Greetings y’all

Greetings!
We are scheduled to receive our Glowforge Plus on Monday and I’ll embarrassed to say that I’m nervous. I have so many things that I want to make that I don’t one where to start. Of course, not being proficient in Photoshop or Illustrator has me concerned. My wife is worried that things like boxes will be too difficult to figure out.

I see what y’all are creating and I’m in awe. I am a disabled, small town pastor and would love you create beautiful items for the church and other believers. If anyone can tell me how to create nice crosses, etc. I’d appreciate it.

Of course, church items aren’t all we want to make. Every time I look here, I find more things I want to do. You guys are amazing.

Thanks

13 Likes

So, first off, welcome, we love new people around here.

As for how to get started, I’d recommend just doing a lot of reading, and then as you get an idea, look for specific things to build your skills. Before you know it, these larger projects that seemed so complicated will be not so intimidating. It’s all a matter of just taking small steps, learning one type of thing at a time.

Here’s a quick guide I made for some common questions. I think you’ll probably find a lot of the topics quite useful.

Read through them and click through to other topics, and just keep going and going, it’s a learning curve but it’s really fun :slight_smile:

10 Likes

Welcome! Between the Free Files section and box generator sites you can find online it’s easier than you might think. Sure, you’ll have to start off small with easy projects, but once you get the hang of things the fun will never end!

3 Likes

Welcome! There’s lots of help here and each project will build your confidence for the next! The box generators are great like @RyanD mentioned!

2 Likes

Welcome! I received my Glowforge at the end of Jan and I was in the same boat as you. I happen to have Adobe so I chose Illustrator as the software I was going to use.

I started by tracing pictures and I would find something I liked, take a screenshot of it, then draw over the top of it and that’s how I learnt how to control all the lines in Illustrator. They have the same concepts in most software I believe.

That’s my tip for getting started, for me personally I found it easier to learn by trying to make something I really wanted to make. There are some really great tutorials online and loads of resources on YouTube as well which I have also found helpful when I couldn’t get my head around something!

Good luck, you’re going to love it!

4 Likes

That is a familiar feeling for most of us who were new to the technology and threw a bag of money at it.
That was me 6 years ago when I jumped into the pre-sale. It was this community that guided me through my ignorance. You are in the right place, welcome!

Unless you already own the Adobe software, I would recommend Inkscape as a free alternative to Illustrator. Learning a new software program may feel intimidating, but the fundamentals come quick. When you can make the machine do what you want a new world opens for you!

Embrace the learning adventure, there is serious personal growth there, I speak from experience. My world was thrown into a deep funk due to forced retirement from a spine fusion. Rudderless, with no direction left me in a dark place for years.
It was this machine and the need to learn design software to talk to it that gave me a path forward, and the people here made sure I had any support I needed.
This community is the best accessory for your new laser. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, none of us knew how either until the first time.

4 Likes

Ditto what everyone else is saying. Being new myself (since the end of March), I am actually going back through the tutorials in “Your First Prints and More” in the Glowforge site. It’s actually quite interesting. I started by making things in the “Free Designs”, but thought it would be good to learn stuff on my own as well. This is a tremendously loving, helpful community. So welcome to the GF family!

3 Likes

Welcome! You will love it here.

I have had my GF about 6 months, and I am beginning to feel confident enough to attempt my own designs. I have been purchasing designs on Etsy. Also search the web for free svg files of crosses or whatever you want to make. There is so much out there that I continue to find new things each time I search.

3 Likes

Thanks y’all. I feel better already. Since my injury left me paralyzed, my confidence is shot, but y’all helped.

3 Likes

don’t sweat it around here you will be basically dragged down the road to success.

or is that drug? who knows…

2 Likes

Just an update: we got everything set up Saturday afternoon and within a short time we were printing (but that is no surprise, right). I’m looking forward to learning how to do more stuff. Thanks y’all

4 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 32 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.