Hey, I know a lot of us have a lot of ideas floating around about how we would like to use our GF in our head and since GF is actively collecting ideas to possibly consider incorporating into the GF experience I figured it would be a good idea to start a forum of ideas that haven’t been brought up yet. These are more software ideas rather than project ideas. Tools and such to be considered to be implemented into the GF it. I’ll go first!
Dot to dot: I know you can draw on the material to make cuts, but (correct me if I am wrong) this traces the line and so any mistakes on your line will transfer onto the cut. What about being able to put a series of dots (via marker) on the material and having the GF cut a straight line from one to the other? (Or curved or something) Alternitivly having a way to smooth out the drawn lines.
Using the GF prior to receiving it: It has been suggested that we get access to the GF software prior to shipping so we can get a handle on the functions. (Which I think is a good idea) But if there was a way for us to send GF headquarters our patterns and have them cut and shipped (all at our expense) so we can get some hands-on experience with not only the software but working out the bugs in our own ideas. This could help GF get their library of plans beefed up and us a chance to get a headstart. But yes, this would be a logistical nightmare.
Without wanting to shoot you down in flames I can’t see how your dot to dot idea would work. For instance, how would the GF know whether you wanted to cut a five pointed star or a pentagon with a pentagonal hole in the middle?
This is what vector graphics software is for - including rounding off the shapes.
And as for idea two, as you say, a logistical nightmare! Can’t see that happening as staff would probably need to be hired.
@JeremyNielsen, I like both ideas, if you could work out how to disambiguate some stuff it might be doable. To the they print for us idea, I love it but what is in it for gf to get them to set up the equipment and man it?
Now my idea : t-shirts! You have just finished the biggest pre-order campaign ever, we need nice t-shirts!
All that would be in it for them would be:
a) we’d pay to have it done. Cover their costs at least. Nothing in bulk. Just test pieces.
b) Qicker growth for their design market, store thingy.
It could be possible by connecting the dots manually in the Glowforge software, in a similar way to how I am guessing it will work when selecting whether to cut or engrave along a line on the material.
Another more tedious way could be to connect the dots in order they are added to the material, byputting the material back in the Glowforge and taking a picture of the material after each dot is made.
False hopes. Free or not, Illustrator CS2 will not install on a 'non-hfs- drive. Not exactly sure what that means, but when I looked it up online, it was said that it won’t install on OS 10.5 or newer…and I am running 10.11. Ah well…onward.
Dan…I may try Inkscape again, but the learning curve for me was very steep. I have been practicing however, using Sketchup, per many recommendations on this forum. Do you know yet whether you might support that, also?
We use sketchup for design, but it’s helpful to be fluent with a 2D tool as well. You can export from Sketchup to Inkscape (via SVG) and for many things it’s faster to work there.
There’s a steep learning curve to Inkscape, but my experience is that learning Illustrator is just as hard, if not more.
These are more software ideas rather than project ideas. Tools and such to be considered to be implemented into the GF it. I’ll go first!