I believe they are focusing on completion of the filters at the moment. And/or the passthrough alignment software. But don’t know for sure, it’s just a guess. 
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My 2nd replacement machine THANKFULLY came with snapmarks. I was able to do some stuff that I would not have been able to do otherwise with it. It takes no time at all for it to work out where the design should be and It really makes me hope they develop the feature further in the future.
I can follow the logic that they should focus on promised features rather than snapmarks. But at the same time, snapmarks is really just a stop-gap until real passthrough printing works. So if it’s going to be a long time until passthrough is available to everyone, I’d think that snapmarks are worth at least making available as an interim solution.
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Have you run the camera recalibrator yet? (Helps rather a lot with the alignment issues.)
Even with calibration snapmarks have made tricky aligns WAY easier. I was able to align perfect to a jig with the crumb tray out and not have to mess with the design over and over to make it work. I was able to build a jig and engrave 4 sets of 6 dice on each face with snapmarks and I imagine that would be near impossible without the snapmark feature enabled. I can get good aligns with the crumb tray in but with anything thicker the complexity and risk of failure skyrocket without snapmarks.
I really think they should enable it ‘as is’ for everyone, leave it as unsupported (hell, even throw a little note saying as much in the UI) and then revisit it another time
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I agree completely! I had to have a machine replaced. My first one had it and me second one doesn’t. Much easier to align with Snapmarks.
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I’ve just gotten a refurbished Pro as my first broke down. I have had Snapmarks for months, and it’s great! I have designed many of my files that I use for my business around the use of Snapmarks.
Now, I do not have them refurbished on the new machine. It’s really messing me up, I’m furious. I have run the camera calibrator and it’s nowhere near the accuracy or ease of Snapmarks.
Not to mention that they are impossible to communicate with. They can take up to 3 days just to answer a question.
If I had my chance again, I’d save up for an Epilogue Fusion
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I understand your frustration and am not minimizing your anger. Snapmarks was controversial from the beginning - many people wanted it and never got it, some got it then lost it, some got it and it didn’t work and it wasn’t fully supported. The lid camera calibration is pretty accurate for most people, and seems to have improved more users experience than Snapmarks did. Glowforge made it clear from the beginning that it was not necessarily a function that would be available for everyone or forever.
You can still save up for an Epilog Fusion (used on ebay today for $18,000 and up) but there really is no comparison between the two machines. A closer comparison would be an Epilog Zing, but there is still a pretty big price difference.
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Saying that snapmarks are just an interim solution that will be superseded when passthrough is figured out properly is weird. While I’m eagerly awaiting the ‘it just works’ moment on the passthrough, I would find the use of snapmarks on non-passthrough items to be a gigantic improvement in the use of the machine. I need them for …most of my ideas, and anything that is less precise for registration is inadequate. One thing I would use them for constantly is to print them on paper using an inkjet printer, glue that paper to wood or cardboard, then cut out pieces or silhouettes which had already been printed in full color. It’s one of the main things I want to do with the machine. So, devs - please don’t consider systems which make a couple of cool procedures easy but sacrifice the possibility of real engineering precision. If the snapmarks work as well as the testers here say, please complete their development and don’t just consider them a step on the way to something else!
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I don’t have Snapmarks either and am also very disappointed that they were discontinued, but I just want to make sure you’ve seen the calibration tool. It won’t resolve every issue, but combined with the focus tool, it really does allow for fairly precise alignment.
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You could do that now with a jig, though Snapmarks would certainly make it easier and eliminate steps. If it is something you really want to do, I suggest tackling it. They are not going to release a feature any time soon that makes that task easier to accomplish.
Even if we get the passthrough alignment features that Snapmarks were supposedly part of, the odds of that new, mysterious process materially assisting this specific need of yours is slim. We don’t really know for sure what the company is thinking when it says “passthrough support.”
Preach.
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[quote=“GrooveStranger, post:1326, topic:28915”]
You could do that now with a jig, though Snapmarks would certainly make it easier and eliminate steps. If it is something you really want to do, I suggest tackling it. [/quote]
There are things I can do with a jig, I will build jigs for some things, but they wouldn’t actually get the precision that a snapmark would. Here’s why: one thing I want to do is print playing pieces for old-style wargames. So, using a color printer, I print my playing pieces from Inkscape on quality paper. I glue that paper to heavy cardboard or even thin MDF. Using a formerly invisible layer in the Inkscape file, I then cut the pieces out on the Glowforge. With a jig, or much better camera vision, I can get close, but with a snapmark printed on the paper outside the needed area, I can get precise. The reason a jig won’t ever be perfect is that it will align to the edges of the paper, or to the edges of the cardboard. Obviously the cardboard won’t be glued on perfectly, but even if I align to the paper, well, modern inkjet printers have pretty amazing registration, but it’s not perfect.
And sure, the registration I’ll get will be better than what Avalon Hill or Parker Brothers ever got on their die-cut pieces. But why should I settle for pretty good when nearly perfect is possible with this machine if they’ll just unlock the system they’ve already done the development on? And of course, there are other applications where the precision is a matter of more than aesthetic importance.
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If you need to defeat the printer’s own registration issues, then yes, I guess you need Snapmarks. I am surprised that the inkjet is off enough that it is vexing.
I would still suggest looking for an alternative path though, because you are not going to get Snapmarks. Snapmarks is deader than Dillinger, except for the few lucky folks that got to test it and keep it.
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I’m pretty sure this is the part that pisses most people off. If you are going to kill a feature: either do it and remove it from everyone or give it to everyone and say it’s not supported.
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It is definitely harder to be OK with no Snapmarks when so many people still have them and swear by them for the work they do. I really wouldn’t want them taken away from anyone, but still… It was also really challenging to watch people buy their GFs and immediately get Snapmarks while I never got them at all. But what are you going to do? The better calibration and focus have been helpful in that regard. Not perfect, but helpful.
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i’m not sure if never having them or having them and losing them is worse. they were on my original machine, but not on the replacement.
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Never could quite understand why people feel slighted if someone else has something they don’t. I would fully understand if it somehow their benefit took away capabilities from me but that certainly isn’t the case here. Personally, I wouldn’t care if half the folks were lucky enough to get 60W tubes and I only got what was promised. Would I want the better tube? Sure. But can’t see why it should bother me.
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I had them then list them on the new machine then got them back. Haven’t used them since. Jigs work fine for me.
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Can’t say. 
Probably depends on how much you relied on them while you had them.
Picture this:
You’re told show up to this event and you will get a frozen treat.
You buy a ticket and only after you are inside the event you are told to wait in line and that it is ice cream! They also say they may stop serving the ice cream at any time.
You’re waiting in line and other people are randomly selected from that line and they get ice cream.
You’re happy for those that got ice cream, and you watch as they eat it and rave about how good it tastes.
After some time they come out and tell you that they are not really out of ice cream but decided to give you Italian ice inside, they explain that the alternative is just as good as the ice cream.
I am still happy for those that got ice cream, but I still want ice cream too!! 
I feel slighted, but not towards those that got the ice cream, but from those serving it, specially when they have more ice cream…
Sure I am still getting a form of a frozen treat, but it appears to be the lesser of those available.
Frozen treat = Some form of precision alignment.
Ice cream = Snapmarks.
Italian Ice = Camera calibration routine.
Sorry, not sorry.
-G
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