I hear you on that. Have any of the Cameo users updated to the 4.1 beta edition of the software? I did and use it for 2D designs for the Glowforge. The Cameo software is what I was used to, so can get graphics put together quickly. The trace function to convert tovectors is one of the better ones I’ve seen, now witch trace by color. Most importantly, now the Business Edition upgrade can export to SVG.
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Interesting, I’m gonna upgrade today to check it out 
The product concept is fun, they have been out for sometime. The companies business model was to sell cartridges, and control the software that you use to interact with the device to a degree that frustrates anyone that wishes even for a pinch of opensource and/or flexibility.
My opinion of Cricut and the products are darkened by my own experience with their “Expressions” device. It would not only cut but also had an HP inkjet printer built in so you could design cuts and print in one/two passes. The software rarely worked, frustrating my wife to no end. Seriously from one day to the next it may or may not work. Controlling the variables and attempting to diagnose was very difficult and the online community reflected that this was not isolated to our machine.
After sometime, gave up. However, every couple of months I would pop in and see if the interweb had something new or a fix. Only fix that came out was a third party built some software that would communicate with the device and this was correcting the problems for a lot of people in the community. However, I searched too late. Although Cricut had abandoned the product was no longer supporting it, the third party was sued to stop distribution of the software even though Cricut was no longer supporting, nor released any sort of fix.
I do support any company protecting their product, but the avenue that they choose to protect and yet still release a poor product has put me into the position of never recommending them again. I cant support bad products and companies conceptually.
However, over the last year, I did buy my wife Brothers version of this, the Scan&Cut and it was worked well without issues.
Take my experience with as the grain of salt it is.
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@rodrigobrionesm A couple of things on the Cameo software’s SVG export function. I’m pretty sure that you have to have the Business Edition, which is a paid upgrade. I also had issues updating/transferring my Library when I updated to 4.1 on one of the first days it was available. That may now be fixed, but I’d back up your library before the update. I also use a Mac, so I was able to keep the old version in case I didn’t like the updated interface. So far its been good though. I only went back to the old version once or twice when I first updated to 4.1 beta.
SVG export has been good. The Glowforge had some issues with compound paths for engraves, I think it can see them as clipping paths and want to engrave the full outline, not recognizing the “knock outs” in the middle of the design. I solved that by adjusting the way I design in the software. I will make sure all the interior paths are on the top layer, select all of the components and do a subtract. That exports in a way that the Glowforge can deal with for engraves.
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I use a Roland GX-24 to make vinyl decals around my office for our project teams, miscellaneous logos as stickers, and the occasional screen printing mask (my favorite use). I haven’t actually tried using it to cut fabric, because you don’t need a backing substrate for just cutting vinyl on the Roland and I know that will be a big can of worms to move into that territory.
That’s probably my biggest concern with this machine - relying a lot on user setup to make sure the substrate isn’t skewed, then to ensure that material is also aligned where expected - a big bonus I see of Glowforge cameras for design locating!
I plan to do a lot of fabric cutting on the Glowforge because it can potentially cut a nearly 45" width of fabric folded along the selvage - that clearly isn’t practical or possible on any hobbiest cutter because you need a vacuum hold-down to keep the layers of fabric from moving relative to each other.
Something the Glowforge could benefit from with the Pro is a rolling feed for continuous pass-through cuts, but looking at the necessary motion control systems for that sort of scenario would require a total revamp of your y-axis design.
I have one that I use to cut and emboss ALL SORTS of things. Most noteably non-veg tanned leather (up to 2.5mm (barely, but CLEAN THROUGH 2mm) and fabric pattern pieces for quilts and custom patterned clothing and hats. @jrnelson on papers and thinner items it handles tight cutting pretty dang well…I have the Explore Air 2 which you can often find on sale for 130-140 with some accessories - shop around and dont settle for “JUST” the machine. The bits and bobs add up $$$…what’s nice is (though i dont see ANY REASON TO GET THEM) is that it still accepts the cartridges for those that have older Cricut systems.
My business partner has the cameo and it tends to fail on the finer cuts (though it DOES work offline…which I have yet to have an issue with, but am certain someday to have one), where the speed cut on my Cricut was butter perfect.
@bangert78 - The new interface allows us to once again use our own art! I hated when you had to use “just the cartridges” and it left me bitter for many years…but again…now we can use our own art.
@cindyhodesigns - I defeat the “lint” factor by using transfer tape on the “linty types” of materials greatly extending the life of my mats.
@chadmart1076 - you replace just the blade - I am 1 year of heavy (twice a day) leather cutting and my deep cut blade still works…
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Oh using transfer tape is so genius! Thank you!
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One of my all time FAVORITE MOVIES!!!
Lazlo Ollyfeld in his pajamas.
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I got one of their cheaper models awhile back (Cricut Create) - thought I was getting a good deal but then found out I was locked into Cricut’s software, and could only use prepurchased Cricut fonts. (Eg it wouldn’t let me use Illustrator, or any vector software, not even fonts installed on my computer, only Cricut’s 1 piece of software, and even in Cricut’s software you couldn’t use anything but fonts or shapes purchased from Cricut) Apparently along the way somebody had made some 3rd party software that worked with it that could import vector files, but Cricut sued them and did an amazing job of scrubbing all download links from the internet after they won.
I’m still interested in the idea of a vinyl cutter though - particularly one that can cut stencil material that would resist sandblasting.
If only the large format printers were cheaper - imagine being able to print anything you want and cut it out to apply to anything else. Problem is the moment a printer can print from a roll instead of from pages (to print something really long) it’s price immediately jumps up several thousand.
A replaceable head, possibly with the same feature to have multiple blades, for the non laserable stuff would be great on a pro. I think the basic with the bed size might be annoying to some. Unless some sort of interior roller system that could feed material across could be figured.
Right now I think the laser will handle most of my needs.
i was thinking the same thing back when they announced the removable head thing. a non-laser head would be easy - relatively speaking, of course - to engineer, and you could then slot in a number of tools like cutters, etchers, pens and pencils, etc.
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No need for cartridges. I can import my own designs and fonts and cut with them.
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Didn’t see anything I couldn’t do with my laser here… 
well sure there’s a lot of overlap. but lasers can’t be run without vents or expensive filters, they’re louder, this can do embossing, the laser can only make embossing stamps for you to use. this can use pens and pencils and markers.
this isn’t a competition; there are in many ways complementary. but for me personally i think this is still a bit expensive for the size you get.
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these can cut vinyl without producing extra toxic fumes, including all those plastic cling things you see in car windows.
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But given the head is kept in place with magnets, how much downward pressure could a cutter head exert before popping off the magnets?
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I guess it depends on the pull force of the magnets used.
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Not really paying any attention to this thread so can’t discuss the usefulness. That aside the current laser head is held down with magnets on a very sturdy thick steel plate. A different head could easily drop in place with the magnets and then use a simple cheap rotating latch to hold the head to the plate.
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that was my 1st though as well.
does it also still used the light glued cutting board as well.
I was thinking circuit board making when I read the topic.
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