@dan Glowforge is a dream machine for my studio, can’t wait to get some materials in this thing.
I’ve seen all of the videos so far showing Glowforge in action, I just have one question regarding registration of materials. All of the videos seem to show the materials being placed randomly on the bed of the machine and things being cut/etched in this manner. Is there a way to put the materials in squarely to the head of the laser so you can cut precisely to the edges of the material? Will this have to be done by eye or is there an option to have the laser head calibrate itself to cut squarely to the material on the bed?
I know it recognises Macbooks etc and obviously knows where the edges are, will this be the same with pieces of wood, so you can cut the same design exactly on say an A4 piece if doing multiples of an item. Curious as to how this works.
I’ve had this question as well. I’m assuming that it can detect edges of any material, because you are supposed to be able to flip material and cut into both sides, effectively doubling the cutting depth.
Say I have a piece of wood I’ve already cut, and I decide I want a line or something etched precisely 1/4" from the top edge. I’d love to know how easy that would be to do.
We’ve done some of the basic work around registration and have some pretty lofty goals for what will be possible in time. There are lots of pieces to this: knowing where the edges of the material are, knowing the material is off-kilter, re-registering after a move, etc. We’ll be working on improving this and adding features too it well after we ship. So for example, saying “that’s square so I will rotate the object to align with it” isn’t a near-term feature but is something we’d work on longer term. (Near term you could just manually rotate it!)
Thanks @dan, I’m sure with this in mind you will be adding extra functionality as time goes on.
I’m sure there will be a work around or something that could be dropped onto the bed such as a frame to help register the material. I’m keen to use Glowforge to do multiple wood etched block prints so registration is high on my workflow requirements in this respect. I’ll find a way around it I’m sure.
just spitballing here, but perhaps we will be able to make a template/ruler/guides layer that does not get cut but is visible onscreen when you are aligning the drawing to the workpiece.
The software apparently will support 255 power levels attached to colors in a drawing, plus 1 for “don’t cut”.
Check out Dan’s comment here… SVG questions