CAD Model of the Exterior of the Glowforge Basic/Pro

Check out the post I made “Size Matters”…not actual specifics but perhaps some helpful info. about the bottom of the GF. I too, would like to see the location of exhaust port.

I’d like to get the ‘official’ model if possible. I don’t want to design/cut out stuff and it being off. Thanks anyway thou.

This is the sort of thing that would have to come from our engineering team, and I’m loathe to have them do anything right now other than get you your glowforges. Maybe later…

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If you use Sketchup, I have made my reference model public:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=ua8aabc5f-4d8a-49c3-b203-846a1d8cf408

Please note that this is only intended as a reference for helping plan shop/workspace layout. The outer dimensions (length, width, and height) are accurate to the dimensions provided on glowfroge.com, but the rounded corners and inner details are just there for aesthetic purposes.

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@Dan, I have a question about that- You mention many times that with the response of

At this stage- The CAD model and prototypes should be completed/vetted. And the soft start of actually fabbing production units show have started (or in the process of starting). Where are the GF’s going to be fabbed/assembled?
Locally in the states? Or overseas?

Oh and one other random question- In the prototype and the demo units, It looks like you are using something similar to a Makerslide in there. Is that the case? If so- thats pretty cool. I looks like there are a couple holes in the extrusion to make way for the NEMA 17 & GT2(3) Pulley.

We’re iterating on the molds for the case to get the details just right. Lots of the other injection molded parts are coming in as well.

We haven’t announced where we’re assembling them yet.

The rails are custom aluminum extrusions that have a lot of cool details molded in - they’re different from Makerslide but definitely have some resemblance!

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Any news on where the GF will be ‘born’ / made?

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Not yet. (Not because we don’t know, just because we can’t announce yet).

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Just wanted to Bump this because it seems to be what I’m looking for.

@dan, is it later enough to get Exterior models for designing workspaces?

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No, the ME team is slammed right now - I don’t expect this any time soon if at all. It would be a fair bit of work to clean it up so that it’s not useful to people who are trying to replicate what we’ve built.

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Actually you can simply do a laser scan of the external shell (or just export the external shell as a solid) in which case it helps people out with the “does it fit” without revealing anything…

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Remember when they were having trouble setting up the camera and links for the first Glowforge videos? And you want them to go buy a 3D scanner?

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You can take it to a place. There are tons of them, they quickly spin your model (and a dude who knows what he’s doing gives you a model).

It would be nice, but I don’t expect anyone to laser scan the machines. I work in Solidworks and Fusion all day, and all 3d modeling software makes it very easy to delete what you don’t want from an assembly. We’re talking literally 10 minutes of work tops to accomplish this. But if the man says they are too busy then ok. Thanks for responding to the post @dan.

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Yeah but it’s a day’s lost productivity. Box up a laser & filter (so you get the elbow connector included). Load it into a van. Haul it across town. Unbox it. Scan. Check the scan. Scan again. Box it up. Load it back in the van. Back across town. Unload. Unbox and put it back where it was. Hook it all up again.

Check the scan. Clean it up a bit. Post it here.

And for what value? Does that value outweigh a day’s effort working to get Pros out the door or tighten up the software?

Gotta figure it’s a low priority for GF. And I expect if you took a poll of the 10,000 people waiting, the majority would rather the time & effort was dedicated to getting them their GF sooner.

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Well going on @dan’s comment, they apparently didn’t build their parts in an easy to delete manner. I work in OnShape and F360 most of the day too, and concur, this should be a bit of time of an intern on a copy of the model.

Um, office intern? I mean I send lab students to do these kinds of things all the time (well not 70lb objects but you get the idea). It’s part of being an intern (not like I don’t do these things too, but if you are worried about lost time, interns rarely are critical paths). You then get a nice scanned object with a surface map. You can as above use the same intern to painful delete all the parts (heck just have the intern make a rectangle the size of the inside of the case and do boolean subtract in whatever CAD you use; of course the engineers don’t do this…).

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Don’t know they have interns or that their interns aren’t busy keeping engineers and Support happy with coffee runs, snacks, Little Debbie cakes, etc :slight_smile: It’s always a matter of prioritization - it just doesn’t seem like a real high ROI on the time/$ spent.

I have no idea. I don’t interrupt the engineers unless I have something that’s more important than what they’re working on. I haven’t asked them about this because if the CEO says “hey would it be easy to make a CAD model for the forums redacting sensitive information”, there’s a tendency to say “sure” and do it at the expense of more important things. Like sleep and shipping and stuff.

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If the units are in production then I would have thought the mechanical engineer’s work would have been done. If they are still hard at it then things don’t look good for the delivery dates.

I sometimes feel like I am posting for you and you alone, @palmercr. Your replies let me know that you care.

Because we’re manufacturing in the US, our single biggest cost is labor. Anything we can do to make a Glowforge come together more quickly, or to improve the first past test yield (that is, prevent problems during assembly that need to be corrected), improve the product and accelerate our production. The ME team will be busy for many, many months to come.

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