Hey! So I’ve been working on some monthly milestone designs, but the engraving is really faint on the designs that I drew. They’re svg files, and I haven’t run into this problem before. Are the lines too thin, or is the design too small? It’s the same engraving settings as used for the words, just the default for Proofgrade Light Maple Plywood. Anyone have some tricks up their sleeves? Thanks!
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The full line is not engraving in some sections, so I think it is more than the thin lines. Is the material held flat to the honeycomb tray? Are you engraving through masking?
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I’m using Proofgrade Light Maple Plywood, so it has the masking, and I’m using Glowforge’s preset engraving settings, which work just fine for the lettering, just not the design 
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Specifically which setting did you use for the graphic. And did you remove the masking first?
In order to fully assess this:
- We need to see the original artwork. I assume it’s a jpeg or png, if you can upload it here can look at it.
- we need to know what the actual settings were, so not just the name of it like HD graphic or whatever, but we need to know the setting itself so click the triangle to the right of the name of the setting and let us know what those are.
If I had to guess: I suspect that you left the masking on, and that your image isn’t true black-and-white but is grayscale, and you used vary power, a.k.a. 3-D engrave.
But it’s just a guess at this point. Let us know.
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If it is a black only SVG, you also might try setting it to a higher lines per inch in the engrave, or just fattening up the leaf lines. I’ve noticed faint engraving when the engrave path shapes are too skinny and I am engraving on a draft setting or lower.
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I would guess this ^^^
If the design is made of vector lines, it would make an engrave look like that. If it’s a raster image, fattening up the lines can result in a much better engrave.
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I used Draft Graphic at 80 speed, 6.5 power, 270 lines per inch, and 1 pass. The graphic was an svg file, it’s on my other computer but I’ll try to upload it later.
Was I not supposed to leave the Proofgrade masking on??
Thanks for your help!
SVG is merely a container file…like a folder. It can contain either or both rasters and vectors. Leaving the masking on proofgrade usually gives the best results.
For your drawing, I would use at least SD graphic.
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Oh goodness, I’m such a tech newbie! Ok I think it’s just vectors. But I’m trying the SD graphic settings now!
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It’s OK…no worries. If your drawing is vectors, you will only be able to score it. If it’s not…if it’s a raster, you can engrave it.
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Important distinction, but if your drawing is filled vector paths that create a closed shape, they can be engraved. Otherwise, yes, they can only be scored or cut through. Out of the years I’ve had my Glowforge, I’ve only engraved rasters maybe 5% of the time?
But the best way to get a troubleshooting “diagnoses” is going to be sharing the file so those with a bit more experience can guide you to the right solution!
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You’re absolutely correct. Somehow that part of it just left my brain. 
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Considering the art work style of the plant, a score would look great and be 10x as fast!
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