What are folks envisioning the workflow process to be for a small classroom setting?
You have 10 individuals working away on their designs to be cut on the laser. Everyone has already cut once or twice on the laser so the settings are all dialed in.
-Is there a way for users to access the glowforge and setup their job (engraves, cuts) then have it saved for later? This would allow for a different person / resource to be the glowforge loader (based on material requested) and button pusher to run all the jobs. I wouldn’t want to have this person responsible importing svg’s, setting up each individual job, speed, engraves, cuts, etc…
As this is cloud, this model / game plan could then be opened up to designers across the country / world rather than just 1 physical class room.
Some of us with the Pro model will have to relegate ourselves to this type of setup due to the laser no longer being a class 1. Bringing the Pro to show and tell won’t be as easy as carting in a 3d printer.
Not sure what the regulations are in your area. The Pro is certified as Class IV. But the laser in the Basic and Pro are both technically a Class IV. It’s the fully enclosed case that makes the Basic unit a Class 1. Putting metal duct tape over the pass thru slot on the Pro effectively makes it the same as the Basic from the standpoint of the beam exiting the unit. Though it wouldn’t have that official certification. And that’s where local regulations apply.
That is a great use case. At the moment the interface for the laser is tied to a particular machine. The manual implies that it’s one user one interface. @karaelena has talked about jumping from one device to another seamlessly and I have done that. Can you have the interface open for one machine on ten different devices and have them all access at the same time, at least the file/catalog section?
Once a design is in the UI and there is Proofgrade™ material in, it’s good to go. But you would still have choices for engraving and scoring. Once the design is in, it’s there for repeated use.
If I were teaching a group I would have them all work on the design in whatever design software. Make sure they have rubrics for a printable file with colors mapped to specific standard operations. Have them save the file to an available shared storage. Then the button pusher will also be the file uploader and operations designator.
Also have to factor in design rendering time once it is first uploaded. Then there is the rendering that takes place once you put it in the print workspace and press software print. Some designs are quick to go through. Others take a few minutes. So figure on a few seconds to five minutes for the preprocessing. Then get an idea how long it takes for certain designs to print, especially engraves. My matchbox takes 20 minutes to print with the tree and keyhole slot engrave. Only seven minutes to cut it all.
My experience is that I am waiting for the print to complete in the laser. I don’t feel that the design upload and processing are long waits. When I think about going downstairs to work, I picture it as design time more than anything. Once I press the hard print button, I’m working on the next project.
Okay, maybe this has already been asked but it just clicked in my brain and a quick search didn’t show me, so, how many designs/uploads can you have in the pipeline at once. In other words can you have four or five jobs waiting/processing on the servers while another job is working. I know you would have to place material and push the button. I guess the question I’m asking is, does the processing happen before or after you put the material in and line it up?
As it sits now, You can make changes to a design while the machine is in operation. But you can not ‘post process’ anything while the machine is in operation. (CAM if you will). It waits for the machine status to change from "Printing’ to ‘Ready’ before it will allow you to send off an op to get processed.
This ‘could’ be a safety thing as it sits now, You can only kill a job from the UI. During the post processing process you would temp lose the ability to do that while the cloud is pumping out the CAM for the machine. Keyword is it sits right now (as in <2 mins from this post) This can change obviously.
Good to know. I was thinking more about maker spaces, group environments, like the OP, wondering about stacking things in the cue. Won’t really be a problem for me, but made me curious. And you’re right, I could see where a safety issue could come into play.
I was thinking: we don’t really know what resources the cloud is consuming. If could be that for pre-release all the instances/virtual servers/whatever are configured for maximum ease of development, and that other considerations will happen post-release, so that conversion from design to waveform happens much faster or slower.