Why did the vector engrave top speed just revert from 4000 to 1000 this evening?
Regardless of the “why”, could you please communicate breaking changes like this in advance, so we can plan around that? Preferably by email?
If I try to choose one of my saved custom engrave settings, they instantly revert to 1000 speed and 1 power. At the very least, it would have been nice to be able to write down these settings and transfer them over to the raster engrave settings, rather than simply having them deleted with no notice.
I hate to rub this subject raw, but what was the final verdict on that Snapmark stuff? I make dozens of keychains and other small items and its very much impossible to use precut keychain blanks, with multiple graphics on them and every time I click print it jumps 1/4" or so and I have to cancel, go back reposition every single graphic on the blanks then try again. I have been an electrical engineer for many years and work with some pretty complex software designing things so I am sure I can figure out a feature like this. Fingers crossed…
Nothing official released about it yet, but I believe they are still working towards it, so keep all digits crossed. (This one might require toes too.)
what is autofocus? I have a pro is that something I am unaware of? a lot of times I set focus once I have material in there, but never seen an auto focus option?
Autofocus is what the machine does by itself when you hit the print button. The head moves over the bed to a place generally where your design will land and shoots a focus measurement. You can see it from the red laser that will show. If the material has holes in it or other variation vs. where the design will definitely hit (like you’re trying to make max use of material that’s been previously cut for something) it can miss the material and focus on the bed instead.
This value is used for the focal height unless you’ve overridden it in the settings for an operation.
Set Focus is from the Settings (gear) icon and focuses where you drop the brackets. It takes a measurement there and will leave a set of shadow brackets on your bed image to show you where the measurement was made. It gets reset if you lift the lid and you need to do it again. This takes a precise measurement where you want it to take it and you can avoid any holes in your material.
It’s a good practice to use the Set Focus any time you’re going to move or place your design so you get the best correction for the camera image possible and so where you move the image is where it ends up.
For some reason, a simple idea has been made extra confusing by the UI design. It almost couldn’t be more confusing if a blue-ribbon panel of all my old college professors got together for a year doing nothing but devising a way to make it confusing.
There are two different things that are affected by the height of the material: one I will call camera correction, which is how the Glowforge software takes the fisheye image from the camera and un-fish-eyes it so that you can position your design accurately. This is just math, but because of the extremely wide angle lens, a small difference in height can have a large effect on the image
The other thing is actually focus, so I call it focus. This where the lens physically moves up and down inside the laser head in order to focus the beam at the desired height.
I reiterate that these are two different things. You can have a bad camera correction that completely messes up your positioning but perfect focus. Or camera correction can give you 100% accurate positioning but have the laser completely fail to cut because it’s focusing above your material.
Why do I say it’s so confusing? Because camera correction is controlled by the “material thickness” entry under “use uncertified material”. Whereas focus is controlled by “focus height” under your cut/engrave settings. Unless you have the same number for material thickness and focus height, in which case it will ignore the focus height number and use autofocus (but it will still use the material height you entered for camera correction). Autofocus is where it shines a red dot on the material, takes a picture of it, and uses the offset to calculate the height. Or if you use the “set focus” feature, which doesn’t set focus, it sets material thickness. Which also sets the focus because it’s the same height for both. Unless you change it. Argh.
My preference would be to change “set focus” to “measure height” and make a few small changes to the UI such as having an explicit autofocus toggle. We’ve gotten used to the way it works, but every time I have to explain it I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
I agree in a way, but I see so many people using the app… not the way that I’d use it.
One of the most common things I see is selecting a Proofgrade material for any material they decide to process, so that they don’t have to enter settings. This almost never lines up with the PG thickness, so things like autofocus basically save the user. Same with guessing at a material thickness instead of using calipers.
What i would really like to see as a UI change is focus height change to focus offset — 0 would be whatever is measured, .125” would be 1/8” above measurement, -.125” would be 1/8” below surface, etc.
In the end, the autofocus measurement is going to the most accurate setting always - since it’s measuring the distance from the head to the material which eliminates a slew of variables. The Set Focus bumps that step up in the process, which is why I always recommend Set Focus being the very first thing that you do; this is why the camera view “jumps” on people when they go to print. And with autofocus being the most accurate, it would seem that using a focus offset would be the most accurate way to set the beam focus at a certain point manually.
I do a lot of different jobs on my glowforge. I am really hoping something like folders or a favorites section is in the works. Any info on if that is coming?
This has been a request for a very long time…
Guess we just have to be patient and one day - maybe - it will magically be possible! Meanwhile, many of us keep a semblance of organization on our local computers.
Yeah, I’ve been keeping settings saved in the UI but re-uploading and all that if I go without doing a specific project in a long while. It’s frustrating that this specific part of the software is ALMOST there.
So on the new calibration…you have to have a full piece of MEDIUM draft board? Meaning the only piece of proof grade that I have (which is THICK DRAFT BOARD) will not work?? Because I am not sure when I will be able to order a piece of draft board. Can we not use the thick draft board? I just feel like if this is something that is needed we should be supplied with it. Not that the draft board is ridiculously expensive but then you have shipping, plus the wait on receiving it. And I have had a huge problem with getting things lined up. It will line up and then change after it sets. Thanks guys in advance!
No, you can use any flat wood product. (Paper won’t work, you can’t adjust the scoring settings on the test. Any flat wood will work.)
Here’s what’s important - you want it to be light colored, so that the camera can pick up the marks, so if you are using something darker, cover it with white masking tape. And be sure to cover the metal part of the grid at the front with the material.
And remember, if you need to calibrate again, you can use the SAME piece of draftboard, just remask it. So just keep one piece of draft board set to ‘the side’ to use any time you may need to calibrate and remask after removing the old masking.
okay guys I gave been sitting here waiting and a little box popped up in the bottom right corner saying my camera has been calibrated for accuracy. I clicked the “X” and the box disappeared. But it is still on this screen…about 45 mins in. is it ok to “X” out?
