Frustrating morning, but solved'ish

[henryhbk]

So working now on mass production of my Passover place card puzzles (306 pieces) and started out this morning with AI-SVG-Glowforge slicer frustration.

So first step was to layout a block of 9 puzzles (now with no duplicated lines) and get names loaded up. I exported to SVG and bam, failed with “an unknown error”. I tried all sorts of things with making just one puzzle, making different orientations. Finally removed the text in frustration, and it loaded…

But wait I hear you cry “text needs to be converted to outlines!”. Yes that’s right text converted to outlines was causing a problem; just wait it gets weirder. It almost seemed to related to which letters were on the puzzle! So then I rolled back the create outlines on the fully loaded one, and figured fine, I guess I just will try a different font.

And yeah, that worked. Yes apparently the font police, who rebel against the Papyrus font in general, don’t allow it to be sliced (note: my use of Papyrus is using the “this actually is ancient egypt exception”).

So then I figured, wow not sure I have enough proofgrade maple to do all of this, so decided I would use AwsomeGrade® birch.

First off, really, the stupid camera couldn’t recognize the QR code? I mean it’s as clear as day!

AwesomeGrade is one of the largest vendors of Glowforge materials in this household!

Anyway, that has the Laserbits masking paper on it. And I started the run. Not sure exactly what happened but it was less than awesome… It ran fine, except a few of the pieces’ masking blew off, which I guess I can deal with, and it’s way more smoke than PG materials (that actually did deter the squirrels) but weirdly as it completed each piece they dropped down 1/16". Not sure why, since it was sitting very flat on the honeycomb. Anyway aborted after the cut, since I wasn’t going to engrave this with some pieces covered, some not and different heights (yes, the autofocus should do it, but didn’t want to wait - each sheet takes 54 minutes)

But on a much nicer note, I discovered that I do in fact have just enough proof grade maple (with enough space for 3 failed puzzles to complete the project until my order comes in of more. And @Dan at least for now, Proofgrade seems safe from AwesomeCo’s encroachment on the market for GF materials…

[cynd11]

Hilarious!

Sorry you are having trouble but I do love your writeups. One note: I have a font on my system that looks just like Papyrus: Parchment. Maybe you can find that one?

Fonts can be a huge problem and are apparently frequently corrupt. Try downloading Font Doctor from Extensis–I think they have an evaluation version and maybe it can shed some light.

[henryhbk]

@cynd11

Fonts can be a huge problem and are apparently frequently corrupt

But once you crack them into outlines they are simple bezier curves… It should no longer be a letter. I can (I just tried) grabbed a vertex of one of those letters and I can independently edit that curve point, so these are definitely not letters, just shapes at this point… My guess is the font when cracked has some non-manifold geometry that the GF slicer doesn’t handle (like if you’ve ever watched the MakersMuse video on overlapping shells - same problem). The problem is I don’t have a curve analyzer to determine if such a thing exists like I do for STL files (I use Emendo for that).

[Jules]

@henryhbk

First off, really, the stupid camera couldn’t recognize the QR code? I mean it’s as clear as day!

Chuckle! Totally agree with @cynd11…your writeups are a total hoot…I’ve got to get some more OG (Off Grade) plywood and start prototyping with it - save the PG stuff for the ones I plan to keep. I’ve ripped through a couple of projects lately that used up a big chunk of my cherry stash, and didn’t turn out exactly as I wanted them to.

Anyway - you got it going now!

[henryhbk]

But I do need someone more experienced to tell my why that masking totally sucked… I mean it is laser masking paper for goodness sake!

[Jules]

You put your QR code on upside down…(I’ve done the same.)

[jason.fuller0]

Since the geometry and design of QR codes (and most bar codes) is to be interpreted without regard to direct or angle, provided the whole code can be scanned, that should not have made a difference. The code does look out of focus, though, which could have impacted the readability of it.

[henryhbk]

@jason.fuller0

that should not have made a difference. The code does look out of focus, though, which could have impacted the readability of it.

Those pencil squiggles are kind of blurry, maybe that was the problem…

[smcgathyfay]

Totally hilarious account, again, sir. Sorry you had issues with the font…but yeah needs to be made into an outline.
As far as the font of papyrus…you are correct in using it in this case…egyptian theme and all…
But I think its written in the code to reject papyrus and comic sans on the GF…lmao

[marmak3261]

Great write up and it helped me to understand why sometimes the GFUI crabs at me for putting texts in when I am sure that I have converted them all to paths. Definitely worth testing on various fonts. I have never had it crash though nor not engrave or cut the letters as ai wished. Just a nag screen about not processing texts.

I have laserbits masking paper. If your Awesomegrade ply is unfinished, the masking doesn’t stick completely. It works best on finished or finely sanded wood. Sticks well to leather but not suede. Lowes unfinished plywood is very fuzzy on the surface and masking is not happy with that. I use masking tape if I need to mask unfinished ply.

[henryhbk]

@smcgathyfay

but yeah needs to be made into an outline.

that’s what’s so crazy, was it is definitely an outline. What I need to do now is try each Papyrus letter to see which one it is!

@marmak3261

If your Awesomegrade ply is unfinished, the masking doesn’t stick completely.

Ah, it’s fairly-smooth but not like proof grade is… That must be it. Will it stick to acrylic?

[marmak3261]

Yes. It sticks very well to acrylic and smooth paper, foam sheets. Rubber.

[jbmanning5]

The papyrus outlines worked the first time you cut the puzzle, right?

Since SVG is just XML - it sounds like something in the code is causing it to not parse on the server end.

Might be interesting to run it through a validator, such as https://validator.w3.org/

One could also experiment with some of the different SVG export options.

[jamesdhatch]

@jason.fuller0

Since the geometry and design of QR codes (and most bar codes) is to be interpreted without regard to direct or angle, provided the whole code can be scanned,

True but I think this one was inside out

[jason.fuller0]

That might still not make a difference in QR. That would technically be ‘backwards’, but the reference elements should still tell the computer the proper orientation and design. A blurry/unclear code, though, is another thing entirely.

[henryhbk]

@jason.fuller0

That might still not make a difference in QR. That would technically be ‘backwards’, but the reference elements should still tell the computer the proper orientation and design. A blurry/unclear code, though, is another thing entirely.

Wait, you did notice that I just hand drew something with a pencil for my “AwesomeGrade” (read Home Depot with paper on top) plywood to be my “QR code” right?

[Jules]

I did…and i still think it’s upside down.

[henryhbk]

@Jules

I did…and i still think it’s upside down

Give me 2 second in Photoshop and it will be fixed…

[jbmanning5]

While you’re there…

filter > sharpen > unsharp mask > 500%

That’ll fix the blur, right?

[likeablejerk]

I mean if you just need QR codes, I can get you some QR codes. I know a guy who knows a guy who robbed a guy. Just don’t ask a lot of questions if occasionally your material scans as “Reformed ham” or “Cat, American Shorthair”