1/4" plywood will not generally cut as well as Proofgrade plywood - i see all kinds of knots in that piece - you’re going to have to slow down the speed a little (probably) to cut all the way through it.
You’re going to have better luck trying to cut that out of the Proofgrade if you are using the default settings - and you have to make sure that you have the correct settings for speed and power when you are cutting whatever material it is that you are working on.
For instance, the settings for 1/8" thick material are different from the settings for 1/4" material. Did you change the settings to reflect the thick material, or are you using the Proofgrade settings for 1/8" thick wood? It’s going to make a big difference.
I would like to recommend a few tutorials that will explain how to use the machine, and get you started a lot more quickly with the machine than trying to figure it out by luck.
First, run through the examples that the Glowforge team has put together here:
Then the following short writeups will help you to understand what the machine is doing and how to work with it:
Then if you want to get started doing your own stuff quickly, the Design Matrix has a lot of tutorials and video links showing the best of the tips and tricks:
For using the Glowforge:
For Using Photoshop, GIMP and Paintshop:
For using Illustrator, Inkscape, CorelDRAW and Affinity Designer:
For using Fusion 360, OnShape, Openscad, Rhino, etc.
They’re not very long, and can save you months of frustration up front.
