Adding Design

Does anyone know if there is a way to “Add a Design” from your own Home page/library, rather than either as only a new upload or new trace?

What I want to do is put multiple “traced” images (each as its own “traced” image file) onto an item, and would be easier if I can just place them onto the item & run all, vs. having to load each separately & run for each image, as I have to do now for anything that is an image I already traced & have in my library/history on the home page.

Also, can there be a way to “copy” and “paste” the same image if I want it to appear multiple times, like above–e.g. copy & paste 4 times for 5 images that I run in one batch, rather than have to make 5 separate runs.

You can add files, both vectors and rasters to the GFUI operations space once you are there. You can add the file multiple times too. You can also add more traces with the Add artwork plus icon. You can do the normal ctrl+c/cmd+c to copy and ctrl+v to paste as many times as you want.

You can’t however save what you just added to the workspace. Gone forever once you exit out of it.

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Thanks! But how do I get an additional file created from a bed trace opened?
(I’m just on my 4th day running my GF!)

After I get into the operations space (?) after I open a file and it has been rendered, the only options I have from “add artwork” are 1) upload or 2) trace a bed image.

I don’t want to trace a new image (e.g. put the drawing on the bed again), but use one from my home page/library, which I can’t access as a file to upload. (yet)

Or is there a path to get the Home page/library so that I can “upload” it from the site?
OR a way to save the bed trace image file to my own computer? (that would be more useful in many ways, as I like the appearance of the bed trace image in many cases more than scanning & editing the image in other software first).

Grrr, since you can copy & paste an image, it would be ideal if it appeared as an option on a pull down menu (right click) for an option w/ mouse vs. keyboard controls.

Thanks!

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Oh, the picture is of a leather wrist strap I just did tonight. Each of the cats is a separate image file–example for what I do that I’d like to add multiple files created by bed traces to run in one set, vs. 3 different set-ups. Thanks! Susan

As far as I know the software can’t do that yet. It might be in the hopper–I would like it as well.

One thing I haven’t experimented with: you can open multiple browser windows on the Glowforge bed. Maybe you could open another window to place that second traced item. It wouldn’t do both engraves at the same time, but that should be okay, just run the second one after running the first one.

Saving a setup/file should be a high priority for @Dan given that

  1. Tuning settings is such a time investment by users
  2. The coding shouldn’t be difficult. Basically write out the current state.
  3. Saved designs with Settings could be a source of new catalog submissions
  4. Gap in ease of use of :proofgrade: with catalog designs vs. manual settings is high

However, #4 may also be a reason that :glowforge: would decide to delay the capability to encourage :proofgrade: and catalog sales. I really don’t think that this is the way that Dan leads, but it’s yet to see. Right now, they’re still 80% focused on manufacturing, which makes sense but should change soon. At some point soon, the manufacturing team shouldn’t need so much focus from the core development team to crank out units.

The scans/traces you start from the Home tab will be saved, but the are not accessible from a workspace started by uploading a different file.

The trace and scan is good for one off designs. To get a productive work flow you need to be able to use design software or images scanned as bitmaps and saved separately as files on your computer.

You are probing the limits of the scan/trace routine. It is a great gimmick or trick that allows for minimal design software knowledge. If you want to go into productuion other tools are needed.

I have a hand held scanner wand that does 8.5" wide scans very well. It is what I use to get hand drawn bitmaps into the Glowforge for reuse.

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Thanks again–helps me know if it can be done & just haven’t found the way to do it, or not an option.

I have a couple scanners, as well as Photoshop, so will put more time into creating files I can save & even try scanning an item I engraved using bed trace images for easier reproduction of them.

Thanks!

Thanks cynd11, may try that when don’t want to take time creating another file thru scans & image editing, or # times want to use multiple bed trace images isn’t enough to offset time for the file creation…

Thanks for the suggestions, @bansai8creations! I’ll make sure the team gets them.