I probably didn’t explain it well enough. If you’ve got it working using some other method just keep doing that. 
Okay so here’s the deal, I used your method. I made a cut only circle, than an interior circle with a fill and than the text on top of that. Than I subtracted the text from the interior circle and it all worked. Thanks so very much. I’ve been stumped at this all day long. I still can’t figure out why I need to subtract text from the circle to achieve this. Maybe it’s an affinity thing. And yes I exported it all as a pdf. Again thank you so much for doing all this for me. I couldn’t be happier.
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No you did, and I think I’m just not used to all the in’s and outs of affinity. Thanks again I really do appreciate it.
I’m finding out that either Subtract or Combine are giving the same result for the cutout areas. It’s the PDF file that is the secret for getting it to the GF.
I don’t know why the SVG variants aren’t working - I haven’t dissected them yet to find out.
OK, you’re over this hurdle - go have fun! 
No problem, the subtraction method actually works better, and we have to do that for all programs, not just AD. (The Glowforge interface will engrave any Fill color, including vector white. Subtracting it out and having no fill is the only way it ignores a “white” area for vector engraves.)
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It’s because of the way the glowforge looks at a file. It first sees that their is a colour and then sees what colour it is. What colour it is only matter to it for programming. When you put something white on top of a black circle your eye (or regular printer) goes “oh, the same colour as the background; that means nothing is there” however what is there to the glowforge is a fully intact black circle and then another colour of text on top of that.
Changing your screen background to a different colour that you aren’t using (say yellow in this case) can help visualize it.
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No. It’s a design thing. And the way files are interpreted in general.
When you have text, or a hole, or a circle - whatever, over another shape, it’s just that - over another shape. So in the code that’s being interpreted, you have an outer area filled with black that the system says this is an engrave. We will engrave the whole thing because that’s what it says. Then you have a vector area of white on top of that engraved circle. What’s it to do? It wants to engrave it again. Nothing is saying engrave all of the circle except this text part. That’s where pathfinder / Boolean operations come in.
Here’s more, but it’s Illustrator-centric.
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I haven’t looked at the file but it’s probably the longstanding Glowforge bug regarding fill rules in SVG files.
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Yeah I’ve been at it all day using the subtraction method. It works every time like a charm. And yes using an svg or even png won’t get me the results I was looking for. Thanks again man.
Thanks for the link JB. And yes your breakdown does make sense now I realize why the method I kept trying was failing regardless of the export settings or fill/stroke.
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Right, since I realized the color variance I’ve been using different colors for each aspect of the design. It makes it easier and is helpful picking out which actions to carry out. Thanks for the explanation
I defitnley realize that now. The whole process was just trial and error. I’m sure this thread will help the next guy who needs help. Thanks a bunch