Hanging on "Scanning your material"

[larakaki]

Just like Stuck UI - Uploading -Scanning your material (Still Happening) and “Scanning your material”…forever…I am in a pickle. (And I like pickles!)

I am working from a MacBook Pro (MacOS 10.14), Safari v. 12.0, Chrome v70.0.3538.110. I am cutting 3" circles with student hand drawn designs. I scanned the drawings on a copier, and with the help of Photoshop and Illustrator, converted them from PDFs to SVGs (that was a saga in itself…if anyone has a better workflow, I’m all ears!). Before cutting them on medium draft board, I wanted to test cut them on corrugated cardboard. And here is where my issue begins…

I have been having issues with the GF hanging on “Scanning your material”. I’ve gone between Chrome and Safari, and so far, Safari is a bit more cooperative…FOR NOW…

At first, I thought it might have been the size of the SVG files I had uploaded. I looked at the original SVG files - and in total, they are less than 100KB big. I upload 2 separate files - one ranging in size between 40-80KB, the other 4KB to one GF file. I click the Print button, and (most often) will hang on “Scanning your material”. I’ve left the browser window open for about 30 minutes - and nothing. I check the status of the GF in the upper right, and it says that it is Uploading…and Uploading…

If I open another browser tab, open GFUI and check the status, it will say that the GF is ready. I try to print the same file again in the new window - and it most likely it will hang again.

I’ve followed the steps @tim1724 posted in the “Scanning your material”…forever thread:

1. Click the “Cancel” button if it’s present and not greyed out. [Most of the time, mine is greyed out…]
2. Open the lid, wait a few seconds, close it again.
3. Turn off the Glowforge (leave the app open), count to ten, turn it back on.
4. Open up the app in another browser, open up a design, wait for it to load, then close that window and go back to my original browser window.

And for the most part that works. But it is a hassle to do that after each cut (especially since I can only get the GF to work with one circle and design at a time, vs. sending multiple files in one project). I have approximately 125 circles with designs to cut.

This seems to be a problem only for me - as my coworkers don’t have the same issue.

My internet is consistent most of the time, but I did try to cut from a different machine that was wired, and I get the same issue.

Any suggestions?

[jbv]

couple of thoughts:
in some cases, especially with lots of separate elements in the file, putting a uniquely-colored box around the entire design and just setting it to ignore in the GFUI can help.

you may have items/errors in the file that render fine in a preview, but that the GF struggles with. If you feel like uploading your file, someone here can inspect it.

@larakaki

(that was a saga in itself…if anyone has a better workflow, I’m all ears!)

If you have a CC version of illustrator and a mobile device, downloading the free Adobe Capture app might help you skip the whole scanner thing.

there are tutorials in the Matrix that could help you out, but not knowing your skill level with photoshop/illustrator I’m not sure which specific tutorials I would recommend… maybe this one?

Tutorial - Preparing a Masked Image for Engraving

This tutorial is long overdue, but I promised a few people I would post it, so here goes. Im doing an engraving ive already done before so you can see some of the different options available when engraving something with a weird shape and an outlined cut. The outline part isnt necessary, but useful in a lot of situations, so this tutorial is a 2-fer. This is the image we are starting with. Im going to be bringing it into photoshop to clean up, and get some of the initial shapes to move into ve…

or

Workflow for Embedding a Raster Image into a Vector File

[larakaki]

Thanks @jbv!

Slight update - I crossed my fingers and toes and cut some of the files I had on medium draftboard. I was able to get 9 done, before it got stuck.

Attached are 2 files:

• anthony no red.svg cut no problem.

• caden m no red.svg - no go.

I did a different drawing with Adobe Capture on my iPad, and it’s cutting right now. It could also be that someone else’s vibe (even over the Internet) causes the GF to work. I’m up for any suggestions.

[Jules]

Files didn’t load…try zipping them first.

[larakaki]

DOH (31.0 KB)

[jbv]

“anthony” has a box around it, while “caden” doesn’t.
I put a circle around “caden” and it seems fine.

(i also deleted a couple of remaining grey spots that I don’t think were supposed to remain)

the GFUI seems to really prefer artwork to be bounded by a closed shape if it has a bunch of loose elements.

If you are getting hung up with multiples, try putting them all in one file, and putting a box around the whole array.

[stephen4]

@jbv is right - @larakaki can you give their suggestion a try and let us know if it works?

[larakaki]

All 125 items have been cut. And it was a combination of various things that made everything work, I think…

Adobe Capture made easy work of converting the drawings on paper into SVGs a snap. I do have 2 issues with Capture, tho:

• You cannot take the photos on one iPad and use another iPad (preferably one with an Apple Pencil) to clean it up with. UGH. Seriously.
• Once I work with a drawing in Adobe Capture (to erase the extra stuff), there is the possibility that after saving it, the quality will degrade…some thin lines got even thinner (or disappeared). I ended up retaking the photo for certain projects to ensure I got the best quality.

I didn’t enclose those SVGs from Adobe Capture, but used a preexisting circle template I had, and uploaded the clean SVGs from Adobe Capture along with the circle template into the GFUI. I made multiple copies of that circle template to enclose each one of the SVGs…and was very successful in cutting. I didn’t do more than 6 at a time, since it took about 10 minutes to engrave and cut each one.

And all 125 cut with no problem. “Gloria” the Glowforge worked overtime these past 5 days. She got her “deep tissue massage” (a really really thorough cleaning), and now is cooperating with everyone.

My best guess at what the issue was that the workflow I initially had (scanning on a copier as a PDF…Photoshop…Illustrator…) added too much info for the GFUI? Weird thing is that I did a similar project on a smaller scale (40 student projects) with that particular workflow (scan on copier as PDF, Photoshop, Illustrator), and I didn’t have any issues.

Not sure if a software or firmware update happened between the projects, but the most important thing is that the job is DONE.

Thank you to all - @jbv, @Jules, @stephen4!

[Xabbess]

@larakaki

“Gloria” the Glowforge

Mine is also named “Glowria”.

[stephen4]

I’m glad you resolved it! I’m going to close this thread. If you run into any other trouble, please start a new topic, or email us at support@glowforge.com. We’re here to help!