Let me just get this straight. We’re all sitting here without the accurate alignment that was advertised as a feature of the machines three years ago when I bought my Pro, which means the highly touted passthrough (that is literally the whole reason I bought a Pro instead of a Basic) may as well not exist. And instead of delivering on features which we paid for and are already supposed to have, you’ve put time into developing a new feature that you may or may not roll out to everyone, and that you might charge us more money for?
That’s one very unfavorable interpretation. I understand why you might feel this way, people get riled about the delays, having been a preorder-er myself, I totally understand.
Another more optimistic interpretation is “we have this thing that lets you align in new ways, but it isn’t what we want for the experience with the passthrough, so we may or may not roll this out.”
Whether or not you believe a more seamless passthrough experience is possible, and that GF still is likely to execute on that and release it, this isn’t their intended end game for passthrough.
That being said, when it comes to snapmarks, I am on the “it ought to be released wide if it works well for everyone” side of the fence. Right now, that’s a big “if”… it might not work on all machines or as well for everyone, in which case, it’d be a support problem. I don’t want features that only work some of the time, you know?
I think Dan said that they came up with Snapmarks as a side effect of the work on passthrough alignment. We don’t know the inside story, but my interpretation of that is that they had to develop and test parts A, B, and C in order to complete the passthrough feature. A is “sub-millimeter” alignment, and this is not so much a detour as a way to release that piece early, while development continues on B and C. Those could be things like the ability to auto-split a design, and buffered streaming of large files.
The passthrough slot is working now, and I find it useful as-is to do things like fit larger sheets of acrylic into the machine, if only to cut them down. If you really need to make something bigger than the current usable area, you can follow one of the jig-based approaches to work around the lack of software support. It’s a pain in the butt, and I agree Glowforge needs to deliver on their promises, but in the meantime a large number of use cases are still possible.
If I’m being completely selfish, I couldn’t care less about the passthrough alignment feature. I have never used it and probably never will. But Snapmarks I will use all the time. It is a vastly more general solution and it can also be used to help align large prints for passthrough use.
I never said I thought this was their end game for the passthrough. My point was that, as much as I appreciate new features and hope to have this snapmarks one, there are still features they sold these machines to us on that do not exist or do not work as well as they ought to.
I personally would rather them focus on delivering those features, promised as a selling point of the machine, over developing new features, as nice as they appear to be. Particularly when not everyone will get the new feature (I just looked and don’t have it), but everyone both basic and pro IS supposed to already have accurate alignment. Passthrough aside, standard bed alignment is way off still, and that is a core feature to my mind, the lack of which is extremely frustrating and makes this machine not what they told me it was going to be in the sales pitch.
it’s still in testing, so even if they will give it to everyone, it wouldn’t have happened yet. the fact that you don’t have it doesn’t mean you won’t.
a new feature that you may or may not roll out to everyone anyone
From what Dan said, anything is possible, including:
It is a great feature and a real bright spot in GF development, but I am just going to wait and see what happens before I start using it. I’d feel much worse getting accustomed to it and losing it than if I never used it at all.
I hope our other dedicated Glowfolk testers provide whatever kind of feedback the company needs to keep the feature alive.
I’m only liking your post because of the perfect cartoon.
Indeed, I am currently in exactly that situation, as I was fortunate enough to test Snapmark until something changed and it no longer works correctly on my machine. Yoink! I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to whine about it since I accepted that risk as a tester. Still not a great feeling.
except you’re not intentionally wasting material for testing.
i get your point, but testing isn’t about production. and not everyone can test or it turns into a nightmare to manage. this is just how software goes for every developer.
Well, it didn’t take long for the bug to get fixed, and since we’ve been given the green light, I figured I’d share some proof that the claims of sub-millimeter accuracy are legit.
Thank you! I have been fighting an unknown neurological virus that nearly robbed me of my vision. The virus is now under control and my vision is slowly returning to normal.
on the Proofgrade 
masking, with precise measurements? Then it would help everyone align images to cut. 
