Late to this party… Been creating test patterns for various materials and remembered this. Have some data to put in, but wondering - is there, or has there been thought given to, a way of sharing these settings?
Been using this for a while, and I love it, but today it stopped working. None of my custom materials show up in the glowforge UI. Thankfully I can still read my stored settings and type them in manually. (That would be so much easier if they weren’t in mm in the plugin, and inches in the glowforge UI…)
I’m thinking they did some update to the web interface that broke the plugin? I hope it’s fixable. It’s super convenient.
P.S. I’m using chrome updated as of today, on a Mac.
1 Like
I have always had to copy my settings in manually from the material manager. Is it supposed to automatically populate the settings to the UI?
2 Likes
Yeah, it used to add them to the list of proof grade materials in the UI. Then you select it like any other material.
1 Like
Seems to be working again today.
I’m fully expecting at some point there will be a significant rewrite of the user interface. The material manager works for now.
2 Likes
FYI, this doesn’t seem to be working at the moment, https://community.glowforge.com/t/unidentified-material/27099
IT’s not working today!!! 
I LOVE this extension!!! Please make it work again or tell me how to fix it!!! xx
1 Like
The Material Manager Chrome extension is a third party software not sanctioned by Glowforge. I’m assuming the change GF made to allow metric material thickness and mathematical calculations in thickness has made the Material Manager not work. The author of the Material Manager app will have to make changes to their code and release an update. GF is constantly making updates to their software which could effect the functionality of third party apps like Material manager.
6 Likes
I keep seeing customers declaring what Glowforge does and does not support, but I cannot find any statements from people who represent Glowforge. Are you authorized by Glowforge to make this statement?
Based on my software development experience I think it is a rash assumption to decide that the issue is with the Materials Manager.
Glowforge benefits greatly from the existence of the Materials Manager and it would be prudent to test changes they make against materials created there to make sure they do not break it unless absolutely necessary.
I believe the safe assumption is that Glowforge testing process does not take into account materials created with the Materials Manager. Hopefully Glowforge is working to figure out what is broken and what the fix involves.
Unfortunately the Glowforge model does not afford me the luxury of opting out of this recent change and allow me to use the previous version of the software that works for what I want to do.
This complete lack of control is a recurring frustration and should be a red flag to people considering a purchase of the product.
??? Not sure why you think GF should take any responsibility for third party software. This extension is amazing but please remember that is was created by a user for FREE. Use at your own risk.
12 Likes
Fair enough! Thanks for the response! Here’s hoping the original creator might be willing to fix it… I’d happily donate to the cause! xx
1 Like
this is the most accurate thing you said. they did not test the software for the materials manager because a third party engineered it. GF does not have anything to do with it. they didn’t create an API that the materials manager uses, in which case they may have some responsibility. the MM author figured this out all on his own and made a chrome extension that stored some information locally and input it into the GFUI.
i’m not sure why you’re attacking people who are trying to explain why GF isn’t the party responsible for making the MM work.
does it suck that the new changes they made broke the extension? yes. and the author pretty much said that this would eventually happen. it’s inevitable with a browser-based software that gets constantly updated and doesn’t have an API.
all we can hope for is that the author is willing and able to update his extension. and that, maybe longer-term, GF will create an API so things like this are less likely to happen.
9 Likes
Because they are not helping. Saying something that is irrelevant, inaccurate or wrong pisses people off for no good reason. GF does plenty to piss of their customers, they do not need volunteers doing it for them.
you’re angry, i can see that. we obviously won’t agree on this, so i’m going to bow out.
4 Likes
Where exactly did I say the issue was with MM? In fact if you read my post which you obviously didn’t comprehend I said the issue was with a change GF made.
I believe I was looking at this line:
If the Material Manager author is responsible for releasing a fix, the implication is that the problem now lies in the Material Manager code. I think this is a premature assumption.
I will make some time to take a look at this issue when I am done with work today. I write software for 8 - 12 hours a day at a startup so I’ve been slacking on my open source work 
If it is broken I will try to get a release out tonight, remember this does affect me too even if we only use our Glowforge a few times a week these days.
10 Likes
Would be very surprised if anyone on the GF S/W development team is using or has even installed the Chrome Material Manager Extension. Could be wrong. But don’t see them spending any time testing against it.
2 Likes
Hahaha – good one!!! 
2 Likes