GF Pro Scoring Artefacts

Hi, first time posting, please be gentle :slight_smile:

I’m attempting to print a ruler (part of a larger project), however the GF seems to be scoring additional circles which don’t appear in the original design files, nor do they appear on the GUI. See the screenshots below. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

As seen in GUI:
as-seen-in-gui

As printed (note the circle on top of the “1/2”):

The same thing happens in 2 different places on the design (note that the “1/2” symbol is used 12 times in total, and only 2 places have the issue, so I doubt it’s a problem with the font).

Printing on Proofgrade material (tried both draft board and maple, same outcome).
Changing score settings on GUI doesn’t change the outcome either.

Thanks,
– Paul T.

Are you scoring or engraving? (I know you said “score,” but just being sure.)

Usually that happens when there are unclosed curves in a vector shape that you’re engraving. The Glowforge makes weird random guesses about how to complete the shape. So I’d look for an open shape (if you’re engraving) or any sort of random node weirdness in your artwork. If you want to upload the SVG here we’ll be happy to help you look. :slight_smile:

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Hi, thanks for responding, much appreciated.

The complete design includes a mixture of engraving, scoring and cutting. This particular element of the design was set for scoring.

The design does use (or attempts to use) single-stroke fonts to avoid the “outlining” issue. But as I mentioned these unwanted circles appear only in those 2 spots, not anywhere else, despite there being quite a bit of text (i.e. all the indicators for inches, cm/mm, etc; there’s also a gauge with more lettering, and a copyright notice, all scoring just right).

Re: uploading, I’ll have to discuss with the author, for copyright reasons they may not want me to upload it here. I will look for open paths in the “engrave” elements.

EDIT: I should mention, I ordered the engravings to go first, then scoring, then cutting. After the engraving elements were completed, there were no circles visible.

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Open paths and stray nodes are the most likely culprit…but there is an extremely rare bug that can cause it too. Look for crossover paths, or really tight corners. I only know of a couple of times it’s happened in millions of prints. (So it’s probably too low of a priority to bother with fixing.)

But if you round a tight corner it prevents it from happening. (Just in case that’s what it is here.)

Thanks @Jules.

Do (any of) you know of any tools I could use to examine/analyze SVG files in gory detail, so I can look for these open paths or “stray nodes”? I’ve tried Illustrator and Affinity Designer, but I’m not an expert by any stretch (also feeling a bit overwhelmed by the seemingly vast quantity of tools and options), and this seems like a pretty specialized operation.

BTW I also noticed during the print that even single-outline entities (e.g. the “cut” border of the project) seem to cut twice, like it’s doing “outline” interpretation despite there being only the single stroke that I’m aware of. I poked around a number of times looking for answers, but everything I try seems to lead to the same outcome.

Clearly I’m doing something wrong, and perhaps understanding how to correct this “outline” behavior may also help me find what’s causing the phantom circles here.

EDIT: fixed a few typos

Oh, that might explain part of the problem…and you’re right… it’s a quirk in the new versions of Illustrator.

Make sure that the Strokes on your Scores and Cuts are always centered. Never set to the left or right of the path. If they are not centered, the program Expands them when it is saved as an SVG, and that causes double lines that are very close together. (Basically it outlines the stroke.)

Try re-saving the file after you have checked the stroke placement…it might get rid of those bubbles and should eliminate the double paths.

Note: If you want to check for the paths yourself, switch the View mode to Outline. It will show the paths without any strokes overlaying them.

I’m sorry that you’ve run into trouble and that your prints have unexpected results. I’m glad to see that you’ve received some excellent information already from both @geek2nurse and @jules. Thanks folks!

Please let us know how it goes. As Geek2nurse mentioned, we’ll be happy to take a closer look at your SVG file. If you’d prefer to share it privately, you can email it to us at support@glowforge.com.

Hi @Jules and @ivan1 (and @geek2nurse of course) , thanks for your inputs and attention.

Sorry for the late response, I had to put away my toys and manage other things yesterday, and couldn’t get back to this until today.

So I examined the file in Illustrator, and found a number of discrepancies:

  • there were a number of overlapping paths in one of the engraved elements; I merged those into compound paths instead
  • a number of cut and score shapes were stroked without using “center”, I modified all of those to use “center”

The outcome… there are now 4 circles instead of 2! Argh!

There is one more thing to note… exporting SVG from this AI file produces unusable results, which is readily apparent from the GF GUI (lines/strokes missing on the fonts). The only thing that seemed to work was to open the AI file in Affinity Designer and export from there. It’s entirely possible that this particular workflow is introducing problems.

@ivan1 I will be following your suggestion and emailing you the AI original file along with the two SVGs (the one exported from AI and the one exported from AD). I’ll refer to this thread in the email so the context is apparent.

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Thank you for taking the time to update us, and for sending over the design files. I’ve reviewed the files you provided, and sent over some additional instructions directly via email to see if it helps with resolving the snag. I wanted to make sure I updated the thread as well, and we will keep it open to ensure we catch any additional details you provide.

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I see you already emailed us about this and we’re working on it there, so I’m going to close this topic.