Cut out shapes have wrong size/dimensions

[ingo.richterglowforg]

I’ve created a couple of geometric shapes in Illustrator, exported them to SVG and opened them in GFUI to cut them. All the shapes have the correct size in GFUI (I placed them next to the ruler to ensure they have the correct dimension). When I cut them out and measure them afterwards they are approximately 1cm too long in every direction. I’ve wasted 2 sheets of acrylic today and I have no idea what could be the cause for this behavior.
Did anyone had this issue before?

Thanks,
Ingo

[Jules]

One possibility…

If you prefer to work in metric, you will want to create your artboard in Illustrator to 508 mm x 304.8 mm (which corresponds to the size of the bed on the Glowforge) and design your shapes on those.

It’s actually better if you use Save As to save the SVG instead of exporting it, but if you do export it, make sure that Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities and Responsive are not checked.

Examples of the correct way to save an SVG for the Glowforge interface are discussed here:

Glowforge Interface - Correctly Save a File as an SVG for the GFUI

For All Programs: If you want to engrave a bitmap (raster) style image and include it inside a vector SVG file, you need to Embed the image in the file if you want it to stay aligned inside the SVG file. Otherwise you will need to re-load the raster file and use the camera to align it visually. (That’s fine, but you will completely lose the benefit of more accurate alignment that you get from the design software.) There are instructions for how to Embed raster images for some of the main 2D…

You might want to test it on some cardboard before shifting to another sheet of acrylic. (Not sure if this is the problem, but it’s a possibility. Files that come over from Illustrator are generally not resized if the SVG is saved correctly.)

[ingo.richterglowforg]

Thank you for the suggestions. I’ve created a new document with another simple shape and saved the document as SVG instead of exporting it. The result is the same. In GFUI the dimensions are correct, but the result (this time cardboard) is wrong again. This is really strange and totally surprising to me.
I’ll try to recreate the shape with Inkscape just to have another reference point and see how that will turn out.

[gascapitalcustoms]

I cant help with your issue, but you have found out why I do anything new in cardboard first as a test. Nothing more frustrating then wasting sheets of acrylic due to technology fighting back.

[geek2nurse]

That does sound weird. Screenshots might help Support to better see what’s happening. After the piece is cut, before removing it from the Glowforge, take a screenshot that includes both the artwork and the image of the cutout piece, and make sure to include the rulers for reference.

[pip]

I’m so sorry your prints aren’t coming out as expected.

Can you send some screen shots or photos that shows what you’re seeing?

We’d be happy to take a look.

[ingo.richterglowforg]

Hey, thanks for all the suggestions to solve the problem. The issue was clearly on my side! I’ve used a big quilting/sewing ruler with a lot of lines and numbers on it. Unfortunately, I’ve used the wrong baseline that is 1cm off from the 0 baseline on that ruler. I was re-checking the measurements of my shapes again with a different (simpler) ruler and everything looks fine now. Stupid 1cm off baseline!

[stephen4]

I’m glad you resolved it! I’m going to close this thread. If you run into any other trouble, please start a new topic, or email us at support@glowforge.com. We’re here to help!