Yes. it wouldn’t surprise me they are letting units sitting in the office to ensure paint doesn’t yellow , and hence why we are delayed getting our machines.
We just don’t know!
I think goggles are a good precaution no matter what.
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So what are you planning to do with yours when you get it?
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At this point @jules, my plans on what to do with the machine are on hold until I actually have a tracking number for the shipment of my unit.
I have waited, and gotten excited, and speculated about all the cool things I can do with it, and have been let down 3 times. At this point I’ll allow myself to fantasize about the possibilities once I know I am actually receiving it. Once that happens, I’ll gladly be posting on the forum ideas and designs that I can share.
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Just wondered if you needed it for business or something…a lot of people did and were forced to bail, which is really sad…
I’ll look forward to seeing some of your designs later then.
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I do have a consulting business, and purchased the glowforge for potential use in future design work. I am fortunate enough that I do not have to worry about the cost of the unit, nor do I have any business that depends on a laser cutter to get realized.
So getting it initially would be purely for hobby use, and maybe eventually use it to generate revenue, but if it doesn’t, thats ok too. Having the kids use it would be enough for me.
Plenty of plans, little motivation to get excited until it becomes real.
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There’re a lot of folks who feel that way…bunch of 'em who I hang with on another forum won’t even come near this forum until it ships, because they find it too frustrating to see all the cool ideas and not be able to implement yet.
I’ve still got too much to learn to get away with that though. (I need to learn as much as I can about using them by hanging around folks who have them here.)
Lots to learn. (Still trying to decide whether to try to sell a few files myself…) 
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People are usually pretty bad testers as well, unless you’ve got a QA background you’re really just kind of toying around finding glaring stuff. At least until you start to ship lots of product.
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Word. Just spent the afternoon resolving issues from a poorly-written migration and testing plan. 
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It’s an insane amount of work. And @marmak3261 is making it about ten times worse by trying to report on it to the forum at the same time.
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The Good question: I’m going to explore that with issue with someone totally unfamiliar with the Glowforge and have them sit down and try it out and see if first time they can find everything. They are familiar with computer added graphic design and vinyl cutters. I also have another plan in the queue to treat that question about usability.
For now I can answer that the user interface is so easy to use that you won’t be spending time figuring it out. Instead you will immediately want to try different designs. The ten designs I have access to allow for lots of personalization and they just work. I can imagine that the catalog will be filled with simple to complex designs that you could use right away with success, if these initial designs are an indication.
I can’t emphasize enough that if you want to personalize things, understand bitmap resolution and how to make them with a transparent background. I had to goof around with GIMP for a while to remember how to do that. Also. Know everything you can about lines in vector programs. The engraving of bitmaps is very nice, but because the Glowforge can make such fine lines, you really can do text in outline fonts very small. Combine an outline score with an engraved fill and it really stands out. The ginkgo shawl clasp has uses that combo. I will be posting a separate topic regarding the process of design. The Glowforge does a great job parsing your files and even telling you when you have something that’s not going to work and gives you options to deal with it.
I have a bunch of screen recordings I’d love to post as demonstrations of how it works. Not sure when I’ll get to it. I spent a lot of time writing up feedback responses to support today. Not just critical things but mainly my observations about how the UI behaves. Noting things that work as expected like the copy/paste commands or Ctrl+a to select all.
The ProofGrade is so nice. No worries there. The interface is just fine. The thing I spend the most time on is doing my own designs. I still don’t have the facility with Inkscape that I’d like. It gets faster but I don’t use the shortcut keys in Inkscape enough. That is what speeds design up.
Of course, you can just scan/trace designs you put into the bed. I’ve only tried that once. Everyone has seen it and it just works.
Hope that helps.
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What a great thing to read - shared company-wide.
One detail: you can use a white background for engravings and it should work just fine!
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that was a demo / commercial not really a review
Perhaps full reviews would be better done on actual production units.
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Yep, I think that doing a full, comprehensive review of an unfinished product is unfair.
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