All of my parts are coming out to a tolerance I can’t reliably measure. A 1/4" is way beyond acceptable. So I suspect the file as well.
I 100% agree that software engineers should not design GUI’s, but I’ve never seen a design everyone loves. The software is still in beta, and we all accepted knowing that, so at the moment only the hardware is production.
Something’s wrong. If you don’t mind, post the file so it can be validated. Also, you might want to go with an SVG rather than a PDF. Again, what app did you design this in?
As for the GUI… It’s functional. Definitely not pretty. Frankly, it doesn’t do much, so there’s not much need for much more than it is. You do all your design work in your design application. The GUI is really only a step or two above being the equivalent of a printer driver. It does what it needs to, basically, and that’s it.
Considering what other people can (& have been doing for months) perhaps a more accurate statement would be “unusable by me” which is a totally different thing.
There are a lot of tutorials here and all you have to do is post a question if you need help and there’s a whole bunch of folks who can help out.
I design my work in SolidWorks, export to PDF, and import the PDF into the GFUI. My accuracy is within 0.005 inches on every cut so far and many of them are dead on. I suspect the problem with sizing is the source file and not the laser unless there is something really wrong with the hardware you received.
Not so… Yes, after messing around for a while it can be made usable once you find the weird stuff and figure work arounds. Now that I have found a few issues I have been working around them and have been able to make a few cuts.
Tom… regarding the SVG. That I’m investigating. I have never had an issue on other lasers with SVG files so that one is a little strange. I use Intaglio for vector design with no past issues. I have also saved and cut files from EPS format with great results but the GF does not do EPS.
One of the main reasons to get the GF is to prototype rapid parts test fit. A lot of times I have to draw with pencil on wood or whatever then cut out and test fit prior to creating a permanent vector file for production parts. So now I have been messing with the trace function which is not very well explained. In this function I do not want to engrave anything I just want a clean cut. By clicking inside or outside of the trace line I have finally been able to get it to work. Only caveat here is it takes so bloody long to scan and prep that many times I could hand cut it faster. So I’m hoping that they can get the scan and prep really speeded up.
Enclosed is a link for some of my work now that I’m retired. You will see that I am not some idiot who does not have any skills. This link may explain why I have to be somewhat picky in my choice of lasers.
BTW… I thank all of you for the continuing input. It really helps get ones head around these glitches and actually get something done. After some minor success I can see that the GF could be a great tool if the folks can get a lot of fixes done. Anyone know when a possible pass through capability will be in place?
I’m not familiar with Intaglio, but I know that you have to be careful when saving/exporting SVGs with other programs to make sure it doesn’t resize the output. Here’s an example for Illustrator:
There may not be an equivalent setting in Intaglio, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to check.
Right.
Best of luck then. Probably not worth asking for help as most of us can’t help since we didn’t have to overcome the unusable software - or we didn’t realize we couldn’t do what we were with it.
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Anyone know when a possible pass through capability will be in place?
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The automatic alignment feature is not there and there is no date for future improvements so it’s anyone’s guess. But the same techniques that work for indexing CNC jobs work with the GF.
Typo for cnc or something I need to learn?
Darned autocorrect. 
Fixed it. Thanks.
Thanks! I was worried that I was missing something that would be of help.
I learned how to do it from ShopBot. There are a couple of their vids out there that cover it. Once you get it, it’s no big deal. Lots of good crossover techniques between CNC and lasers.
I have never had parts come out cut to the wrong size, and I have cut hundreds of pieces over the past few months. Any issues I have ever run into were caused by bad files. I would double check the scale in the file you are using, something could be off. Plus I would also run tests with a new file and a few squares set a couple of different sizes. If they could out as anything other then the size you set minus kerf then you might have a bad unit and they can work on fixing it.
Some have had some issues. But many of yours seem unique. As you’ve stated, you’ve been having issues with the most basic of tasks. That’s just not typical. So “usable by me” seems like the best statement.
I’ve never even heard of this Intaglio, but now that I’ve looked it up I see it’s a Mac-only app so maybe it would have passed me by. You’re definitely the first Glowforge owner I’ve heard using it. You might want to check out Inkscape as it’s feature-rich, free, and used by many who can help you with the myriad issues you seem to be encountering.
Again, it will be helpful if you upload the file here so we can see why it wasn’t sized as you expected.
Tom… I tried Inkscape and do not care for it that much. I have years of designs invested so reluctant to change apps.
Have you tried drawing on a bit of plywood then scan and be able to cut it without the App giving an error message that something is wrong. If I draw, scan and do the white space thing. Then it sought of works except the lines are engraved prior to cutting. I zoomed in and removed the outside purple line leaving just one which I assumed would simply cut. In other words I left no image to engrave but just the a single purple line that should be a cut line. I also tried it with just the inside line I get the error with either choice. It seems that the trace feature must be able to engrave prior to cutting.
Later today I’ll spend some time on the demo stuff from other folks and see what they are up to.
In that scenario I would presume it would be a bitmap and would therefore be engraved, not cut. But I’ll be happy to test later tonight.
SVG files commonly don’t have real units (inches, millimeters, etc.) attached to them. Because they were originally designed for web use, they use “user units” by default, which software is free to scale to any size.
Some software can be told to use real units when exporting SVGs. E.g., in Adobe Illustrator make sure the “responsive” checkbox is NOT checked.
Some other software doesn’t have any way to set real sizes for SVG export. Affinity Designer, for example, sets the size to “100% 100%” (meaning “scale this to fill the window”) when “Set viewBox” is checked and the size in pixels (using whatever DPI you’ve set for the document) if the option isn’t set.
I tend to export to PDF when possible, as PDFs always use real units for page size (although a few oddball programs manage to mess that up) so the Glowforge always has real sizes to work with. (Of course there are currently a few other problems with PDFs on the Glowforge, such as issues with clip paths not being supported, but that should be fixed someday.)
When I must use SVG files from programs that don’t export SVG with real units for the height/width I do one (or more) of the following things to work around the problem:
When you get to the operations listed in the GFUI, you can set the engrave to Ignore. You don’t have to remove it. Click the right carat on the pop out for the thumbnail for the engrave when you select it.
Yes, thanks Tim! (I’m on the tablet…linking is tough.) 
This will likely always be required, as GF’s servers won’t have the fonts on them to render. Or you can embed the fonts, but that’s often not an option, depending on the tool you use and the font you use.
