My Glowforge Basic just came today, and after making the Glowforge Ruler, I decided to let my younger 3 children (13, 11, 6) use the trace function.
I thought that the trace functionality was just a gimmick, and that I would never use it because I am familiar with computers and they are more precise.
However, my children are in love now with the three creatures that they made out of wood by just drawing shapes.
So, @dan You have my apologies. You were right, and I was wrong…
I love hearing stuff like this! I did the same thing with my grandsons when I first got the PRU. We spent the entire evening doing traces and we all had a ball. Very cute!
Yes, this one of the major innovations. Dosen’t mean that much to a lot of people, but the kids are enabled to participate. I mean, what armament do you have against the creative imagination and enthusiasm of your child? A wonderful introduction to making… with the coolest tool there ever was.
Love it when the family embraces the creativity!! Those are some pretty cool shspes!!
Every year we switch off who gets to choose a theme for the xmas tree. The laser is a much used tool for ornament decor.
That is awesome! If your kids are anything like mine those cuts are just the beginning. one of my kids favorite things to do is to look at the cool things people make here on the forum as well as laser cut things on Pinterest. They are ooooing and aweeeing a lot lately. They are especially excited about the trace function. They are drawing pictures all the time. I can’t wait until my arrives and we can make some of their drawings come to life.
My kids have also been playing with trace today…partly, I think, because they’re headed back to school tomorrow and want to show off some art to their friends.
They were also headed to a birthday party yesterday, and had me throw this together for their friend…everybody’s enjoying the laser!
I’ve found that sometimes you end up liking the gimmick the best. I think most of what I do with my GF will be computer-based precision imagery for usable items. But… the items that will be most cherished will be those created using the trace function.
So I thought… “Yeah… I’ll maybe buy some Proofgrade. But who really cares.” Wrong! Buy Proofgrade!
And the other day I was thinking “I’m never gonna buy anything from the catalog.” And then I laughed and thought “Yeah… I’m probably wrong about that, too. Shut up now.”
I’m already having to tell myself that I’ll only buy something that I’m going to make right now and not just because something looks cool. Seeing what this community has already shown, there is going to be a LOT of things I’m going to want, but I’m hoping that I won’t buy it until I’m actually ready to make it.
On the Silhouette, I thought the store was just a gimmick. But they gave a gift certificate for the store with the unit. I tried it out, and realized that paying a couple of bucks for a design that would cut well I could incorporate into designs was a huge bargain in terms of time.
one of my kids favorite things to do is to look at the cool things people make here on the forum as well as laser cut things on Pinterest. They are ooooing and aweeeing a lot lately. They are especially excited about the trace function. They are drawing pictures all the time. I can’t wait until my 
arrives and we can make some of their drawings come to life.