The thing that sold us on the Glowforge initially was the awesome wallet Dan showed and wrote about with the map of San Francisco engraved on it -we were captivated that it was something should try and so we eagerly joined the ranks of Glowforge founder members, paid for the machine and waited patiently for the magic to arrive.
And arrive it did - a few years later to be fair - but magical it was.
But it turns out the process of putting maps on things was not so magical and after trying out and working with the existing methods of getting a good high res map file out of Google Maps or GIS software - we started to look at how we could build our own tool to do what we wanted.
For two years we designed and refined map styles and worked on a basic system that enabled us to design high contrast maps with some customization. The main output was for our laser engraving business “The Cut & Etch” - https://thecutandetch.com and our focus was engraving custom maps on high quality maple cutting boards for personalized gifts - something that fast became our primary product offering and focus.
The more markets that we did and the more that we watched people light up with the idea, we decided to double down on the software and make it into a powerful tool that anyone could use to work with the same high contrast, high resolution map files.
We are hugely proud to launch to the Glowforge community our Topographic Map software called Cartocuts - https://cartocuts.com - providing maps for makers
For a limited time we are offering one free high resolution download when you sign up for an account so feel free to look up your location, customize your map and generate a file to do an engrave with on your Glowforge to see how well the two work together.
Here is an example of what a map file output looks like
Additional download credits cost between $5 and $10 a map
Most importantly we would love your feedback and what you do or don’t like about using Cartocuts to make maps for your laser engravings - please get in touch at Support : or at info@cartocuts.com
We also have some exciting future ideas for where this software can go so please make sure to sign up to our newsletter on our homepage to keep along for the ride.
And finally thank you to this awesome community for being a constantly inspiring source of awesome things to do with lasers and who have provided guidance, encouragement and technical info at so many steps along the way
Thanks
Gregg & Angella