its calibration and movement data live here.
• .cor files: These are your galvo correction files, essential for accurate marking across the entire field. Without these, your marks will be distorted.
• LaserPW.ini: This file contains the laser source power tables.

These files are the heart of your machine's setup. If you lose them, you effectively lose your machine's calibration and all your hard-won material recipes. We've dedicated an entire article to this topic because it's so important: Back Up Your EzCad3: The Four Files That Are Your Calibration.

Finding and Backing Up Your EzCad3 Parameters

Here’s the straightforward process for backing up your pen library and other critical files. This is what we do in our workshop, and it has saved us more than once.

1. Locate your EzCad3 installation folder: By default, this is C:\EzCad3. If you installed it elsewhere, navigate to that location.
2. Find the PARAM folder: Inside your EzCad3 installation, you'll see a folder named PARAM. This is the one you need.
3. Copy the entire PARAM folder: Select the PARAM folder and copy it.
4. Paste it to a safe location: This could be a USB drive, a cloud storage service, or another drive on your computer. We recommend multiple copies in different locations. Date the backup folder (e.g., PARAM_Backup_2023-10-27) so you know when it was made.

Restoring Your Library After a Reinstall

If you ever need to reinstall EzCad3 or move to a new computer:

1. Install EzCad3 as usual. It will create a fresh, default PARAM folder.
2. Navigate to the newly created C:\EzCad3\PARAM folder.
3. Delete all the files inside this new, default PARAM folder.
4. Copy all the files from your backup PARAM folder (not the folder itself, but its contents) into the new C:\EzCad3\PARAM folder.
5. Restart EzCad3. Your pen library and machine calibration should now be restored.

Decoding Your EzCad3 Parameters: What Each Setting Does

Once you have your parameters backed up, it's useful to understand what each setting actually means. We learned this the hard way, through trial and error, and by losing material. Our machine uses a 100 W MOPA source, and these are the settings we've found work for jewelry.

Consider the engraving recipe we use for silver that will be filled with enamel: 100 % power · 600 mm/s · 30 kHz · 10 passes. Let's break down what these, and other common settings, mean:

• Speed: This is how fast the galvos move the laser spot across your material. Slower speeds mean more energy is delivered per millimetre, resulting in deeper or wider marks. Too slow, and you might just melt the material instead of ablating it.
• Power (%): The average power output of your laser source. While higher power sounds better, it's not the full story. A 100 W source can engrave shallower than a 30 W machine if the other parameters aren't optimized for depth.
• Frequency (kHz): This is the number of laser pulses per second. The key is that energy per pulse ≈ average power ÷ frequency. So, at a fixed average power, a higher frequency means weaker individual pulses. For deep engraving, we found dropping our frequency to 30 kHz was a big lever to get more depth. For fine surface marks, higher frequency is often better.
• Passes / Loops: How many times the laser repeats the entire marking geometry. This is the honest way to get depth and consistency. We often use multiple passes, especially for cutting.
• Pulse width (ns): Only available on MOPA sources, like ours. This sets how long each individual laser pulse lasts. Long pulses (like our 200 ns for silver engraving) deposit more energy per shot, which is good for depth, engraving, and cutting. Short pulses (2-20 ns) are much gentler and are key for color marking on stainless steel or marking plastics without burning.
• Laser Off TC (µs): A delay after the last mark of a segment before the galvos jump away. If this is too short, the laser might still be active as the head moves, causing faint, unwanted lines across your work. Our setting for engraving is 100 µs.
• Jump speed: How fast the galvos move between marked areas with the beam off. Counter-intuitively, if this speed is too low, it can also contribute to stray lines if the Laser Off TC is not sufficient. Our engraving jump speed is 2000 mm/s.
• Polygon TC / Min/Max Jump TC: Small delays that allow the galvos to settle at corners or at the start/end of jumps. They trade off sharpness and accuracy against overall marking speed. For our silver engraving, we use Polygon TC 100, Min Jump TC 10, Max Jump TC 85.
• Contour: EzCad3 often enables this by default for filled areas. It adds an extra outline pass, which can make small text crisper but also slightly thickens the overall mark.

Practical Examples: Cutting and Engraving Sterling Silver

Sterling silver is our main material, and it’s a difficult one. It's highly reflective and an excellent heat conductor, which means it rejects a lot of the laser beam and quickly dissipates the heat that does get in. This is why it needs many passes to cut through.

For cutting sterling silver sheet on our machine, our common recipe is 95 % power, 190 mm/s, 60 kHz, with wobble enabled. We always use wobble for cutting metal – it makes the kerf wider so the molten metal can escape instead of re-welding. Our wobble settings are typically 0.15 mm diameter, 0.05 mm end diameter, and 0.07 mm distance. A common mistake is to set the wobble diameter too small (e.g., 0.015 mm instead of 0.15 mm), which results in a mark that looks correct but never actually cuts through.

Here are the pass counts we actually measure and use in our workshop for cutting sterling silver (remember, these are for our machine, our source, and our harder silver alloy—always prove on scrap first!):

For engraving, as mentioned, our recipe for depth (e.g., for enamel filling) is 100 % power · 600 mm/s · 30 kHz · 10 passes. This uses a lower frequency than cutting, delivering fatter, more energetic pulses to dig deeper per pass.

Why Material Matters: Gold vs. Silver

Understanding reflectivity is crucial. A fiber laser at 1064 nm has to be absorbed by the material to do any work. Silver is the most reflective metal there is, making it the hardest common precious metal to work with. Gold, however, reflects less of the 1064 nm beam. On the bench, the difference is obvious: gold cuts and engraves more easily than silver with the same machine and operator. If you've only cut silver, working with gold will feel like your machine suddenly got an upgrade.

For cutting gold, we use the same recipe as silver (95 % power, 190 mm/s, 60 kHz, wobble on), but we need significantly fewer passes. Our gold table works out at roughly half the passes we use on silver for the same thickness. These numbers are derived from our silver measurements and scaled for gold, not measured in gold directly. They are a starting point that must be proved on scrap gold.

Remember that karat and alloy change everything. 18k yellow is not 14k, and white gold behaves differently. Always start low and work up on scrap. A cut that doesn't go through costs an extra pass; too many passes widen the kerf and distort thin sections on expensive material.

Safety First, Always

Working with a fiber marking laser means working with a Class 4 device. The 1064 nm beam is invisible and causes permanent eye damage instantly and silently. Always wear laser safety glasses rated for 1064 nm (with appropriate OD for your source power), and ensure everyone in the room does the same. Reflections off metal go everywhere. Never leave a running job unattended. Metal marking produces metal fume and fine particulate; proper extraction with a filter is health equipment, not an accessory. Physical interlocks and enclosures are your real safety layer; software interlocks are a convenience that can be bypassed. Your protection depends on your vigilance and proper equipment.

Keeping Your Library Clean and Useful

Once you have a backup system, maintaining your parameter library becomes much easier. Here are a few tips we've learned:

• Calibrate on scrap, always. Never use a real piece for testing. A test grid of speed against power, with settings engraved next to each square, saves time and material.
• Change one variable at a time. This helps you understand the effect of each setting.
• Write it down immediately. A reproducible recipe needs material, thickness, power, speed, frequency, passes, and focus height. If you miss one, it's not repeatable.
• Recalibrate when anything changes. New material supplier, different alloy, a new jig, or cleaned optics all warrant a fresh test.
• Clean up old presets. Remove settings that no longer work or that you don't use. A cluttered library is a confusing library.

Your parameter library is a living document, reflecting your machine's capabilities and your accumulated knowledge. Treat it as the valuable asset it is.

Final Takeaways: What We Do Every Day

In our workshop, we rely on our EzCad3 parameter library every day to cut and engrave sterling silver and other precious metals. Here are the most critical actions:

1. Back up your PARAM folder regularly. This is the single most important thing you can do to protect your work. We keep copies on a network drive and a USB stick.
2. Understand your settings. Knowing what power, frequency, pulse width, and passes actually do saves you from endless guessing and wasted material. Remember that for depth, lower frequency often beats higher power.
3. Always use wobble for cutting. If a recipe that used to cut suddenly only engraves a line, check the wobble diameter first. It's a common, deceptive error.
4. Expect a black edge. After cutting or deep engraving silver, the edges will be oxidized. Polishing to bring back the shine is a normal part of the process, not a sign of a problem.
5. Never judge your machine solely on silver. It's the most challenging common metal for fiber lasers. If you move to gold, you'll feel a significant difference in ease of cutting and engraving.

By taking these steps, you can build a robust EzCad3 parameter library that serves your workshop reliably, day in and day out, without the fear of losing your hard-won settings.