Are you still intending to implement a feature in the software that auto-detects overlapping cut lines and only make one of the cuts?
Based on some of what we’ve seen from the pre-release folks and the suggestion to do some things like 1/4" acrylic in 2 passes, if you’re still going to do this, can you make it optional?
In order to deal with the “do two passes” I would replicate a cut line with a different color so it would all cut once and then come back and cut the 2nd color to get the smoother 2 pass cut recommended. If the auto-detect feature kills the second set of lines, I’d have to send the job a second time with the engraves turned off but the cuts turned on. Two operations vs one.
Haven’t tested a double cut with the interface, but I have tested a triple engrave to try to get some depth for a mortise and tenon file I was playing with - there is a slot where you can specify 2 or 3 passes on the engrave, and it completes one, and then comes back for a second pass. (Also has multiple pass options on Cuts.)
So the GFUI currently has that ability built in, if nothing changes. (And there’s no reason for that part to change.)
So did the auto-detect of duplicate lines make it into the software then? Because with the spot for specifying the number of passes that feature now becomes pretty useful so it doesn’t double up on cuts.
That I don’t know. Haven’t tested any with duplicate lines yet. I’d have to deliberately create a file that had them.
Easy enough to set one up real quick.
One thing though - many of the so called “duplicate lines” files are not true duplicates, they are the result of auto-trace programs that place a vector path on either side of an unfilled stroke line when they trace it. The two paths are separated by the width of the original line stroke. If the stroke was very narrow, the two paths will appear to be exact duplicates, but they will actually be different lines. The GFUI would have to pick one of the two and delete it.
And I’m not sure they have it set up to do that. It wouldn’t know which one to choose.
But I’ll run a couple of tests and see what happens.
Thanks for digging in. I used to get tripped up by this but keep an eye out. It happens sometimes on translations - going from Corel or AI to DXF to the laser. It’s also one of the things I caution students on with the classic duplicate and butt together 2 boxes. The centerline is actually 2 lines - the left side of one box and the right side of the other but the human sees a single line and doesn’t understand why that one cut twice. @dan’s auto-detect feature fixes that problem for non-laser savvy folks. I was worried it would force me into manually making multiple passes but they’ve got that addressed so auto-detect would be a good thing if they implemented it.
My plotter annoyingly does this when I have automatic weedlines and borders turned on and spaced with zero separation. Other places that accidental duplicate lines happen a whole bunch is when you forget to turn off a white fill inside of a stroked shape, or forget to “ignore white” during an autotrace.
Okay @jamesdhatch… testing complete - there is currently no function in the GFUI to auto-detect duplicate lines coming in from an outside program, so we’re still going to have to be careful of that with vector work from outside programs. (It’s been included in the training tutorials though - one of the first things I wrote up…figured it would be an issue at first.)
For anyone else reading this…
For the Glowforge Trace function - they do have a way built in to correct for duplicate line creation - it goes like this:
Thank you for showing this. If you want to show us any other cool functions I would love to see them since I don’t know anything about the interface. This all makes me very anxious as well.
I did a mailmerge in Word into a table so I’d have a whole bunch of names engraved on little tiles for the men’s group to do their door prize drawing every month. I exported it as a PDF and brought it into the UI. The file choked when using an older computer. Kept getting time outs in the browser. Definitely some limitations in file sizes and browser capabilities.
In any case, I opened it finally one my best computer and printed it in cardboard without doing any further processing.
The engraving of the names went perfectly. The cutting of the tiles not so much. Everything was double short lines. So the work flow would be merge to a PDF and open in Inkscape. Then fix the lines for the tiles and then put in the Glowforge.
Adobe Illustrator can do data merges, text and images. You still have to fix the overlapping boxes on a duplicated box, not sure if you used a table what you would get.
@Jules I am really learning a lot …thank you.
Could you please tell me if the front door on the GF is flat, and the dimensions ?
Thank you verily againth !
