So I followed the “no math” instructions for printing without the crumb tray. Now I’m getting a print load error for the file I’m trying to engrave.
The head moves to the material, the little red laser beam does it’s thing, then the head moves back out of the way and the GFUI sits at “preparing your design” for a few minutes before giving me the error.
You might want to put down a sheet of dark construction paper or something over the bed, under the material. The shiny bottom of the bed reflects all kinds of light and might be causing problems.
Not sure, but I’m guessing the material height setting is not between .01" and .44 (or thereabouts–can’t remember the exact #). Try typing a number within that range.
It’s at .32
I’ll try that.
Isn’t that the exact error you get when your engrave design is too big for the buffer? I know it has happened to me just like that. The crumb tray and focus height had nothing to do with it when I get the error. But have no idea what the settings are for your design.
The design appears to be 6"x10".
Roughly. But it’s by no means complex. I’m not sure why this would cause an issue.
…and let’s be honest…it’s the exact error we get for everything. “Nondescript error 2883”
If you’d upload the design I’ll be happy to try loading it on my end.
I’ve not really tested to see if it causes the error message, but could it be that part of the image is in the no print area at the bottom? (I know it’s set to ignore and shouldn’t matter, but you never know.) To test if that could be it, I’d delete the circle or shrink the entire image to make sure nothing is out of bounds. If that processes OK, the issue is the being in the the no-cut zone.
Understand and agree. The GF doesn’t use a command code like GCode. The commands are at a much lower level. There might not be a difference in the size of the motion planning if you were to engrave a solid rectangle or a detailed lattice of the same dimensions. Not sure complexity matters. But there are others that understand how the motion planning works better than I with what seems to be a waveform type signal.
As @marmak3261 has posted, put something down on the bare metal. There is a post or warning the Support/Safety section of app.glowforge.com that comments about not letting the laser reflect from that surface.
Also, when you click on each of the components (of the job), do you get the teal or mauve coloring (with the grey hashed edges)? If not, then your print is in the “no-go zone”.
As you know, we’re working on improving our ability to handle large engraves. When we say your engrave is large - we really mean that it will take a long time to print. When your Glowforge prints an engrave, the head moves back and forth, line by line, like a inkjet printer. If the design is physically large or if you set your print to have a high LPI, the print will take longer, because the head needs to move further to finish the print. I don’t have exact numbers on size or print time for you, but I hope that helps a little.
If your design includes a large engrave, you have two choices. You can reduce the size of your print in the app by signing in, selecting your file, clicking on your image, and then dragging a corner towards the center of the image to make it smaller. Or you can divide your image into pieces and print them one at a time, as shown below.
Split your image into pieces
Create a single file with all the pieces
Upload and Print
Please let me know how it goes!
It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.
