Yes, Making the user experience ProofGrade centric could be a stumbling block to international customer’s satisfaction.
The ProofGrade just works. I have not had an opportunity to test all materials. Nor have I explored manual settings. I keep getting sidetracked by the accuracy of placement concern by so many.
One wonders how easy it would be to just stick a piece of some very similar weight and quality right next to the ProofGrade swatch and just place your design on your dandy Tandy leather sample. I am speaking hypothetically of course.
One thing: QR codes should be all over the masking surface or at least in several spots because otherwise the last spot lasered will be where the QR code is. Right now they are visible and single. Kind of like Brad Pitt these days.
What happens if you take a scan of the QR code for the Proofgrade material and print a copy of it and drop that on your locally sourced sample? Does it know that you’re doing a knock-off and refuse to work or does it go ahead applying the Proofgrade settings? If it does that, how good a result do they end up with in the finished engrave?
Yes, something to be investigated. Makes me think of the Keurig foray into digital rights management. But being the good guy here, rather than copying something that may be copyrighted, I just kind of sneak in under the wire. Hypothetically of course.
Has anyone scanned a QR code to see what it’s actually decoded into? If it’s already sending machine settings in the QR code it would be ultra basic to create your own QR codes. If not, It’s probably a machine setting that the GF references saved settings for, which could still be easily created depending on final software settings.
I have. The text for one read “Glowforge:A:KAAAD” and matched the graphic, below.
I believe it was one of the pieces of thin walnut @marmak3261 had in his possession.
Interesting, maybe we can get a GF staffer to give us some insight into what that relates to. With that many random letters it could be speeds and power.
One of the things I was wondering if someone would do.
I doubt that those settings would be reflected in the QR code. All it needs to do is have a unique idea that is meaningless. . That’s a one to many link in the settings table which can’t be accessed, as I surmise.
I assume the app.glowforge.com interface looks for and reads the existence of a QRC on the proofgrade material –> then applies the appropriate speed and power setting for the project.
Right
I also assume that the speed/power settings relate to vector or raster / cutting or etching.
Right
I have also read that the interface does not (yet) allow the user to ‘save’ settings –> probably to persuade us to utilize proofgrade.
No - we just haven’t built the feature yet; we will before July.
Re: DIY QR codes, will put that in the idea hopper. Probably easier to just select a preset that you saved, though.
It may be easier to use pre-saved settings, but imagine if DIY QR codes could be shared amongst GF users. Those who wish to test settings could do so, but sharing the codes for other widely available materials could allow 10,000 users to share data instead of 10,000 users doing their own independent testing for every material combo.
Guess we dont really need the QR code to share the data, that’s what the internet is for. but it could be nifty.
You could do something with a phone app that would make this sing. Have QR codes that share settings, open your mobile app, select add new material settings, scan QR code, done.
If I had to guess you have Glowforge because Glowforge, probably A is a material identifier, then likely A thickness for the K and the remainder is probably a unique batch code they can use if formulations or suppliers change down the road. But that’s just a me making wild guesses based on how I’d do it.
Unfortunately this would be very frustrating for customers and result in a lot of damaged material and incomplete cuts, since material settings are very different from material vendor to vendor. People would reasonably conclude that Glowforge material detection doesn’t work and Glowforge units are unreliable.
This is the same reason that we will not make Proofgrade presets available to non-Proofgrade materials; it will lead to poor results, and we will be responsible for it.
As noted, it’s “Glowforge”, then a unique identifier. Right now they’re generated in batches so they’re sequential, but in the future they will be essentially serial numbers. This allows us to track the material from the factory all the way through to your Glowforge, so besides helping our logistics, in the future we can do things like update Proofgrade defaults (for example if we update the 3D engraving algorithm), or warn you if your material has been recalled.
We don’t encode the settings, since they may change.
I’m not going to assume I know what this means. It could mean that the settings used for Proofgrade materials are not visible to the user? If so, it’s not the end of the world, just an inconvenience. We wouldn’t be able to use Proofgrade settings as a starting point. I never ask Dan these type of clarifying questions simply because my knowing isn’t going to get me a GF faster. One of the early folks will provide the info eventually.
Right. It’s not like they’re particularly secret, but if we say “this is the Proofgrade plywood setting” then people are going to get confused and expect it to work with their plywood. So the manual settings path is designed to be as simple as possible, but quite different than the Proofgrade path. (Or at least it will be; @tony has a bunch of improvements planned).
Of course, like anything with the software, this might change once we get feedback from all of you with your Glowforge deliveries!
One thing you guys could do would be to pop up a warning box if someone is using proofgrade settings and no QR is detected.
“youre using settings for a material that was not auto-detected. be aware this might not produce expected results. use at your own risk. blah blah etc”
While the settings might not be exact, they can definitely be useful for similar materials, like if we got stuff from inventables.
Im just guessing here, but the materials for proofgrade are probably going to be very similar, if not the same as their stock.
Like I said, not a secret - would take a ruler and a stopwatch to figure it out. And I expect people will exchange information on typical ranges for materials in the forum. But a) they’re likely to be big ranges, rather than the single number that’s perfect for Proofgrade, and b) there’s a world of difference when we provide it, because it carries the implied endorsement of our company.
but it could be nifty.