So would we open this in illustrator and save it as a .svg? That is what I did, and when I uploaded that to Glowforge, it is basically unresponsive for me, every click takes 10+ seconds, and then they are completely out of order.
I can’t figure out a way to even see which is which without first adding settings to each one, but as I said the lag makes setting each one take about 1-2 minutes. Am I doing something wrong?
Did you do this one at a time?
Great idea and thank you for doing the work to make it - Awesome!
When you upload it to the GFUI each different colour will show up as a different operation so you set the speed/power for each one - but then you can run the entire job all at once. That initial set-up will take time!
You should put the higher power/lower speed ones later so that if it starts to burn you can just stop it there knowing everything else will burn more.
Im new on GF and just dont get it. Is there directions somewhere on exactly what i need to do? I downloaded the template, it opened in my AI, i wrote 1/8 birch on it and uplaoded it into GF app and all the colors look exaclty the same. What do I do now? Ive wasted so much wood in a week
Can you take a screenshot of what you are looking at?
You need to go thru each element and assign manual settings that match the power and speed. It’s a tedious job.
I would recommend not using this template. It’s overkill for the majority of users.
Stick with Proofgrade settings, and for non-PG materials, use those as starting points to determine what works for your material.
thank you @elfguy I figured it out this morning. I just got it all entered manully and doing my first one on 1/8 birch. Now next im making one for maple, will I have to go in and adjust the focal height on every single one of those? or when I change the height of the material it will automatically adjust to that height?
No. Just use the set focus tool. All material has nominal dimensions to it which means there is a range of thickness. Even the proofgrade will take a pic of the material to get accurate thickness with the head camera.
Want to take a ride into one aspect of nominal dimensions?
You can over ride to set manual the focus for the laser in some cases when you want a defocused beam.
Remember there is focusing for the lid camera image to get the bed picture correct for design placement. Using the set focus behind the gear icon gets you a great image for placing the design accurate.
Then there is the operation of focusing the lens in the head, which you don’t have to worry about because the set focus tool does both giving an accurate focus on the surface of the material in the lid camera image and then correct focus of the beam on the material.
Saved settings really should be just for power and speed, LPI, etc.
Ok because I noticed it had the .124 setting from when I put them in saved on each setting. Thanks for your help. I’ll watch that video now.
@duraine… yes. Yes they do. I know that someone is just absolutely DYING to create that! And just love to make my life SOOO much more desirable!! If you happen to find where they upload it… please lead me!!!
Is there one for acrylic
This template is suitable for all materials, but with acrylic you might want to eliminate the slower speeds and other settings that cause excess burning and charring. Acrylic fires are real. For acrylic, the proofgrade settings are a very good place to start before experimenting with minor changes for specific desired outcomes.
Ok, New here. What is LPI?
Ok. I am new here. I just got my Glowforge last week. Let me say…. I LOVE IT! I think the biggest thing is not understanding how to change my engrave settings. I’m used to Epilog and I know just how to get the depth of engrave I want. It’s super simple… change the speed. And with that… the engrave takes less time. Yesterday I was going to create a product I’d like to offer in my store. It was going to take 2 hours because of the engraving. And it was a deep engrave. I changed the speed and it doubled the time. Super curious.
Also… this template… Are the color differences how the laser knows which settings for which oval?
LPI = Lines Per Inch – the number of horizontal (x-axis) passes by the beam per vertical (y-axis) inch.
Lower LPIs result in quicker engraves with lower resolution. Higher settings result in slower engraves with better resolution. Be aware that different materials have different max useful LPIs. Anodized aluminum looks great at high LPIs but soft woods will actually lose resolution due to burning.
Yup! Layers in SVG files are irrelevant – all objects with the exact same color will be grouped together regardless any layers defined by Inkscape, Illustrator, AD, etc.
Check out this thread for great info on this, including how to set up custom palates to automagically organize the order of operations when the file is loaded in the gui.
Presumably you lowered the speed to double the time. If you raised the speed it would get faster. BUT there is a point of diminishing returns. If you’re doing a 1" square and going full speed (1000 on a vector, 1400 on a raster) the head has to go way further than your 1" in order to speed up and slow down, so some experimentation is needed.
Also keep in mind the laser goes back and forth starting from the bottom right corner, so the fastest place to put an engrave is with its long edge horizontal and toward the front. The difference between these is noticeable in time it takes to complete:
I checked it out. Thanks. That definitely helps
