I have a jig set up to print 6 acrylic light signs, each with an individuals name and after I cut the cardboard for the jig and do the first print, I want to change the names.
In inscape, I can use the centering tool to align the names, Is there an alignment tool in Glowforge?
Or do you just have to eyeball it?
If you have premium, you can use the text that is in the GFUI and just change the name.
The jig file should contain the name (or a file placeholder for the name) that is center/aligned as you desire. After cutting the cardboard (and ignoring the text) you would place your light in the cutout, ignore the outline cut line and enable the name which will be centered. You can change/add the other names by replacing the placeholder. They will already by aligned. Set focus on the light, IGNORE THE CAMERA VIEW, enable engrave and the the names will engrave in the proper place. it is important that the name(s) or a place for them be in the jig file.
But can I center the new text like i can in inkscape? or do i have to just eyeball it?
My plan was to make the first print, delete the names, create new names using GFUI, and try to center them by eye balling it.
I have the names centered in the project - do i make a place holder instead?
After you make the first print (assuming the name is centered as you wish, select the name and make a note of the location coordinates. Use those coordinates to place the subsequent names. You do not have to eyeball anything - which is the point of the jig.
With the text in premium, you can change the name any time and just print the whole thing over again. If you are using a premade blank then you have to do careful alignment. If not you can make multiple copies, change the name on each, and just print the whole thing.
I had someone bring me a stack of disks thinking it would be easier, but they were many times more work than just cutting the disk and the rest. Sort of the difference between shooting the arrow at a wall and then painting the target vs having the target first and trying to hit the center.
I’ve had this problem too, when trying to print names on aluminum dog tag blanks. I put the tag in the laser bed, close the lid, and then on my computer I see a picture of my dog tag on the bed. I use the text tool within the Glowforge user interface to type in the name, and I move it right where I want it based on the image on my screen. However, when I go to print it, it’s always about an eighth of an inch too far to the left, instead of being centered like I placed it. So eventually, I started to change the placement of the text to be slightly to the right. And even though it didn’t look correct on my screen, it printed out nice and centered on the tag! That’s the only way I’ve been able to figure out how to do it, but it’s hit or miss.
The point of error is there. If you do not use the Focus button first, where the material is will not likely be where you are looking on the screen. It is actually less about focus than alignment.
The camera is wide angle but there is a bunch of math so you see it flat. The math however is extremely sensetive to height.
Thanks for that! Do you also think it’s better to put the blank more or less in the center of the bed? Or does that make any difference?
If everything is the same size and shape you can use a piece of cardboard, or scrap hard up against a corner so you can put it there anytime. Then make the shape of your tags on the screen and using the highlighted shape, set the location and size with the ruler setting on the right hand side. By making it simple whole numbers like 8 - 4 it is easy to remember, and then you cut that shape out of the cardboard. Now you have a precise place on the screen and the crumb tray that you can go to at any time.
It is those numbers and not what you see on the scteen that rules, and the same numbers will always land on that place every time.
If you’re doing them one at a time, yes. A jig (like @rbtdanforth mentioned) can help especially if you’re doing a lot of them at a time because your jig could have places for however many tags you can fit in the material up to the size of the bed.
The camera sees a warped image of the bed because it’s fairly close to the bed surface. Their software takes the warped image and applies a bunch of computations to create the flat image you see. Since the camera is centered above the bed, there’s very little warp, so much less adjustment needed by the software.
What the set focus button does is move the head to a spot on the bed and hits it with a range finding beam. The software calculates where the head and material are at that point and compares those values to the corrected de-warped software image of the bed and reapplies the computer’s map to the image so that now the image matches the real position of the head
It helps a lot id the distances remain in zero digits beyong the decimal point (or at most a variation of 1/4") so they can be returned at any time to those numbers.
I think I understand that. I’m assuming that the text box would need to be “centered“ and the left-hand side of that box would need to match the number of the horizontal ruler when you made your original jig.
If you use the location of the center of the piece (the default) then your text can have the same numbers.
Ah… Thank you!
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