So this new feature has me dead in the water I click on ok got it and it does not proceed in fact the only way it progresses is for me to abandon the page Iām working on an iPad Pro
So those of us that were some of the first supporters of Glowforge and waited over 2 years for a product based on what 'āwould be possibleā are now going to be charged extra to get the āwould be possibleā performance we were promised? I am very disappointed and frankly a bit disgusted that we funded and supported the development of the company and product and now you want more.
Please read the announcement againā¦I think you have misunderstood. The features that we already have will be continued at no cost. The features that are being offered at a cost are new ones and were never ones that were offered or promised in the beginning.
I felt the need to come to the forum to express my frustration over the fact that Glowforge somehow felt it was ok to actually charge for updates to software that should always be free. I didnāt spend $7500 (CAD) so I can spend more on a monthly basis to use the software. The very thought of this is ludicrous, to be completely blunt. This is quite literally a deal breaker for me, and if I went back in time to when I was shopping for a laser cutter, this would have absolutely swayed my decision toward another machine. I feel very strongly about this. The software was already lacking to begin with, providing VERY limited functionality. All of a sudden Iāve become aware that the Glowforge team has been focusing their efforts not on how to make the software better for their customers, but how to monetize it and make even more money. It might have been warranted if the company was struggling financially and had to find ways to sustain itself, but Iām certain this is not the case. The Glowforge business model is not the first of its kind (Inventables comes to mind), and I havenāt heard of others doing this. The Glowforge software should absolutely be free for life, along with all its updates! I know one of the goals of this free ābetaā is to gauge community response and push-back (if any). Well, this is my response, and I feel very strongly about it and hope others will follow suit.
I recently launched a second new business, and although this is my first laser cutter, it was certainly not going to be my last, so Iāll be perfectly clear: If Glowforge decides to proceed with this decision, I will absolutely guarantee that this will be my last Glowforge purchase.
I hope this message reaches the Glowforge team. Thank you and please stay safe.
EDIT: Whoa whoa, I just used the app again for a few minutes, and I had to come back and add thisā¦
Are you being serious right now? You want to charge me to be able to flip an image vertically and horizontally? You consider this to be a premium feature? You donāt think one of the most basic features of an app includes flipping an image horizontally/vertically? I am absolutely speechless.
While Iām hereā¦ you want me to pay so I can write text, draw a line, a square and a circle? These features cost more to develop?
I have to say, I donāt feel good at all about the future of this app, because now I know the developers will be hard at work releasing updates to the paid members and throw us āfreeā users the crumbs once in a while. I certainly would not pay a subscription to use the so-called premium features, even if just to prove a point, even if it was $1/month. I sincerely hope this does not come to fruition.
It was only ever promised to be a printer driver. Any editing has always Been said to be done in your design program.
Go look at your paper printer driver and how much editing capability does it have?
Pretty sure itās less than what the browser gives you for free here. Gonna call hp or canon and complain you canāt rearrange text or images, or completely revamp individual pieces of a part that you want to print of a diagram onto paper?
Any idea what the cost will be once it is out of beta?
Itās in the update:
We donāt have pricing or a launch date yet, but we will let you know how much it will cost at least a month before the free trial ends.
I share much of your sentiment. Perhaps the concept of an all in one device with software upgrades was too much to ask for.
Hopefully we can make it work for us in the long run.
I will admit, prior to purchasing my Pro, I did think that the Trace Feature was actually the now āCreate Outlineā feature. I was deeply disappointed in finding out what the Trace Feature actually was, and have since not used it in the 1 year Iāve had my forge.
Now the new āCreate Outlineā feature is exactly what I wanted, and I could use it every single day. I even purchased another 3rd party design kit, that was to do the outlining for you - it failed to operate correctly. I have so far been very impressed with the outline created by Glowforgeās tool. It is exactly what I want. Sad I paid as much as I did, to have to pay extra for a feature I thought I was getting when I bought the machine.
Besides that the rest is pretty cool. I could see charging for access to the vectors as you pretty much pay for most vectors anyways, except for the supplied vectors are basic and will likely always be, so that means everyone who uses them will produce similar generic stuff. So maybe a 1 time purchaseā¦ $50-$100. That I could handle, but something like $15-20/m or more for the life of my machine? I donāt think so. I love to play video games! But I donāt play any if they require a subscription - not worth it.
Thereās nothing in Premium that I canāt do with my usual design softwareā¦ but it would have been awfully considerate to offer a free subscription to those of us who backed you way back in 2015.
I would like to see improvements to the UI and Library, but not sure why we have to pay a premium. Half of the premium features are done in our vector/bitmap programs. I have in the past wished there was a way to flip easilyā¦that will now cost money for a logical UI function. Iād love to see a search of our past jobs, but you added a premium search of premium icons/images instead. I just am not a fan of this at all. Add the fonts and images to the glowforge store but not taking up space in the interface that people cant use unless they pay. If nothing else, make it an option to remove ALL premium buttons on the interface and let us anchor or move the new position window that sits in the way.
I am wondering when you will do alignment tools?
I have also noticed that there are a few people unhappy about the āupgradesā to the software. I have to say I am new to my forge but am not new to illustrator. I have noticed some quarks when bringing in Svgās. This one reason I asked about the alignment as an add on tool. There is nothing more frustrating than getting everything placed in illustrator and then when it comes into the glowforge app stuff is out of alignment. This is a bit annoying when you want to do repeated production work. Now as I said I am new so maybe I am missing something so please feel free to educate me.
As for paying a subscription for the app I am not in used to this as I have embroidery sewing software and also longarm quilt software I have paid a small kings ransom to stay up to date with over 20 years. But a promise is a promise and is sure seams this is rubbing people the wrong way.
Silhouette software For the paper/vinyl cutter is pretty reasonable and has this this feature built in. Also you can save as a good if I remember correctly.
This is likely your SVG settings. Click into more options when you are saving the document and make Responsive is unchecked, and decimals - if using inches i would set to 4, if metric 2 should be fine. The decimal field is precision related, and how many decimal places will be used in placing elements. The default is 1, I believe - which can result in a noticeable offset depending on if itās rounding up or down.
Also, you might try using a 12x20ā art board for all of your designs as the default.
Just note that some things canāt be that big as thatās the full motion area for the head. It needs room to slow down and speed up when doing engraving so the usable space may be smaller. Slowing down an engrave can increase the usable area as the head needs less room to decelerate and accelerate. Of course it will also take longer to do a job.
But those settings will be recognized by the GFUI as ābed sized aspect ratioā and the other settings mentioned will help cement proper results.
Exactly, considering most of the craft/vinyl cutters have more capable software that allows you to do basic edit/alignments and that software comes with the machine and is updated for free, its pretty appauling that glowforge is trying to pull an adobe and get you to pay monthly for this bs, and oh what basic bs it is, as you mentioned in your update.
Funny thing is OTHER laser cutter companies/cnc companies, have already started to include this type of software for free with their product to make their product more functional and useable by their existing customers, which then highlights the fact that new customers have a idea of what you can really do and how easy it is to use the machines, glowforge on the other hand is the complete opposite, and only seem to be interested in getting you to drip feed them money over time so they donāt have to innovate any longer. Glowforge might have been the company to spark the idea of a desktop lasercutter, but just like makerbot they are now the worst when it comes to being the leader in their core community. VERY DISAPPOINTED, whenever this thing breaks, Iāll be looking elsewhere for my next laser cutter. ( i mean still after all this time basic alignment is still an issue! jesus just give us a x/y coordinate system we can use instead of the ācamera alignmentā)
Can you not just type it in, as well as pick a corner or center?
Not sure what other software youāre talking about. I know of the big 3, the software has been historically weak, at a much larger entry level monetarily. I know Trotec is beta testing some new software, and the Epilog has made a couple of strides in things like having a camera available (the camera option on all of those 3 is about the same price as a Glowforge).
It sounds to me like they are wanting to use the revenue from the subscription model to accelerate development of features. Where did it say or imply they would stop innovating?
not to mention, you bought the GF knowing it didnāt have that software. it feels pretty audacious to claim that theyāre doing you wrong by not just giving it to you for free. those craft vinyl cutters all advertise the free software when you buy them.
you donāt have to buy the subscription. the machine will continue to work at least as well (probably will continue to improve, since there will be plenty of improvements/upgrades that arenāt part of the subscription) as when you purchased it.
ĀÆ\(ć)/ĀÆ
Inkscape is free and works like a charm with the GF.