True, not sure what laser would ever have a pass through that could take mugs (or who has a mug so large you need to tile… you’d need an entire can of ceramark…
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It actually measures more than a quarter inch, closer to 3/8"
I agree with this. The fact that there is a faster lane means that, by default, there is a slow lane. and that slow lane would have to be perceivable slower in order to give the fast lane more of a selling point.
Once I started seeing that pop up when sending things to the printer I started to get mixed feelings because like… I paid for a glowforge printer (not cheap) and now the only service that sends things to the printer to be able to use it is going to not be working as efficiently as it could be?
This isnt being perceived as a “normal users are the same as always, and paying users are faster” but more as a “normal users get throttled to the slow lane with no priority, and paying users can skip over you” kinda thing. It seems like it is more of a downgrade for many, rather than an upgrade for some.
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So are we all using the fast lane right now as part of the trial and things will slow down if we don’t subscribe, or, are we all using the slow lane now and things won’t change for those who don’t subscribe when the trial is over?
If we are doing the former then an option needs to be made to let people try the slow lane and see how it impacts them so they can make an informed decision.
Thoughts?
We are all in the “fast lane” right now, but it is only for processing the image to be sent to the 
. Some people think the actual mechanics of the are sped up, but that is completely untrue. We are all limited by the speed of the mechanics, this is only talking about processing on the cloud servers. The actual print time is not going to change, only the time it takes to send the data to the .
So before a set of print instructions might take 20 seconds to process and send the . Right now it might take 10-15 seconds in the “fast lane”. That is all they are talking about, but not everyone understands that. Some think the actual motors in the machine are going to go slower…
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the only thing i’ll add to that is that “fast lane” is more useful for large, complex files. really large bitmaps or files with thousands of nodes. the effect on what most people send most of the time will be minimal.
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I printed a pretty complex file earlier, it took about 10 seconds to “process”. A single straight line - I use them to trim material - takes 6-7 seconds. The focus steps and whatever before that step takes 15-20 seconds.
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Perhaps a small change to the subscription service. I hate not owning my software and SaaS, but it is what it is. Maybe it would be more palatable to offer the Fast Lane as one subscription and all the design features and capabilities in another subscription. That way those in it as a hobby could keep up with the software improvements and those that need fast lane service could have that. I already signed up because I find you will never regret having too much (power, speed, storage) you will always regret having too little.
I don’t know if it was in this thread or not…probably not because they tend to get scattered and hard to find after the initial few days of discussion…but Dan did say that they looked into separating the various offerings in the Premium package, and they reluctantly decided against it.
If they separate the offerings into tiers, it makes the costs of the individual tiers increase to a point where it’s not really feasible for the customers to buy them. And folks tend to gripe about being nickel’d and dime’d to death. If they can’t get enough people interested, they can’t continue to keep the people they need to do the programming and support, and the whole subscription program fails.
When that happens, Glowforge only stays in business as long as they keep selling more machines.
But there’s going to be a time when people lose interest in it…they always do. If they don’t keep innovating and improving, they will lose the customer base to competitors who do have the fancy little bells and whistles. They are out there right now developing them. They have larger teams to work on it, and they will finish it faster. They will also probably cost significantly more than the Glowforge does.
So that’s the problem. In order to keep developing the product, and provide more value to their existing customers, they need to come up with operating capital. People have to get paid or it comes to a dead halt right here, and we take what we’ve got and go home. In a few years, they get squeezed out of the market by the bigger guys with the bells and whistles, and our units get bricked. Or they get sold and we get a company that pays absolutely no attention to what the customers want. Glowforge does listen to their customers. They aren’t always able to accommodate their requests immediately, but they do listen. I prefer that, which is why I’m still hanging around here after five short rapidly moving years. 
By offering the Premium subscription to those who want it, they can hopefully get enough capital to keep improving the product. We get a better machine if we want it. And we don’t have to buy a new machine to get the next best thing. It’s long term growth, not use it up and discard it. (That model works for Apple, because people can drop a thousand bucks on a new phone every few years if they think they are missing out on something by not having the newest model. It doesn’t work quite as well if the initial outlay is $6000. People get bitter about having to shell out for a better machine.)
As far as what they are charging for it… $50 seems a bit high to me too…BUT…they have delivered on everything major so far (even if it took a while) that they said they would. They might have something up their sleeves that will make it worth the $50 down the road. I wouldn’t bet against them. Not sure how well trickling it out is going to do…but they have to make their own decisions. They’ve got a crack team of motivated employees…my opinion is that it’s definitely worth the $15 a month to hang around and see what happens next. We might wind up really glad we did.
Sorry…I can ramble on… 
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I agree. I already pay for the creative suite - so I have no use for the premium subscription. But damn… I get a heck of a lot more out of that than the subscription will EVER provide.
I also wonder how many people are using their glow forge commercially enough to justify the premium subscription - but also don’t have the skillset needed to create their own files.
Dan, do you know what conversational programming is? And can I help you develop it? I’m a machinist and this method gets things done! I would love to have access to conversational programming! I’d pay for that for sure!
I’m brand new to Glowforge. Can someone tell me how I can sign up for Glowforge Premium? Thank you! Ivy
I think there is a link in the Glowforge app Ivy…it might show up as a banner across the top.
(If you just signed up it might not show up yet, but someone from support can look into it for you if it’s not there…just shoot an email to support@glowforge.com and tell them you want to sign up for Premium. They’ll get it set up for your account.)
Unlike a CNC milling machine, conversational doesn’t really work with a laser. I often do conversational on my Tormach, but when you stop the movement the machine just sits there spinning (a neutral action) the laser sits there like a lightsaber of death (and things tend to go all melty-burny… plus your spindle has a 20x lifespan vs. the laser tube) also the subtle speed difference of moving laser around makes conversational trickier. The Glowforge does not use g-code internally. It’s much harder to do it the way they built the controller. On most CNCs you tell it via g-code to move in an arc, and it understands that concept and it of course has a work-coordinate system, which as far as we the user are concerned does not exist on the GF. Some folks have reverse engineered what the feed down to the controller is.
Yes, it would be nice if the premium drawing tools worked more like my Tormach’s PathPilot conversational tools, but the GF is much more of a consumer oriented device so tools for making pipe flanges and the like aren’t particularly necessary. The one tool that works better on the Glowforge is text (path pilot’s text handling is meh…), and it would be nice if like pathpilot the text tool had a serial number style function (v-carve pro has something similar). I tend to make my source artwork in CAD, which ends up serving the same purpose.
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Thank you so much! I’ll check that.
Are these graphics for commercial use? Where do these graphics come from?
The noun project.
Your subscription helps cover the license fees to them to use commercially.
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They are licensed for commercial use and they come from the Noun Project.
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My machine will not be here until Thursday Nov 5 and do not want to miss out on this deal for 14.99 how do i still get it?
How do I get this deal when my machine will not be here until Thursday November 5th.
Don’t want to miss out on it.
Can’t wait to start creating.
Shelda Eshleman