Hmmm…if preview works on the Spark, maybe I’ll have to use my Spark to see how something looks, and then do the actual cutting on my Basic. It’s easy enough to switch between the two machines, and if I just want to see how it looks, the Spark will do that for me. Good work-around.
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I was thinking the same thing! Great idea!
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Sometimes simple solutions escape., me,Thank you.
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That’s because it doesn’t, apparently.
This feels like a business move, and not in the best interest of the user base. Note, I said it feels like that, I know I’m speculating but I have a hard time understanding how which machine you have matters at all when it comes to rendering a preview. I have an even harder time understanding it when you have just proven that you don’t actually need the machine online at all to run the preview, so it’s got to all be done server-side.
Also we know full well that Glowforge isn’t likely to tell us, they play their cards so close to the vest… But it seems like they’re trying to invent reasons for people to upgrade machines or to justify the purchase.
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They can segment features however they want … But I have to agree that if there isn’t a technical reason that my old Pro cannot make use of the improved preview it feels stingy to withhold it.
On the other hand the company is being generous, IMHO, in rolling out speed upgrades to our old machines… A much more significant change. I can’t figure 'em out.
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That one’s easy. Doesn’t make sense to have two code bases for making motion plans. More work to maintain, more work to support. It’s a cost savings measure to make it simpler and consistent.
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If that were the case the first thing would be to offer a trade in . I am on my third machine and I still have the old beehive exhaust. I would seriously consider a mechanical upgrade even to the current new Pro much less the HD but they are not offering any of that.
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Better cameras? Does that mean every HD model would have Snapmarks™?
It was great when I had them.
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Oh man, snapmarks would be a huge factor! I never had them, but I can really see the usefulness of them. That could be worth the trade-in if there were such a thing.
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Really? Snapmarks are worth $5,000+?
Are they worth even $500?
If I were Glowforge I’d be paying very close attention to this. If there’s an actual dollar amount that snapmarks are worth they should be offering to turn it on per user for that amount. They’ve never explained why it’s so difficult to get it to work for people but we already know that it works for a substantial number of users.
They should have a website that says click here to find out if your machine can snap marks and then click here to pay us the low price of $3500 since it is apparently worth 5k.
They can print free money this way, if even ten percent of users have machines that can handle it it’s a substantial number of people who will apparently cough up whatever number they pull out of thin air to charge for it.
Better yet make it part of premium. If you’re a premium user you get snapmarks. They live for recurring revenue. I’m frankly amazed they haven’t done that already.
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I don’t know if they work on this machine, but they show-up in the pull-down. I have done things that they would be handy, but presetly preview would be a real presant.
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It’s so interesting to me how everybody gets excited about the preview, I’m not sure I understand the appeal. It looks like a fairly low quality rendering, it’s not like you can really use it as a marketing image.
Maybe it helps people visualize what it might look like in various wood tones or something? I know we all have different skill sets and maybe some people have a hard time imagining the final product but for most of my projects I have never had an issue with that.
Anyway, I’m glad people like it, and I guess it’s cool, I just don’t know that I have a personal use for it.
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As an experiment I did, see if you can figure out which one (not the one with the background).
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Same. If it makes people happy it isn’t hurting me. 
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Well if you look at development time as a finite resource which it is… Developing stuff like this takes away time glowforge could be using to improve things that might be more relevant to your interests.
We all know that the hopper is mile long. Well actually there is no real hopper as far as I can tell, because they keep doing things that no one was asking for like marginal speed increases and previews instead of the many features we’ve been asking for for years.
Of course it’s their company and they can prioritize however they want, I’m just saying that there are opportunity costs to pursuing stuff like this as opposed to figuring out how to enable things like snap marks for everybody.
They’re not apples to apples And the people that do something like snap marks might be completely different from the people that do something like previews. I get all that. It’s just a bit frustrating to see feature after feature that isn’t improving my experience when there are so many opportunities to really advance the glowforge’s capabilities.
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preview doesn’t really do anything for me, either.
snapmarks is great. i don’t use it a ton, but when i do, it’s fantastic.
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I’ve said this before, but so have you so I’m going to point it out again. None of us are the target market for this machine, we are all too technical. Their target (see their ads) is a homemaker who wants to create pretty things. That person wants to know what it’ll look like before hitting print. That imaginary homemaker is never going to use snapmarks, or likely even set focus. An increase in speed, free designs, and things to make it easier when you don’t care about the back end, are for them.
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All fair.
That said a faster experience that screws up vector engraves? Nobody wanted that.
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This. It’s always been this.
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Yeah, the screw ups are definitely an issue!
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