I sure can understand your frustration, but honest and truly…as evansd2 said, we’ve all been there. You WILL get it and we’ll do our best to help. Can you send a photo of what you’re talking about, please? It’s a bit difficult to understand what you’re trying to do.
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Thank you so so much for responding and being willing to help.
Heres what I was making , I drew this image and I THOUGHT I selected the right areas to cut out. I wanted the shape cut and the words engraved. There were parts of the tray that uploaded but I did NOT Think it would print. IT took 47 minutes. It cut EVERY SINGLE TRAY circle. Then it even started to cut into the letters and was going to cut out each individual letter before I stopped it.
GOOD so I’m not crazy and this melt down is a part of the process . Thank you so much . I didn’t realize how much better I’d feel just by knowing I’m not a moron and this thing is really hard .
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Okay, a couple of quick things. Firstly, while 
pushes trace it is only best practice for a few use cases.
Second, there are two things you could have done to get rid of that clutter, one, place your item on a white piece of card stock so the camera doesn’t see the tray, and two, you can edit that out in the GFUI. (glowforge user interface)
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Yes…this. You really can’t use the trace feature with something that is clear like that. And, if you put a piece of paper under it, make sure you put a magnet on each corner of the paper so that the air assist fan doesn’t blow it around when you’re running the laser. You’d probably be better off in the long run if you just create the words/lettering in a design app, then load it into the GF. Are you using or learning a design app. yet?
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47 min is about right for any engrave that size depending on the LPI . The trace feature is limited but folk are correct about the white paper hiding the background. an erasable marker could easily highlight the edges and make them stronger. If after you made the scan, you removed the artwork and paper to replace with PG acrylic it should do the job.
Alternatively if you used a cellphone camera, and brought it into a program like Inkscape you might be able to do a lot more with it.
Going through the training guides and making yourself some bed pins to hold things down would help as well.
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Don’t be discouraged! You will get there, there’s lots of help available on this forum. Read about another person in a similar situation as you here—and they are already experiencing success. Basically like many things in life, you will have success in this in proportion to the amount of effort you are willing to put in to learning a bit more about the process. The tutorials in Glowforge Tips and Tricks category on this forum are a great way to start. I believe there are some in there that help with tracing if that’s what you want to do.
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As others have said, hang in there. Glowforge support is not a phone call away which frustrates many people, but there are almost always helpful people available here on the forum. Ask for help and chances are someone will step up.
When a print is not what you expect, you can press the pause button to take stock of the situation, or open the lid to cancel the job. You don’t have to waste time or materials.
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Thank you , Do you have any design app recommendations? I have found one yet .
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ah ha! Didn’t consider that at the time and didn’t know what to fix . But thank you .
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Thank you so so much .
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All of you guys helped so much and I feel better ! Im about to get Inkscape and try again today .
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I’m a big Inkscape fan, but there are people who like illustrator, and Corel and a bunch of others. It often comes down to what you already know or what just clicks for you.
I liked the price on Inkscape and didn’t find it totally baffling like some people, so it works for me. That may be because I wasn’t already steeped in illustrator or something, so I didn’t have a lot of ideas about how things “should” be.
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I use Affinity Designer on a Mac (available in the app store…and also for Windows), but many here in the forum use Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape, to name just a few. Of course, I highly recommend AD, but Inkscape is a big favorite among many.
From your screenshot it looks like you use a Mac? It is my understanding getting Inkscape to work on a Mac can also be frustrating. I use Inkscape on Windows with no major issues, but that is what I have heard.
Affinity Designer works on Mac as Xabbess can attest. Adobe Illustrator is probably the most powerful vector editor, but it is also the most expensive and most complicated imo.
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You are correct…I tried Inkscape in the beginning but it just didn’t ‘feel right’ to me…not user friendly in my opinion. At $50 and no subscription fees for Affinity, the price was right.
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cakes…these people will not leave you hanging!!! you can get on here at 8am…and get a response. you can get on her during rush hour…and these people have you covered. You can get on here at 3;32 am…and guess what! Yup, they got you! I just got mine too. And I have cried tears! I don’t have very much free time, not likeI did when I first got it, at least. And they bare willing to help. I really wished Would have known that in the first week, but hey I am working on arranging some free time now. I have three girls. And they are WILD! but they will help! I promise! I hope you get it faster than I have. But I could barely even work a computer a week ago. But I have been a busy little bee. I am sorry you are frustrated! I have felt your pain! But, I do feel better that I am not the only newbie! But If you don’t know anything about Inkscape or how to get stuff from port a to point B I just found my life saving video that made a light bulb go off. I was so confused on vector, raster, cut, path, line, all that shenanigans…to the point of tears. And I finally had that lightbulb moment…I will leave it here… https://youtu.be/fCw5lE_vbbc
I get to get back on my machine tomorrow and hopefully will have success!
GOODLUCK!!!
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@rbtdanforth …what training guide are you speaking of? the first cuts? because I never found any training guides. A huge problem I have with communication with GF staff is emails. My hubby obviously has the email that we purchased the machine under. and it is a business account with a million a day coming in. so if they sent any advice…I probably never found it.
yup!!! @cakes THATS ME!!! Lol! And byname is not Matthew! Lol. oh yeah, and yes inkscape is free!! and yes… my dramatic “a” double “s” went and signed up with every single one I could find trying to find a quick fix. There is NO QUICK FIX. Just know that this may take more time then you expected…but not as much as most. I know some people with other lasers still untouched. Don’t give up. I refuse!! also… I had and still do have a huge prob with Inkscape working on a brand new Mac… I have not found a solution to that, but I have also heard some say they have no issues at all!!! And I am not a computer genius. Hell, I can barely work this thing!..maybe I should start a forum!! because some out there has to know the answer! And if they own one of these babies, then they are gonna be helpful!
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This has everything from the basic Machine setup and safety, to a basic understanding of the major programs folks use.
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