Layers that go offscreen become inaccessible (no scroll bar?)

[PrintToLaser]

The head has the ability to read UV, and the intent is to eventually have the codes printed directly on the mask. Right now the proofgrades are beta.

[myth]

Ooh, good to know; thanks! That will be nice.

Ok, so, how about in the meantime letting us download a PDF of all the barcodes, so that I could just print them out on card stock on my laser printer and not fuss with peeling them off like this? The peeled sticker is curly and wants to stick up above the material; I’m afraid the head will catch it. (Have been taping it down, which is also fussy.)

[Jules]

You can click on the name of the material at the top of the far left column and the values will pull up and populate the fields automatically. Has a Search, or you can just enter the material thickness in inches for Unknown Materials.

[marmak3261]

I remember struggling with that issue when using an iPad and trying to scroll down through the operations that appear on the left menu.

There have been some robust discussions about how to efficiently access the operations thumbnails on the left column.

My forever machine

Funny, that was one of my first suggestions to Support when I got the PRU. That would have been easy to incorporate in the manual (I think ). Also, the use of the scrolling wheel to move through the thumbnails when you’re doing lots of colors for operation separation.

As a side note: I have noted that people refer to them also as layers. I understand that this comes from using design software that puts different objects in different layers and also I believe from how other lasers might call the different objects and operations.

For what it’s worth, my preference, and what has been most common on the forum has been to call those thumbnails as operations and not layers. It might make it easier to search the forums for previous references to this issue.

[Tom_A]

@marmak3261

For what it’s worth, my preference, and what has been most common on the forum has been to call those thumbnails as operations

Yeah. It’s funny. I always call them “objects.” Can get really confusing if you think of, or refer to them as layers.

[marmak3261]

Yep. The tricky thing is that one operation can have many separate objects or discrete shapes that are treated as one object as far as selection goes.

The left hand thumbnails are referring to the settings that go into making a discrete operation when you press print. As you know, (but those who don’t have a GF might not) they are applied to whatever object(s) are are of the same fill color or stroke color.

[jeremiah]

For the warping issue: try using magnets to hold the piece down, if you have some blank room on your substrate.

[myth]

@Jules

You can click on the name of the material at the top of the far left column and the values will pull up and populate the fields automatically. Has a Search, or you can just enter the material thickness in inches for Unknown Materials.

I was aware of that selector, but I previously had issues with searching for “medium hard maple hardwood” (which is what the sticker says) and it not locating that as a choice. I see now that the app calls it “medium maple hardwood” instead, but just now when I tried searching for both terms they both came up, so I have no idea why I didn’t find it previously.

@Tom_A

For what it’s worth, my preference, and what has been most common on the forum has been to call those thumbnails as operations

Yeah. It’s funny. I always call them “objects.” Can get really confusing if you think of, or refer to them as layers.

I get that it’s a Glowforge thing to rename commonly understood concepts… cutting is printing and packing is shipping, apparently… but I fail to see how calling them layers is at all confusing. That said, it is good to know that people are calling them something else or I would be the one who was confused (and knowing that for search is extremely relevant).

For what it’s worth, “layers” makes perfect sense to me. Each square is a set of operations that applies to the objects on that layer, so operations + objects adds up to a layer… you can’t do anything with objects that don’t have operations assigned to them, and operations without an object to apply to are equally useless. Y’all each have hold of a different end of the elephant, by my thinking.

@jeremiah

For the warping issue: try using magnets to hold the piece down, if you have some blank room on your substrate.

I have a lot of magnets around but I’m not sure if any of them would be strong enough to pull this flat, as small as it is. Worth a shot though; thanks! If they are sitting on top of the board, though, is there no danger of the head hitting them?

[jeremiah]

@myth

If they are sitting on top of the board, though, is there no danger of the head hitting them?

I use smallish neodymium magnets, which are incredibly powerful for their size. I have only been forging the 1/8" wood, but with magnets it is no problem. I have put some 1/2" stuff in my forge without an issue.

[jbmanning5]

@myth

For what it’s worth, “layers” makes perfect sense to me. Each square is a set of operations that applies to the objects on that layer, so operations + objects adds up to a layer…

The confusion lies in that most design programs also use “layers”. The user interface doesn’t really care about layers in your design software - only what the components of the SVG are (bitmap, stroke, fill, location). Subsequently, I can design in layers in my design software and have, for example, an object on every single layer with a red stroke. Those will be grouped as an operation in the UI irrespective of the layers of my actual design file.

[Tom_A]

@myth

I fail to see how calling them layers is at all confusing.

It’s because there are no layers in the GFUI. It’s all flat. To think of them or call them layers does confuse people. And then you explain that everything’s based on color, and never layer. And then people start to get it. If you have 27 layers of all the same color, the whole thing will be treated as one “operation.” However, if you have 1 layer of 27 colors, you can have 27 different operations. So “layers” simply isn’t a thing in the Glowforge world (at this time).

[dwardio]

@Tom_A

If you have 27 layers of all the same color, the whole thing will be treated as one “operation.” However, if you have 1 layer of 27 colors, you can have 27 different operations.

That’s about the clearest explanation of this I’ve seen @Tom_A!

For what it’s worth, @myth, this drove me nuts six months ago , but after @marmak3261 et al figured out the palette magic, I’ve found it to be amazingly useful – I can organize the objects in AD & AI using traditional layers, plus gain almost infinite granularity in control of the settings. For me it’s a win-win. YMMV, of course — everyone’s use cases are different.

[marmak3261]

The horse is still living, so I should tread lightly on this. It certainly makes sense to call them layers if you have a stack of objects on top of each other in the design file and you want to process them differently, say one the cut of the circle, then the front engrave of a token and then another layer of a different color for the reverse after the flip.

When the forum was first starting out, understanding terminology for those who haven’t seen a Glowforge, seen the GFUI, and no experienceof the workflow of setting up a print was very difficult. Yes, we were all blind describing the elephant. As the beta units came out, glimpses of the GFUI were posted and the pre-releases went into the wild, it was quite the challenge to describe in words what was going on to people who could only imagine. Regardless of the neologisms or repurposing words for different contexts, settling on a common vocabulary and using the terms that @Dan used and support used in the emails back and forth during the pre-release phase was pretty important.

It remains, as we all see, a continual process. As ever, trying to be helpful but not authoritative.

[kittski]

@myth

If they are sitting on top of the board, though, is there no danger of the head hitting them?

Like Jeremiah said, the thin neodymium magnets work well and are typically low enough to avoid the head. But yes, you have to be careful as they can interfere with the head and ruin a cut. (I speak from experience )

I couldn’t get the magnets to hold down one piece of warped wood and I came up with this. Magnets are easier, but it worked

I tamed the warp! (Springs and cotter pins to the rescue)

**Don’t be silly when using springs under tension in your GF. Fair warning if you try it and something goes wrong. Magnets weren’t keeping a piece of warped wood down so springs and cotter pins to the rescue. The pins fit nice and snug and the spring really does the trick flattening things out. The long spring needs to be about 1" -2" longer to be perfect and I’m going to see if one size up in pins might be better. I like the low profile of it though and seems to work well so far. The suc…

[jbv]

@marmak3261

It certainly makes sense to call them layers if you have a stack of objects on top of each other

@jbv

I think of the “thumbnails of distinct operations as defined by color, oriented vertically along the left side similar to the way that AI displays layers” as layers.

layer /ˈlejɚ/ verb

: to form or arrange parts or pieces of something on top of each other : to form or arrange (something) in layers**

step /ˈstɛp/ noun

[count] : one of a series of actions that are done to achieve something
[count] : a stage in a process

operation /ˌɑːpəˈreɪʃən/ noun

[count] : a set of planned actions for a particular purpose
[count] : a single action performed by a computer

Unless the vertical list of unique color-separated design elements is actually visibly labeled as something specific* in the UI or moved to a horizontal layout (please no), or an option to “sort by element color” vs “sort by design-software-layer” (maybe for the promised AI plugin?) is added, I think that plenty of people are going to continue to call them layers and plenty of others will call them steps or operations and all will be correct as far as the dictionary definitions of the words apply.

*“without a key, a map is just a drawing”

[orozcodoor]

Is it a Windows laptop? I just finally got around to looking at AutoHotkey (www.autohotkey.com). It lets you create your own hotkeys, including being able to make hotkeys that act as WheelUp and WheelDown. The scripting language seems a little wonky, but it also seems pretty powerful- you can make it so hotkeys apply to certain named windows (or programs). Below is a script that makes Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down work like the mousewheel, but only on this specific page of the forum (as Chrome on my machine has the window named…)

#IfWinActive Layers that go offscreen become inaccessible (no scroll bar?) - Problems and Support - Glowforge Owners Forum
^up::
 Send, {WheelUp}
Return
^down::
 Send, {WheelDown}
Return

I don’t know what the GFUI window is called, but you could make it so your hotkeys are only active there.

[tem]

“Operations” make more sense to me than using the word “layer” in the context you have described. One is either cutting, or engraving, and maybe cutting and engraving areas of the material.

[marmak3261]

Evidently they are called the “steps bar” sometimes. Seems like a bad place for a bar, with all that drinking and stuff, people could fall down those steps.

Glowforge app taking 15-30 min to render files

Thanks for letting us know. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience. It looks like the file is a little complex, but we have a trick you can use to help it render much faster: Open your design in your design software Draw a box around the design. Give it a stroke that is a different color than the rest of the design. Upload the design to the Glowforge app and open it. The design will open, but everything inside the box will be grouped. Set the box to be ignored in the steps bar and configure the s…

[jaz]

Thanks to everyone who helped, especially @dwardio and @PrintToLaser.

I’m sorry you had trouble with the UI, but thank you for your suggestions and for sharing your experience. I’ll capture what’s here and make sure to get it to the rest of the team. Your feedback is so valuable to us!