Information on pre-release units

Announcements
102

Hey, we need to help you get back to regular. :+1:

And I really respect your take on all this since you know the business end of making lasers and making things with lasers.

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103

Most people keep a log anyway for going from machine to machine, but ULS and Trotec have saved material settings in their software. I understand why GF would drop this feature down the list though, it’s relatively low impact compared to the rest of the shipping features.

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104

(whimper!)

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105

You know what you told the kids about peer pressure right? Do what’s right for you, because you’re the one who has to live with disappointing someone :slight_smile:

On the other hand, with 1000 signups already, what’s one more to add to the pile and maybe they’ve all been chosen anyway (although I think not from Dan’s response to another post earlier).

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106

I hadn’t applied for the beta units myself. I started to fill out the application and then thought to myself self that I probably at the time couldn’t commit enough time to its use to serve the teams needs. I think now I can and I’m the perfect recipient of a prerelease unit! Just filled out the form…

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107

I’m sure I’ll get one of the pre units because they have to have an old fart in the mix for testing.

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108

Is there a Charlie Bucket in the house? :slight_smile:

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109

You’re absolutely right. Shame on me!

110

When dan keeps mentioning Proofgrade it is probably for two reasons. The most important is that the glowforge has been sold as select a design, place material in unit, press a button. Without Proofgrade materials this doesn’t happen and a glowforge would just be a large, mostly hollow and very expensive brick for a lot of buyers.

For those of us who are engineers/artists/makers, etc… taking time to experiment with materials and really learn their properties is just what we expect. We can pretty much deal with whatever is delivered and improved later. In over a year of following Glowforge the company I’ve never seen any indication they’ll restrict the glowforge to Proofgrade only materials.

And the second reason is the ability to select-place-print-assemble is the difference between Glowforge the company being another DIY tool maker worth millions and the glowforge being the thermonuclear weapon in the pinterest wars and a potential billion dollar company.

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111

From the sounds of the Beta users, they are being supplied with materials to use, and those are all proofgrade. So there just hasn’t been any reason to set aside UI space for saving settings on personal material yet. And with UI being something that changes constantly until release (well, nowadays, just constantly), adding it in would not make much sense.

I agree that it seems like a day 1 feature. And I doubt it would come any later than that (really trivial to implement, as long as they are willing to let it look terrible)

I had been thinking the same “OMG! Dan is normally so tight-lipped, so if he is showing us THIS, they have to be ready NOW!”

But, since the pre-release people will have no NDA… this letter WILL be posted on the forums. If it comes from Dan, people focus on the awesome. If it comes from someone who has never yet posted on the forums at all… who knows what people will focus on?

Not to say I am doom and gloom in my outlook. I am 100% rose tinted glasses mode. But my mind doth parse.

That isn’t exactly what they are saying. They said what is to come is a way to save settings for a specific user defined material. There was no reference about saving settings along with saving a specific job (which is what the few laser interfaces I have seen can do now).

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112

Also, that is in the message for pre-release units.

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113

What you said! :relaxed:

114

You just described my situation exactly :slight_smile:

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115

You will need to make a drawing/flat pattern of your parts to send to GF. Like @jbv said, 123Dmake can slice an otherwise 3D object into a series of 2D ones, but for the time being, GF can’t work directly with 3D files unless something drastic has changed.

The workflow for inventor would be:
Create part file (.ipt)
Create drawing file (.idw)
Export to PDF
or
Save Copy As -> Save as Type [.DXF] when .dxf functionality is up and running.

Note this will only work for parts where your thickness is less than or equal to the material GF is able to cut, 1/4" (or 1/2" with a flip)

EDIT: added “less than or”.

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116

Same here. Now I have the time and a pressing need to turn out a fair number of projects pretty quickly. I could use my CNC, but I’d really rather not. :blush:

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117

@dan so 3 questions first if we get the pre-release unit we will get a production run later on at no cost
second earlier you guys mention a software that you would send us in the event that your company ceased so we could use the printer offline
and third Sounds awesome great job

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118

I can answer that truthfully in that the letter Dan posted is what I received. [quote=“dan, post:1, topic:3590”]
If you choose to receive a pre-release unit, it will remain our property. We might need to make changes or improvements. We will replace it later with the production unit you ordered
[/quote]

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119

thanks and my big one is that offline software?

120

Do you get Beta User near your name?

121

How that is going to be done is still to be determined. I haven’t seen anything new on that topic for a while. Check out topics that say “firmware release”.

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