Ran into an interesting scenario last night, which led to some confusion:
Started a 20 minute job
After 10 minutes, laptop battery was dead
Opened old laptop sitting nearby to app.glowforge.com, greeted by my designs library
Clicked everything I could see to open the GF Live View + timer, no success
Finally chose to risk Opening one of the available designs
GF Live View opened with the standard “You are now printing XYZ” showing ~10 minutes remaining
Why is it so hard to get back to the live progress/timer viewer? Needing to load up a NEW design that you know you can’t print right now is a little non-sensical.
Also a minor bug for you:
While the timer showed ~10 mins remaining, the red line-by-line visual progress indicator started at 0%. When the job timer reached 0:00, the progress indicator had only reached 50%.
Diff’rent strokes, diff’rent folks. I’ve used this functionality four times today so far. I have a big build that involves 4 separate files cut into 5 sheets of PG. I have to run this entire sequence four times. Being able to stay one step ahead is a nice timesaver in my workflow.
Btw, You should see the timer countdown below your nickname / status at the top right of the app if you’ve navigated away from the original job. Not the same as the preview screen (which isn’t a live view), but gives the identical time remaining estimate.
I don’t mind the ability to drag things into the window and pre-load your next job. I mind the requirement to do so for those who simply want to get back to the progress window.
it doesn’t open up for you if you click on the remaining time? That has worked for me.
As for your observation that the live preview doesn’t stay “current”, I’ve seen the same thing and have sent emails to support for it. I’d like to see either it start of the beginning and “catch up” in a few seconds to where it should be. OR, start from where it should be at this moment and continue from there (leaving the first already done portion blank). Either solution would work for me.
Yes. A link that says, “Reconnect to active print” or something like that on the Home screen of the app would be handy. This again is a demonstration that there are features possible, but one might not be aware of them because there are no UX pointers to the feature. One doesn’t know if clicking on something will ruin a job already processing. Documenting these things is important.
Or even just a simple, “Bed View” button that you can push and view what is in the bed of your GF at any point in time, regardless of whether you have a job running or not.
How 'bout that! I haven’t experienced that even once. I didn’t think there was any link between that window and reality, but I wonder what could make it straight up wrong. Interesting find!
I don’t think there is a link between the “live view” and the job being run. Personally I think that the “path” that the laser will follow is figured out in the cloud and the job is sent to the GF and the GFUI. The GFUI does not “communicate” with the GF during the print, so it has the logic to start a simulation of the “Live View” when that window is opened, and clear the cache when that pop up window is closed.
That means that when you accidentally close the window for whatever reason, and then re-open it, it starts the preview over again. I’m not quite willing to say that it is “wrong” per say, but I would definitely say that it is not working in the most optimal way.
Thanks for the great suggestions @marmak3261, @julybighouse, and @dwardio! And thanks for bringing this to our attention @jefish - I’ve passed it on to the team.
I’ve used this functionality four times today so far. I have a big build that involves 4 separate files cut into 5 sheets of PG. I have to run this entire sequence four times. Being able to stay one step ahead is a nice timesaver in my workflow.