I’m sorry you ran into trouble when trying to upload and use your file. We took a look at your recent logs, and it looks as though the files are uploading correctly, but then an issue occurs when the files are being processed. When a file contains a high number of steps, or contains a very complex design, this can sometimes cause the file to process unreliably or fail to be processed.
Thank you for the information that you already tried separating your file into a series of files with fewer steps. Something you could try for now would be to separate your tests into files with even fewer groups of steps, and then see if you can load and print them successfully.
Since the goal of your project is to develop manual settings as well as settings for materials that were purchased from another company, we won’t be able to offer support for prints that don’t come out as expected. Materials may vary widely from piece to piece, even if they’re created by the same manufacturer.
I’m going to share the information with our team that some folks are seeing slower performance on their designs which contain a high number of steps so that they can investigate.
We all understand the Proofgrade rule but I want to point out that the current support restrictions are vexing for your advanced users, and also confusing when you consider your marketing messaging.
If a problem cannot be replicated on Proofgrade with Proofgrade settings, it officially doesn’t exist, and cannot be supported. So that means that people working with paper or any other material for which there is not a Proofgrade analog… or even manual settings on Proofgrade… can’t get help for what may be very real technical problems.
For example, recently on these forums, someone had problems with what looked like irregular power delivery that manifested only at very low power settings. Well, there is no Proofgrade analog for that problem, so there was no help available.
Yet, in the official marketing materials, we’re shown the cool stuff we can do on unsupported materials. The first thing you see on the video on glowforge.com is working with cardboard.
Yet, if someone had a problem with their cardboard project, you’d tell them to go fish.
To be totally fair and transparent, every time your marketing materials show non-Proofgrade, there should be fine print explaining that this is an unsupported use and if it doesn’t work out for you, there is no support available.
What would be even better is to make a good faith effort to tackle more problems. You don’t have to help us develop settings for engraving crazy materials, but if someone demonstrates a software problem like @jacobturner did , it doesn’t matter what the material is. That’s a problem with the product that should be addressed.
@jacobturner, thank you for your patience while we looked into this. We have a work-around which might help you with your print while we continue to investigate. Will you please try clearing your browser’s cache and cookies and then let us know if you’re able to load and print your test design?
I’m really busy with the start of a new semester at work and some home repair concerns at home. So I may be slow on getting back to this post with updates.
Is there a preferred browser which I should be using when I try uploading now? And is the cache clearing the workaround, or has something been changed in how files process? Because I have tried with a cleared cache in the initial testing.
Attempting an upload of the large main file right now in Firefox with a Private window (no others opened previously, so clear cache and no cookies).
Took about 45 seconds to clear the initial GFUI screen and show me the “rendering your design” grey interface. Somewhere around 1 minute 30 seconds firefox gave me a notice that the web page is slow and asks if I want to close it (this message would flash on and off in the later stages of earlier attempts)
13 minutes and 30 seconds, still rendering. The notice that the webpage is slowing my computer down is popping in and out.
26 minutes in now and I need to head out. Will attempt loading the 7 smaller file parts later to see if there was improvement for that one.
Thank you for giving that a try, and for providing detailed information about the results you’ve seen so far. Clearing the cache was a suggested work-around. I’ll share your notes with my team while we continue to look into this, and will provide an update as soon as we know more.
Thanks once again for working with us on this. We’ve made a change that may address the problem you were seeing. It may be necessary to clear cache and cookies one more time before trying again, but could you please do so, and let us know if you’re still running into the issues you reported?
That’s great news! I’m so glad that your files are now loading as expected and you didn’t encounter lag when assigning settings.
I’m going to close this thread. If you run into trouble again, please post a new topic here on the forum or email us at support@glowforge.com and we’ll be happy to help.
