Introducing Snapmark (September 2018)

I did not miss those messages. I just think that to complete my rant, it is the most ridiculous and potentially damaging to branding idea of how to run a beta that I have ever heard in over 20 years in high tech.

I very much would like to buy another Glowforge Pro MKII one day, and for that to be possible I need them to be successful. To that end, just release the dang feature so I can get my wife off my back and so I don’t have to drop mine from a crane on Youtube.

Thank you.

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I sincerely hope this isn’t taken as unfair criticism, but I’d like to humbly request that this thread be used for discussion and troubleshooting of Snapmarks. The many messages posted to this thread asking to have Snapmarks activated or complaining that they’re not activated are starting to outnumber the on-topic posts.

I share everyone’s frustration that I haven’t been able to use Snapmarks yet, and I’d likely add a “me too” post to a separate thread stating as much. I’m just asking that we keep this thread more on-topic.

Best to all of you,
Rod

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Seconded. If only because it’s really easy to miss the posts of folks who need help if the conversation wanders too far astray.

Maybe creating a second “Requests for Snapmarks” thread in the Everything Else category would allow people to express their desires in one easy to locate place.

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Hey I already ranted above but I’m 100% with you there.

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My worry is getting Snapmarks and having to dig through all the thousand posts trying to understand the issues and answers that I missed when not having it.

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Couple of things you can try.

First, take the drumsticks out of the jig while you’re snapping, you can place them after the design has been snapped. (Make sure you have the jig anchored down. You don’t want it to shift.)

Make sure when you snap to the snapmarks, that you are using the height of the jig material in the Unknown Materials slot, not the height of the sticks.

When you do the snapping, look down on the machine bed, watch closely, and make sure that the little red dot during the auto-focus process is landing on the jig, and not off to the side. You have the snapmarks awfully close to a “dropoff” on both sides. Leaving a little more space to the left and right of the printed snapmarks on your jig might take care of the problem. (Or you can run a strip of tape around the outside of the jig so the beam doesn’t fall off the edge into the grid.)

If you do get a successful snap, open the lid, put the sticks in the holes, then do one more thing. Change the focal point for the engrave operation to match the height of the sticks. (Change it in the Manual settings area.)

I think all you’ll probably need to do is cut a new jig and leave more space between the edges and the snapmarks.

And you might want to read through these notes.

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Thirded

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Hey! I don’t recognize that icon. Who is this impersonating @Xabbess?! :wink:

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So many people want to help you. But you bought this machine based on what it can do without Snapmark. It’s not a published thing and most definitely not required for use. You’re clearly having some problem(s?) using it as intended, but you’re not asking for any help. Just ask (in another thread) and you’ll be good to go!

I don’t watch many YouTube videos… but I’d watch that one!

Sorry for my above post. Just wanted to offer help one more time. But I totally agree that this should no longer be a request/complaint thread.

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'Tis I…not new, but a more current me

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Thanks Jules!!! as always, very helpful!

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Is there any update on the snapmark feature? I’m a graphic designer, and registration is key for many of my designs. Right now I am scoring my own and then lining up by eye and trial and error. It’s imprecise and time consuming, certainly not workable for a production run.

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As it has been over 6 months, and I like many are still waiting patiently for Snapmarks, it is frustrating. I’ll keep my little rant small. I hoped that Santa would bring it, but it didn’t happen. I promise I was good last year. Honestly, can we please get a response from @dan on the status of the beta feature. Rolling out a feature that needs to be singularly specced to the metrics of each machine seems a crazy way to implement some future updates.

Phew. All done. Now back to your usual channel. Apologies.

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common core maths?

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I think it was September 5th of last year that Dan announced Snapmarks. That’s what I meant by over 6 months. But, then again, who’s counting? :grinning:

LOL, you, but it was the 18th and on the 18th that will be 5 months. If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a trillion times not to exaggerate. Anyway, yes, it was probably a mistake on :glowforge: part to announce them until everyone could have them at once but I’m sure they did not anticipate the mythos that would grow up around them.

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I had snapmarks for a while, and lost them when I had to exchange my machine. They were very handy, and I’d love to have them back, but honestly they didn’t let me do anything I couldn’t already do; they just made it a little bit faster. So I’ll be happy when I eventually (hopefully) get them back, but I’m not handicapped in the meantime.

There have been some great ways posted in the forums that you can use to nail down your registration without having to use trial and error. If you take some time to read through the Tips and Tricks section you’ll get lots of great ideas, depending on the types of project you do.

I use a lot of jigs, myself:

You can also make a crumb tray ruler for exact visual positioning (there are a lot of these; this is just the first one I found):

And to nail it down even more, you can use these to make sure your tray is always in the same place:

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It’s still in beta - we’ll let everyone know when the status changes.

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I am absolutely loving using Snapmarks! I do also have to echo what others have said: not having them should not stop you. I was doing precision alignments before, it’s just different now. using fixtures and jigs, a quick measurement, and running a test on cheap draftboard is a good practice and normal for any laser cutter. It’s like kids nowadays complaining if their smartphones take less than .5 seconds to return a search. It’s magical, give a second! I’m very appreciative, all the hard work being done in Glowforge HQ is paying off! and…we get it all magically delivered to our machines as an update. Also, I love the new main screen and run screen. Keep up the good work!!!

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Glad you are enjoying them. We’ve had our machine about 8 months now (our replacement - the first one died in a week…) and none of the fun. Well, if you call cutting a cardboard jig every time we want to place something fun, then we’re having that.

We bought based on all the cool videos. None of the videos showed how hard it was to line anything up or repeat anything with accuracy. Left that bit out, they did. So, for @Tom_A - we bought on what they sold us, and they sold us short… @dan - with so many successful users, what the heck?