Cloud Issue Remains - Frozen Scans & Partial SVG Loading

[scoringpro]

Dear Glowforge - How about not closing the previous topic until you contact the ones identifying the issue and respond directly to them. You obviously still have cloud issues as the software is not loading the SVG files and the entire Glowforge unit will NOT rescan. It freezes the previous images and won’t move forward. And your status page is showing “everything is just fine.”

Issues: -

1. Only partial loading of my SVG file to the application. Even when there are limited elements.
2. The Glowforge Plus keeps the previous image scanned and won’t update when the lid is opened or a new project is built.

To the other owners of this product I would like to know if this is a continuous problem with this piece of equipment? I am new to the Glowforge community but certainly not new to this type of work. I purchased this unit for small projects and that was 3 days ago. So far I have been less than impressed with the stability of this cloud based application.

[jbmanning5]

I have run this thing pretty hard/lot of hours over the 16-17 months and can count on less than one hand the number of times a server end issue has caused me problems.

[scoringpro]

Well that’s comforting. They had a cloud issue earlier that caused it to keep freezing. They closed it and said everything was fine but it’s still freezing now. I’ve closed everything out and when I open a new project and upload it’s still showing the previously scanned image and only loads 1/3 of the SVG file.

[bansai8creations]

Keep in mind that was a HUGE windstorm in Puget Sound area yesterday (second of the week, actually)–lots of power outages, and likely contributing to GF and Google Cloud server issues. Don’t have power, you don’t have connection to the cloud, and is a risk with a Cloud based system. Not unlike if power goes off at your own home…

[markevans36301]

In 20 months of use, the ONLY time I’ve had server problems is when they were down and everyone knew it. These things come down to local problems 99% of the time but the servers get the blame. I’m not saying a few or even several people have not gotten bad units but still, the vast majority could be fixed with a new or repositioned router or in some cases a new ISP.

[scoringpro]

This is NOT A LOCAL PROBLEM…I posted 3 hours ago and their staff came in with some issue about cloud services and they were working to resolve it. They abruptly closed the topic.

I have a 4k paperweight right now and it’s very frustrating. I was really hoping this would take some of the work load off of larger machines but I just need to send it back and go with a better commercial quality unit.

It’s not localized because the “REFRESH BED IMAGE” does nothing and as I’ve indicated it only loads 1/3 of the SVG .

See Attached

[scoringpro]

And here is the topic from earlier…along with the staff statement about cloud issues.

Glowforge Stuck on Centering Mode

Oh, my bad - I was thinking they were using S3 for storage.

[deirdrebeth]

My question would be, how do you know it’s not a local problem? Everything that was happening while the servers were down was being blamed on the servers being down, but they’re back up now and you’re still having issues…which certainly sounds like a local problem.

Do you have a solid connection to your router? Have you disconnected and reconnected your WiFi after cycling your router?
Support is going to come back with some thoughts, but in the meantime it’s worth trying everything at your end.

[vee]

I’m sorry for the frustrating experience. I’d be happy to take a closer look, but unfortunately I’ll need more details. The screenshot you provided shows what loaded in the app, but I’ll need the SVG itself in order to determine what didn’t load and what might have happened.

Could you please attach the SVG file, or let me know some more detail about what loaded and what did not?

Regarding the bed image refreshing, do you know the exact time (including time zone) when this last happened so we can investigate further?

[scoringpro]

@deirdrebeth - It’s not a WiFi issue…respectfully we are a software company ourself and use both internal servers (our own data center) and cloud based systems for various portions of our app…We would have clients around the globe chomping at us if our internet was an issue because our own app would be down. I wish it was that simple. Our entire office is running fine off the “router” you are referring too and we have our network segmented to computers dedicated to just running our printers/lasers. Yes - the large printers are running and other lasers are running fine but just this one Glowforge unit seems to be locking up and it only occurs in the cloudbased application. So that makes me fairly confident it’s a cloud issue on their end. It appears to be an issue with loading the SVG (either too much detail) file which is causing the app and laser to freeze up. That would make the most sense but it’s not a very complex design - see attached.

@vee - Thank you for checking in…The incident occurred shortly before I made the post (EST) and I struggled with the system for about 30min or so before posting. I have a .025 piece of aluminum in the system at 12"x6" in size. The artwork was created in illustrator and exported to an SVG file. When I attempt to load the artwork it only loads about 1/3 of the file. Additionally the bed scan will not refresh and I am unable to then remove the file from the job. Everything then freezes up and won’t function at all.

I attempted to remove the elements but the screen freezes and shows nothing of a bed scan. (See attached for various screen shots)…the bed scan should be showing a 6"x12" piece of aluminum but it’s just all white. The second time it was just all black with no images at all.

I do have a question for you…Are there “detail” limitations with what you can put in this laser? This is not a very detailed file but appears to cause your system issues with loading it. I’ve tested the graphic and if I reverse (invert) the target design then it goes through the process of loading but the bed image issue still occurs.!
51%20PM|690x413

[bansai8creations]

And? Servers crash. Server farms can crash, and cloud fail. Could be equipment failures, weather events, or car crash wipes out the poles that carry the transmission lines… Things happen. Frustrating, yes, but crap happens.

(Which is why many requests have been floated for a way to run the GF off line & not cloud dependent for all work).

[mpipes]

if you can share the SVG file I bet you’d have a handful of folks happily test their setups with your file, apples to apples.

[jbmanning5]

They did. That’s one of the handful of times I’ve had any issue with the cloud aspect. It’s been working fine for me for the last 4-5 hours.

They didn’t say everything was fine. They acknowledged the issue, and said they are working to resolve it.

Paperweights happen. Connections break on the internet. Blackouts. Brownouts. Etc. no one has 100% uptime.

I get that it can be frustrating when you want to do something, but it’s not the end of the world. As I said twice before, I’ve put tons of hours in on this thing (manufacturing) and have had hardly any surprise downtime.

[chris1]

One thing that might help with complex designs… if you’re doing an engraving, rasterize the file (at at least 600 DPI to preserve detail). You only need vectors for score and cut, and a bitmap image won’t bog down the Glowforge software no matter how big it is.

[pip]

There was an incident Friday morning due to a our storage provider google storage having an increased error rate.

More details are available here: https://statuspage.glowforge.com/

If the problem you experienced was not during that time, we would want to investigate further.

If you can share the SVG file with us we’ll be happy to take a look.

If you’d prefer not to post it here, you can email it to us directly at support@glowforge.com

[stephen4]

It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.