New Years Update (Jan '17)

[dan]

@palmercr

Why is that?

They choose not to, for a variety of reasons - the most common reason being that their employers have asked them not to. Lots of very well-known companies bought Glowforges for business use, and they never appear on the forum.

[dan]

@dawime

Are the units in people’s hands from the production line at flex or from previous builds out to people?

All units shipping now were built at Flex, but I’m not totally sure I understand your question.

@brianfroelund

Could you let us know approximately how many pre-release units have been shipped out as of now?

No, we’re not planning any announcements right now about number of units shipped.

@scampa123

@dan What is the app that you used to create the tool spinner? Was that Illustrator?

Yes! Illustrator can occasionally be frustrating for precise design. For example, it doesn’t have as robust support for snapping features to other features like CAD software typically does. It’s designed for “if it looks good it is good” visual applications.

But once you get the knack of it, it works great.

[millersw.628]

Electrician installed the dedicated circuit today (along with a bunch of other things we needed worked on) can’t wait to get my hands on one!!!

[chris9]

That’s disappointing, couldn’t you add it in to the pack we get as a New Years / Christmas present

[jbv]

if it is in the design catalog then we can use the ‘apology credits’ to buy it…

[chris9]

or Google Sketch Up though I do sometimes struggle with Sketchup so maybe Fusion 360 would be a good place to start as @Jules suggested. I have yet to try it out my self for my CNC machine but by all accounts it looks good and has some cool functions.

[chris9]

good call, didn’t think of that

[scampa123]

@Jules

he latest Illustrator Sal. You can get accurate measurements with it. Another good one is Fusion360 if you want to go 3D, and it’s free for hobbyist use.

Thanks Jules, I do use Fusion360 for building things for 3D printing. Can we export something from Fusion for use in the Glowforge? I’ve only downloaded the .STL for my designs…I may need to check out Illustrator if that is the way to go for this…

[Jules]

You export the sketches as DXF (one right click operation on the left-hand browser column in F360) and then covert to SVG in some other program like AI or Inkscape.

Not too bad and eventually the interface will probably handle DXF directly.

[Tom_A]

See this post…

Fusion 360 to Glowforge workflow

With the help of @marmak3261 and @Jules I have prepared a short tutorial on F360 to glowforge workflow. It is in PDF so I don’t have to fight the forums formatting. I don’t have a GF so there could be mistakes due to that even with @marmak3261 generous help. As with all things GF, this is a moving target and subject to change. F360 to Glowforge workflow 2.pdf (932.1 KB)

[james_scheffler]

Thanks for staying on top of the updates - it really does mean a lot.

[Tex99]

Great to get the update - keep up the communications.

[jamingaroutte]

Thanks for the update! The more I see and hear from you guys, the more excited I get. (Sweet spinner! Love the video)

[hansena]

Thank you Dan!

[jeremiah]

Thanks for the update. Question, is there a way to determine cutting order for pieces? In the video, it looks like it cut the outside of the tool holder before it finished cutting all the circle bits. The outside part falls down, since it is done cutting, and then it finishes the inner circles. I would think that falling of the piece would make it out of line with the laser a little bit. Is there a way to tell the machine to do the inside bits first?

[wesleyjames]

Déjà vu?

[marmak3261]

You can order the operations as you wish on the various parts. It all depends how you designate the different objects by separate colors in the design file. The design file for this might have only been one color since it was almost all cutsYou can even ignore different parts of the design so only need one file for a design that might have several different materials. But then again, there may be some other interfaces in Beta that I don’t have access to which allows you to select objects individually and do an order on them.

[jeremiah]

Thanks for the info!

[jamesdhatch]

@marmak3261

You can even ignore different parts of the design so only need one file for a design that might have several different materials.

The other thing you can use ignore for is when you overestimate the engrave or cutting that will occur with a given power/speed setting and part of it comes out too light or not fully cut through. Then just send that part to the machine to do again and ignore the rest. I’ve rescued a lot of projects that way. Just remember not to move the material between passes.

[jeremiah]

Déjà vu!