In that screenshot, you can also see the “Document Info” window. Open that from Window > Document Info. Click the little hamburger menu and make sure that “Selection Only” is not checked. Then, hit the hamburger menu again and select Objects. It will give you a path count (and if they are open, closed), total path lengths, etc.
It could be - if it’s not the open path then it’s likely a self-intersecting path. But, I’m guessing that it’s the open path. I hope so, because I don’t know of an easy way to fix self-intersecting paths, unless you take what you have and convert it to a raster for engraving.
Had to first figure why I wasn’t recognizing the etch line. And we finally realized we had to make two circle and space it correct between. Both circle… I rather have the UI run as a color coordinated functions…
I get that they’ve gone a different route than other laser software interfaces. How long would it take you to make that same fill circle now that you know how to make an engrave vs a cut?
Did you need two copies because you needed to engrave and cut the circle? How would it work on other software if you wanted to create a vector engrave and a vector cut of a circle?
Nice thing about this one is - you can use any color you want for engraving. And set individual engraves with different parameters if you like.
It’s tough having to learn a new set of rules if you’re used to doing things a certain way, but the good side is it’s generally easier to pick them up quickly.
There are a quick set of guidelines for the laser savvy at the end of the tutorial below…it generally saves some time to read through it once.
And the Glowforge, you just make a circle with a fill? I guess I’m not seeing where the difficulty lays once you know a fill is defined as an engrave and a cut is a stroke.
It would be nice to be able to set up certain operations as a score automatically which would minimize UI time. It is one step in the UI to make it a score.
You know, if I wanted to use a sketch like that, I’d rasterize it. (Hand sketches are murderous from a vector standpoint. All the scribbles have to be interpreted into a lot of movement rules, and they’re not connected, so the math gets to be pretty extensive.)
But in a raster treatment, the head is going to travel back and forth along a fixed path, and the only instructions written in are when to fire and when to stop.
I’ve been just as impressed with rasterized results from this machine as I have with vector treatments… I’d at least give it a try so you can use the Intuos results. It does look pretty cool.
Thanks. I just tried this with a png directly from the tablet, but the results are… well, really rastery. I haven’t found a way to up the dpi output from the tablet. Or, now that I type this out and think about the title text at the bottom, (outlined text with the outlines removed and then engraved), are you saying to output fills from the vectors within AI? I’m afraid that I don’t understand how to do that any differently than I already tried.
I think that looks pretty great actually…very “hand-sketch”.
You can increase the LPI in the Glowforge interface for small items. If that was the SD setting it’s probably set at 270 LPI…you could get a smoother/darker result at 340 LPI.
(You don’t want to increase the LPI for anything that is larger than about half the bed vertically though…the interface will get bogged down from too much movement instruction again.)
@jbpa you win two gold stars! and a @Jules you get some too.
Rasterizing made complete sense, but the nodes in my brain weren’t thinking about vector from AI first and export as raster. Now, we’re cooking’ with gas! And, now I should get back to my paying job…
I exported as png to have no background. Is that better / worse than jpg?
@jbpa I don’t know how to quote an image. The “obvious solution” image reminds me of when I was running for town council and there was a taped local tv debate. I did something just like this on live TV and my head disappeared completely from view. People still voted for me over the other people and I won. Go figure.
Since you’re using Illustrator, I would just bring the vector into Illustrator, select all, and then Object > Rasterize; 600 DPI would be good for up to 300 LPI on the Glowforge. I would also rasterize it and keep it embedded in a SVG file.
I did a quick side-by-side output and this method is less fuzzy than direct export as a png. I’m on a significant detour from my workday so I’m not going to do the GF test side by side yet. But, thank you three for this mornings education. (@jbmanning5, @Jules, @jbpa)
