Cardboard settings, new Catalog design pages & updates to the UI: 6/23/21 Latest Improvements

It might just be an important clarification to keep in mind going forward. I can see how this can be interpreted both ways - premium only, or, premium early access which is in essence a wider beta program, with a larger rollout in the future.

However, if it were premium only… I’d really hate to see something like settings get thrown into that premium category. In an effort to say it nicely, that seems like a really cheap trick to try and drive people into premium, when it was touted as being a means to continue innovative software efforts.

That said though - for example, Universal Lasers has a pretty expensive database available with a lot of different material settings available (not common or standard materials), that goes way beyond their default database, which is fairly extensive.

On the other side, Trotec will test any material I send to them, and have their engineers run a full material analysis.

So, I guess it is what it is. :slight_smile:

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The point of my statement was as of late the new trend has been, ‘We have a new feature for our premium members…’ regardless what the feature set is- Its concerning.

There are features promised from day one that still hasn’t happened or will never happen. One of which was why we got ours initially.

Anyway. It was an observation and a opinion. No need to contort or defend.

Carry on.

Just curious, which feature? I don’t even remember a full list of promised capabilities. I can think of some things like a continuous autofocus and kerf compensation based off of material thickness.

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Using the Marco camera for duplexing. AI plug-in. Direct DXF support. Material Curve tracking.

About 2 or more years ago Glowforge ‘realigned’ the feature list to ‘not confuse’ customers. Which removed all of the day one promised features.

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i’m trying to remember specifically what the AI plugin would have been.

I’m pretty sure I remember Dan saying that the AI plug-in was abandoned because of the upkeep required in keeping up with changes made on the Adobe end.

Actually. I’m going to make @evansd2 proud and bust out the search!!

I don’t know what the full scope of it was supposed to be. If it was basically like using a print driver (set all of your settings right there in the print dialog), or if it was just a means of getting the file to the dashboard with less work. I’m guessing the latter.

Personally, I still think some kind of hot folder would be the ultimate cross-program solution.

Btw, @karaelena , not afraid to admit that I googled Marco lens… until right when I hit enter and I had a :man_facepalming: moment realizing that it was the macro lens.

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Basically a method to directly control from AI.

The advantage being better file control. The better method to hierarchy store iterations of files with changes I.e same over all vector but with changes like a serial number or a QR code. Vs 32 different files with a tiny image preview of that it is. The ability to tag specific layers/vectors to be cut or engraved directly within AI. Vs. setting everything to a color export as a svg then manually assign it in the UI… for each file- over and over again.

The current UI is a dumpster fire with everything being in one big ass flat folder.

There was a YouTube video of this being demoed with Dan, Bailey and someone from bong bong I believe. But I can’t find it any more.

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I definitely agree with that.

This just simply isn’t true. If you look at the improvements over the past few months, they are overwhelmingly available to everyone. And that’s why I reacted the way I did. Obviously you’re entitled to whatever opinion you want, including being upset about early access to cardboard presets if that’s your thing. And, yeah, there are features that have not yet come to fruition. A lot of people still have some hard feelings there. Maybe the additional development budget created by Premium subscriptions will nudge a couple of those into reality - that is actually part of why I chose to subscribe in the first place.

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Amen on those improved visual! For awhile there I was just having trouble seeing all the lines. This update helps tons!

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Settings in premium… [quote=“jbmanning5, post:17, topic:93576”]
a really cheap trick to try and drive people into premium
[/quote]

A failing 'trick" because there is no way that should drive anyone to premium.

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There are a ton of people that have zero clue how to test or modify settings.

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Question on the update to the nudge with arrows:
It is now set to .1" - is there a way to nudge smaller increments? With the old UI I was able to move very small increments to dial in my design.

You can make tiny adjustments to the X and Y position using the placement palette in the little Ruler icon. (Be sure to watch which reference point you are shifting…it defaults to center, but you can also choose to shift the design relative to the upper left or lower right corner by picking the correct positioning dot in the little grid of dots. )

(Man, that was a terrible explanation…here’s a picture.) :laughing:

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I use that as well, but it was nice to just “eyeball” it with a fine nudge and the arrow keys!

It used to nudge smaller increments the further “zoomed in” you were. Not sure if it still does that now that they have created the absolute positioning palette, but you can test it and see.

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According to Glowforge Announcement, the nudge distances are now .1" and .25" and so I doubt it will be changed by the zoom level.

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Actually it does change with zoom - at 300% it nudges .050", at 450% .025"
so that will work…

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Great! This means there is a way to control the nudge in addition to the coordinates.

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That is so very true. And sad. And maddening. And easy to fix.

That’s correct - paper and cardboard settings will come to all users after they graduate from Early Access.

Did we really use those mealy weasel words? If so, I apologize! We flat-out canceled those feature plans and offered refunds to anyone who was counting on them. I had drinks with our software architect last night, in fact, and we were talking about what a mess the Adobe Illustrator plugin turned out to be. (He had it working, briefly, until Adobe broke everything with an API update, and it was clear it would not be the last time they would do so… which is when we gave up).

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