Introducing Snapmark (September 2018)

[briski]

I just read fiducials and I know everything I need to know. Same as PCB stencle…

[dan]

@GrooveStranger

These are big issues and it is too bad that they could not have been resolved before the announcement. To bill a feature as “magical” but also say that it might not even be released… Or that I may have to purchase it for an unknown price… That is a heck of a mixed message and it certainly changes my interest level in learning how to use the feature.

We can’t make this decision until we see how it performs in the wild, so I’d rather be forthright and share our uncertainty than surprise folks later. That said, I wish I had a definitive answer too.

@briski

I just read fiducials and I know everything I need to know. Same as PCB stencle…

exactly right.

[henryhbk]

@briski

I just read fiducials and I know everything I need to know. Same as PCB stencle

Or in my world radiation therapy…

[jgf]

Or in nanolithography to go down the length scale…

[henryhbk]

@jgf

nanolithography

I’ve sent patients for lithotripsy, but never lithography (nano or macro)…

[victaonline]

This is amazing. I already have a couple of things I can use it on.

[jgf]

Breaking the stones is good for the patients. Breaking your silicon wafer is bad for your yield.

[shop]

@dan

The specific Snapmark feature has a different set of strengths and weaknesses than visual alignment, though. Snapmark is more complex to use than simple visual alignment, but faster for repeat use once configured.

i’m not sure how GF or the users can see this as a negative. yes, snapmarks aren’t for everything and probably not for most projects. but when you do have a project that makes use of needing to remove an object for some reason before engraving/cutting again or to make multiple sets in jigs, the snapmarks are what makes that work consistently.

[rpegg]

Snapmarks work quite well but require a little bit more attention. Thinking whether the company decides to keep the feature will depend on whether folks overload the Support staff when something doesn’t work as they expected. If the user understands how it works and follow a couple of steps carefully, it works great.

[paulw]

Snapmarks require some extra attention, and they make the first cut (if you’re using a jig) take longer, but they’re sweet. I’ve gotten some pretty good results with them, and the 13-year-old took about a half hour to be more proficient with them than I am.

I like them a lot.

Oh, and if I can get the material-height issues under control I think I can use them to expand the effective area of the basic to 17x19".

[henry]

@dan

accurate to within a millimeter

Depending on how much “within” is. Just a reminder that although it sounds really small, for fractional thinkers, a millimeter is still bigger than 1/32" which in terms of parallelism for example, is huge. Personally I don’t think of this as premium…still better than what we have now however.

[chris1]

I can’t wait to see what everybody does with this feature. It definitely requires thinking through and understanding how to set up the work to get the best results, but I bet someone will come up with a completely novel use for it within the first week.

[takitus]

Oh I’ve already got a few uses for it =). I’ve just been out of town for the last week. Hopefully should have something posted this weekend for people to play with

[acordaro02]

If any beta testers are willing, I would love to see more screenshots on how it all looks on the computer screen and the steps involved or even a YouTube video.

[teditz]

This sounds great!! Visually alignment still isn’t great! Look forward to trying it.

[Jules]

If it’s okay with @dan, I’ve got a few screen shots.

(But we haven’t been told whether to take it public yet, so I’d like to get permission to post them…they might prefer to do their own instructions and not have us muddy the waters up front.)

[gregk2]

As I had many a “fun” time trying to align multiple blank dice for engraving, Snapmark would be an awesome addition to how difficult alignment is now. I’m hoping @dan you can give us more info. into this feature sooner than later. It might stop some ranting/raving and lost materials due to misalignment.

Also, as a gamer, the benefit of creating prototypes and using the Glowforge for cutting out templates of photo quality cards/components would be awesome! After printing hi-res on double sided with almost perfect registration, having miscuts due to camera misalignment in the Glowforge has left me going back to a manual guillotine cutter. This would speed up the process significantly.

Thanks for the news.

[acordaro02]

Jules, you are so thoughtful to ask… this is why you are a beta tester!

[jamesdhatch]

@henry

Depending on how much “within” is.

I found it to be unmeasurable & non-discernable to the naked eye. Dead nuts on. I could score the same thing a dozen times and not see either space between lines or even thickening of the score. I finally stopped trying to see if it would be spot on and just assumed it would be and moved on with my projects.

48 plaques and 240 coasters later, it became second nature.

My GF was just super accurate (but it needed to go back to the mothership so crossing my fingers for the next one to be great as well).

[Tom_A]

I just want to offer my 37 cents here. (That’s 2 cents with some inflation over the years.)

My guess, based on the repeated use of the word “complicated,” is that the questions of will the feature stick around, go to all, etc, will be based on support needs. If that guess is even partially correct, I suggest a couple of things…

1. Glowforge seems to be routinely surprised by their customer base. To put it bluntly, I think sometimes they underestimate us. I don’t mean as bad as it might sound, that they have a low opinion of our capabilities or something, just that they do genuinely seem surprised sometimes. Thing is, we’re a pretty capable bunch, from all walks of life. GIVE US COMPLICATED. We’re okay with it. If absolutely need be, spell out a feature as “AS-IS and UNSUPPORTED.” Kind of like Microsoft’s Sysinternals or Power Toys stuff or things similar to those.

2. As everybody’s aware, the community support system is nothing short of amazing. I’ve both helped and been helped countless times. One thing that might assist Support is, remember back in the day, in the before-time, there used to be a “Solved” option? Before “Problems and Support” existed there was something like “Questions and Answers” or something like that. And folks who asked questions could mark an issue as Solved or Answered or the like. Basically the equivalent to “I don’t need any further assistance on this issue. Case closed.” Not sure whatever happened to that, but it seems like that could help alleviate some Support pressure. I’ve seen so many times where all Support has done is say “Thanks, @rpegg, that is the correct answer.” (That’s no dig on Support! Just that the issue was solved before they had a chance to get to it!) So it’s a waste of time for Support to even look at it since the user’s issue was already resolved. It might free up Support staff if that “Solved” feature is brought back and applied to Problems and Support.

I do very much hope this feature (or something similar) gets distributed to the masses. We need it.

Meh… Thanks for reading my little rant. Sorry it went on so long. Only got 2 hours sleep last night. Hard to make smart words go goodly.

Update
It looks like they’ve put back in the “Solved” option into Problems and Support. I suggest we all use it. It will only serve to help both customer and Support.