I searched the forums and could’t find an answer. I am assuming I can (although without confirmation I won’t try it during a cut), as once it’s sent to the cloud it comes directly back to the GF.
Can anyone confirm?
Until then… DAMNIT KIDS, DON’T TOUCH DAD’S COMPUTER FOR ANOTHER HOUR.
once you push the button you can close the window.
I do not recommend it though, because if the cut doesnt go all the way through and you want to do it again, youll never be able to get it back to the same place
Could you by chance, just open a second browser window for regular use? You could hide the app. window…or not.I do that a lot when I don’t want to lose my place with a project. Also, I use Safari for just regular use and Chrome exclusively for the app., so having two windows open works well for me.
Chuckle! That made me LOL! 
I keep multiple tabs open, you can toggle back and forth between them without losing your place or getting the timing reset.
For that matter, open another browser and just minimize the one running the GFUI. And I wonder why I have to have a computer with lots of resources?
OK, gang… I get the “just open another browser/tab” notion… What I want to know is what is the path from computer to GF Mothership to GF.
I assume this sort of thing has been QA’d… but I am worried, as I haven’t seen any mention of this in the forums or documentation.
The cloud communicates directly with the GF and separately with the browser. There is no browser to GF communication. The app shows the status of the GF but it gets it from the cloud. Similarly the camera pictures all go via the cloud to be converted from fisheye to rectilinear. That is why there is no live video but all my 3D printers do have live video via a Raspberry PI.
Perfect. That’s what I thought. After the initial package is uploaded - the responsibility/communication is all GF Cloud/GF.
Actually I don’t think there is any communication with the GF until it finishes the print. The entire motion plan is downloaded before you press the button and then it just runs it. You don’t even need an internet connection after that.
There do appear to be periodic status updates (WebSocket PING/PONGs, and data logger blob uploads). I don’t know what happens if it loses connection while printing, or how it handles a connection loss and re-connect during print.
Perhaps an experiment is in order…
My laptop is stupidly unstable, and crashed during my first complex job. (It crashes during so many things). That was mildly terrifying, but also completely reassuring. I can report from experience that closing the browser (and OS) is harmless.
I’m curious about internet use during a print, though. If my router goes down once the job has started, will that affect anything? I’m guessing no; that the g-code was transmitted all at once from the server, and received in full before the button lit up.
With any luck, I won’t confirm that one as quickly.
You’re guessing correct now (except that it’s not G-code, it sends waveforms that direct the motors & power supply).
That means if the job doesn’t fit in the memory then it won’t work at all. But they’re working on a feature that will allow it to fill the machine’s buffer, execute and then refill it as it goes through what’s been loaded. That will provide the ability to do longer more complex jobs and they’ll be implementing “Pause & Restart” support so you can stop & restart a job or you could restart after a power or network fail.
Honestly i want to lock @scott.wiederhold and @palmercr in a room with all the toys you need and see what comes out… It would be a Glowforge-hack-a-thon of epic proportions
The result…
Cannot speak to anyone else’s experiences, but since receiving my PRU in March, and now with my Basic, I have never encountered a problem with an ongoing job caused by closing my browser, tabbing between windows, shutting off my computer, etc. My wifi setup is really stable with a dedicated hotspot in the same room, but on at least one occasion my ISP had intermittent outages during a run and my GF just kept chugging along. YMMV, of course.
Thanks for the answer @palmerc, that’s right. The print already in progress should complete even if the browser window is closed.