13 Things GF needs

[jbmanning5]

I’d still like to see a coolant temp reading rather than ambient temp reading. It’s more telling.

Because ultimately, the coolant needs to get to an in-threshold range.

[evansd2]

Is it worth $8.55 (and potentially voiding a warranty depending on how you rig it) to you?

AcuRite 02067M Digital Thermometer with Humidity & Wired Temperature Sensor https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0AGWAC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_0jY-AbWJ395CA

[jbmanning5]

And the plus on that is that if you have an Acurite weather station (which I do), it will sync up to that

[karlfranz]

@jbmanning5

I’d still like to see a coolant temp reading rather than ambient temp reading. It’s more telling. Because ultimately, the coolant needs to get to an in-threshold range.

This is more like what I was wanting. Having ambient temp does very little. But knowing what the coolant current and target temps are would be much more helpful. Sometimes the “will resume in a few minutes” message can remain on screen for an hour or more until the GF determines it is cool enough to continue.

BTW; this wouldn’t be as much of an issue if I already had the GF filter. Right now, the GF has to sit in my Florida Room for venting reasons and that area is not air conditioned. I usually have to wait until the evening/night time for it to be cool enough to print uninterrupted.

[karlfranz]

@rbtdanforth

It happens often, sometimes not, but can be a half millimeter or in extreme cases over an inch.

Slow big circles do fine, complex and long cuts before going back over it not so much.

Occasional cases where there is a glitch and it recalibrates, the result is closer to accurate but not the same path as was already done that was less accurate.

I have gotten into the habit of turning the Glowforge off for 30 seconds and back on when there is not a repeat need as yet.

I’ve had this happen to me as well. I was experimenting with de-focused engraving on acrylic and I tried one test using multiple passes. Part of the second pass was shifted downwards by almost 0.25in. Note that this happened during multiple passes of the same print job, not a case where I finished a job and then printed over it again. I suspect there is a SW glitch somewhere in the code that causes this to happen intermittently when a perfect storm of parameters align.

[evansd2]

If at all possible, bust a hole in your wall and vent from where you want the GF. Cancel the filter order, and voila, found money.

Look at it this way: however much it would cost you to setup a vent, I bet it’s cheaper than the filter…

Even if you go hog wild like @dwardio, I bet it’s cheaper than a filter. And no media to replace. And no “huh that filter didn’t work perfectly, and now I smell acrylic for days”…

Re-vamped venting setup

For over a year, Trogdor and then Arges were ventilated with the tried-and-true dryer hose out the window method. My workshop is in the basement, so the only way to vent outside was out through a window well… [IMG_1363] For a variety of reasons, I wasn’t 100% satisfied with this setup. Do you know how hard it is to make an egress window air-tight?:tired_face: Over the past few months, I decided that exhausting out and up past our roofline was the way to go. Not only would it keep the exhaust…

[karlfranz]

@evansd2

If at all possible, bust a hole in your wall and vent from where you want the GF. Cancel the filter order, and voila, found money.

Look at it this way: however much it would cost you to setup a vent, I bet it’s cheaper than the filter…

Even if you go hog wild like @dwardio, I bet it’s cheaper than a filter. And no media to replace. And no “huh that filter didn’t work perfectly, and now I smell acrylic for days”…

Yeah, except I don’t have a dedicated area in the house where I would want to permanently set up the GF. I built an extruded aluminum trolley on heavy duty, locking, 4-in urethane casters that will hold the GF w/ filter and I can store under a desk. In the event I need to cut something, I can just wheel it out, do the job, and store it again.

[evansd2]

As long as you will always set the GF up in the same place when you want to cut…

Wheel it out to the cutting spot, use a magnetic coupling to hook up the vent, then unlink and wheel it back to its “garage” when you’re done.

You can also make a stylish cover to turn the vent hole into art when you’re not using it.

Lots of magnetic vent coupling posts in the forum if you look around.

[karlfranz]

@evansd2

As long as you will always set the GF up in the same place when you want to cut…

Wheel it out to the cutting spot, use a magnetic coupling to hook up the vent, then unlink and wheel it back to its “garage” when you’re done.

You can also make a stylish cover to turn the vent hole into art when you’re not using it.

Lots of magnetic vent coupling posts in the forum if you look around.

Yeah, while this is a good idea for some, I really don’t want to punch a hole in the side of my house.

But, going back to the original topic , I think greatly improved alignment capabilities (#5) would be my most desired enhancement.

I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but it seems the image from the camera has become exaggeratedly more fisheye-looking in the past week. This has made alignment of any kind using the image of the material on the tray next to impossible.

Another related thing I have noticed recently:
For my Illustrator template, I made a 20"x12" artboard and then made a rectangle along the perimeter the same size with zero fill, 0.25 stroke and a unique color. I then set the rectangle to “Ignore” in the GFUI. As long as I don’t move the objects in the GFUI after I load the SVG, all items within the rectangle retain their relative alignment.

Lately, however, when I try to upload any SVG file that contains that perimeter rectangle, the Print button on the GFUI is not enabled and the “Ready” text is replaced with “No Artwork”. I have to delete the rectangle in the SVG and reload the image so that print is enabled. Is this a new “feature”?

[jamesdhatch]

@karlfranz

For my Illustrator template, I made a 20"x12" artboard and then made a rectangle along the perimeter the same size with zero fill, 0.25 stroke and a unique color. I then set the rectangle to “Ignore” in the GFUI

That grouping rectangle can only be 19.5x10.975" for it to be considered artwork by the GFUI. Anything inside that box is grouped together by the GFUI so that’s likely why it’s not showing any artwork. As long as the workspace is 20x12" the objects will retain their alignment.

[karlfranz]

@jamesdhatch

That grouping rectangle can only be 19.5x10.975" for it to be considered artwork by the GFUI. Anything inside that box is grouped together by the GFUI so that’s likely why it’s not showing any artwork. As long as the workspace is 20x12" the objects will retain their alignment.

This is not my experience. Firstly, the rectangle is not “grouped” with the objects within it. It’s on its own layer with a unique color so I can set it to Ignore within the GFUI. The only purpose of the rectangle is to maintain the relative alignment of other objects within the SVG. Since the rectangle is set to Ignore, it should not be used to determine if other objects in other layers are within the printable area. And this is indeed how it used to work. But, recently, it seems that the GFUI is using ignored objects outside the printable area to determine if the entire job is printable which makes no sense.

And while we’re at it, isn’t “No Artwork” a really misleading message? What is really happening is that there is artwork outside the boundaries.

[jbmanning5]

I’ve never used a separate rectangle like you’re speaking about. But, if you’re setting your document up as a 12x20” artboard, it’s not needed. Everything will maintain absolute and relative placement if the artboard is 12x20”.

[karlfranz]

Maybe it’s something in the setup of my Illustrator CC but, when I load an SVG into GFUI, it automatically places the top left corner of the topmost, leftmost object in the upper left corner of the image area. It is using that object for registration of everything else.

It seems you are getting the GFUI to use the upper left corner of the artboard for registration instead. Perhaps something in our SVG settings is different.

[jbmanning5]

The official recommendation from Glowforge is to use Save As or Save A Copy. If you do that, this is how my SVG save profile looks:

I use Export for Screens a lot (even though it’s not recommended). As long as you can configure the options correctly, it seems to be OK. Here is how I’ve set that up:

[karlfranz]

I’ll have to try those when I get home. Thanx.

[drelleum]

Punching a hole only works if you’re allowed to modify the house. So for the majority of renters it’s a no-go

[evansd2]

All landlords have a price. If you ask, it may be less than the cost of a filter.

[karlfranz]

OK, so interesting results:

• If you create an SVG using “Save a Copy…”, the GFUI uses the artboard upper left corner as the reference to the upper left corner of the GF workspace.

• If you create an SVG using “Export As …”, as I had been doing, the GFUI uses the upper left corner of the topmost, leftmost object in your file as the reference to the upper left corner of the GF workspace.

So, that mystery is solved. Now if we can only get the software team to replace the term “No Artwork” with something more truthful like “Artwork Outside Print Boundary”.

[jbmanning5]

For “Export As” you need to make sure that “Use Artboards” option on the Export As screen is selected - otherwise it is completely ignoring your 12x20 artboard