More than ever I still think subscriptions should have been cheaper and mandatory for all. I wonder if this situation would be different if they’d gone with that sort of model.
I also wonder why they don’t publish proofgrade settings for other laser machines. It’s good material, seems like a slam dunk to try to sell it to the wider laser community.
A dream job would be working on the GFUI and implementing the features and tweaks that power users here have been clamoring for.
But, I would have voted against Discord integration. 
This probably means I am not the product manager they want.
The company stated in the early days that if they were to go out of business that they would release a non-web based version of the software that would allow it to be run totally from a local machine. That promise was the deciding factor for me to go with Glowforge, as I really don’t believe in buying hardware that has the risk of being perfectly functional but unusable due to a change within the manufacturer.
Of course, if they get bought out by a private equity company, such promises go out the window…
I’m not sure it’s in the window now. If they went out of business, where would the resources for such a large engineering project come from?
Last one out hit the lights and flip the githup repo switch to public… seriously I hope it doesn’t come to that for a long time. Glowforge is a great company and I love my laser. It’s a tough time for the tech sector and as painful as it is sometimes layoffs are necessary to keep the company going. 
While I hope no one ends up with a paperweight, my heart is with the folks on the team, both those who are losing their jobs and those who remain. Tough time for all.
Thanks for the kind words, all. It’s really hard to part ways with wonderful people we love working with. We still have an amazing team here, and I can’t wait for you to see some of what we’ve got cooking this year. I should add that we’re *incredibly *lucky to have amazing investors and board members who are working closely with me to keep the company strong.
And, while nothing’s certain, we’ve always had our ‘in case of emergency break glass’ plan in place, just in case for some reason we weren’t able to continue serving all of you in the future. I love my Glowforge and won’t let it become a paper weight!
As fuzzy as that is, it is somewhat reassuring.
Thanks for chiming in, Dan. I know I’m not the only one who has always appreciated your communication here on the forum.
I’m new to the forums and have only had a GF for three months but it seems to me that GF is falling behind in the consumer market that it seemed to be targeting. Other companies are offering machines at the same or lower price points that are both larger and faster. And the Glowforge software doesn’t give them any advantages.
I’m sure GF is working on the competition problem. That situation changes quickly in tech, but they certainly have things to do.
Welcome to the forum, it’s nice to have the perspective of somebody who’s new to the Glowforge community on all of this.
Advantages that are not in your face can be big adantages, Likewise the ones that are in your face can turn out to be otherwise. If you are last to the market others have done a lot of your research. If you are first this is not so much.
Agreed. I stated that poorly. As you may have surmised, I was frustrated with the software when I wrote that. But by keeping everything web-based, I am subject to the whims something else over which I have no control.
Maybe I should take my frustration to another forum. (Open another thread. ) I just can’t get the machine to do what seems to me basic things like change settings reliably. SUPPORT HAS BEEN LESS THAN ZERO HELP. Don’t ask for help on the weekend!
What issues are you having with the interface? I am certain there are people here in the forum that can be of great assistance if you would share the problems you have encountered.
You don’t have to take your frustration elsewhere…believe you me, we’ve seen it all here. But, please do share with us what’s going on…as @dklgood said, there are tons of knowledgeable folks right here in the forum that would love to try and help you.
@Xabbess and @dklgood putting the community in community.glowforge.com. 
Thank you all. I appreciate any help I can get. I am not at home until Wednesday so I can’t work on it right now but I will give a rundown of what I have been trying to do.
I am trying to cut pattens for stained glass. My original plan was to use Trace to convert my paper pattern into a digital file. Even after ensuring all lines were darkened and intersections closed, every pattern I tried had a section at some place along the front edge that looked like a toddler had a go at it. There didn’t seem to be any consistency to where the marking turns up.
I worked around this by over sizing the pattern. I expected to do some cleanup but it ended up taking longer than if I had just went straight to AI. I don’t know how to crop or erase in GF. Can it be done?
Next, I have trouble changing settings for non-proofgrade material. I have settings saved for 1/8” mdf cut power full lines 225 speed 250 pass 1. That may be way off but here is what I don’t understand. I choose cut and those settings and print. The machine switches to engrave and says 6 lines are going to take 10+ hours to complete.
I am using a iPad Pro with whatever the latest software is. I have not had a problem using proofgrade material and premium patterns which is why I’m blaming my problems on the software.
Once again, I appreciate any suggestions.
Not really. GF’s app is in no way as capable as Illustrator.
Are you able to actually select those saved cut settings for your artwork? Was your artwork uploaded or traced? It sounds like you’ve uploaded a raster file which can only be engraved. Cutting requires vectors.
You say that’s for a cut but those are engraving settings. I think somethings amiss here.
I suspect there’s a combination of user error and maybe a couple of problems with your tracing. I’m not an iPad user for the Glowforge so I don’t know what good tracing options there are… But the Glowforge tracing is probably the worst performance option that you have available. Honestly you’re better off taking a photograph of your art in a well lit space and then using a different tracing tool.
The artwork was both traced and uploaded as what I had saved as a svg from something else, I not even sure what as I did it for my Shaper. It says cut when I save it but then engraves. I didn’t think you would use full power for engraving. I let it burn for a few minutes and it scorched the surface real good but barely dented the plane like it was focusing wrong. I was checking focus manually every time.
I came to the Same conclusion. I have the Shaper Trace frame and it’s even worse but I get around it because I am dealing with such small areas.