I assume you mean “cut” with the bottom side down. You aren’t engraving the back side. You can do it that way and just enter the settings manually for what works for the proofgrade with maybe a slight adjustment as needed.
That’s an interesting point to make. Once you open the lid and flip the material, a new image is acquired. If that side doesn’t have a QR code, it will assume it is not proofgrade and you will need to manually add settings.
It’s really not that big of a deal, doing settings manually. ProofGrade is a convenience. Primarily, if it fulfills the promise of the materials I have, because it is consistently and uniformly excellent as a material. The automatic settings are a convenience and do make it easier to get something printing quickly but are not adding something that isn’t available manually.
It would be nice to save settings. But it also would be nice to save settings from Proofgrade items. Maybe your engraving design needs something other than the three options so you go manual. You’d have to write that setting down somewhere to remember it for the next time.
I will do some inlay pieces tonight with the ProofGrade veneer and take the masking and the backing off and inlay them some masked side up and some sticky side up and see how the edges meet. It will be interesting.
Most veneers you might buy are a thinner than what I have at the moment from Glowforge so kerf profile will be minimally if at all relevant.
Where this plays out is if you are doing thicker inlays, closer to intarsia. I found that out when I did some inlay cutouts for a Christmas tree ornament.
I still don’t have a whole lot of real world experience, but I will keep documenting as this progresses. Thanks for your interest.
One thing is certain, the Glowforge cuts to a precision that you can compensate whatever you need to in your design sizing of the inlay pieces to get them to snug up tight. I don’t know how often kerf profile will figure into this, but it will be a factor at times.
I understood that the 'forge was able to scan an image and you could remove the item and replace it with your chosen material to engrave/cut from the previous image… Is that mistaken?
I was thinking this as well. I have a few sisters-in-law that are quite good artists and I’ve been wanting to engrave some of their drawings into wood or other medium. I always thought that I could put in their artwork, get the picture, remove the art, put in my material, align and go.
Or I would put in the material first have the GF identify it, put the artwork exactly where I want it on top of the material and get that picture, remove the art, hit print with very minimal software interaction.
I believe the glowforge will take a snapshot of the bed and acquire an image for lasering that can be stored (even if only temporarily) in the software. You then put the material you want to laser in the bed and the glowforge would acquire it along with any proofgrade qr-codes. At that point you can drag the first image and place it over the material to laser.
It sounds like what Marion is referring to is acquiring the shape and any qr-codes with every lid opening and not saving drawings into the software.
You scan something and select what you want to to cut as an outline and what you want to engrave. That then is an image file that exists as an overlay to place on the material that you then either leave in the bed or switch with another material.
If, in the final production machines, The Forge doesn’t let you select proofgrade settings for non-proofgrade materials as a starting point for the settings, I bet there will soon be a “black market” repository of QR codes you can print and lay on top of the material.
This is correct - the new image updates the view of the bed, but it doesn’t do anything to the trace you created. The confusion may be that there’s two steps: lid image (happens automatically), and tracing the lid image with software to create a project (you decide when you want this to happen).
That workflow is one I was counting on/hoping for! A real strength in the trace functionality.[quote=“dan, post:52, topic:4422”]
The confusion may be
[/quote]
(Snicker) the confusion is solely a function of my cognitive capacity.
Thanks for the clearification!
I know we are all excited, and after a long hard road you and the entire team have to be thrilled with the reception and praise of the Glowforge as results are trickling in across social media!
It’s also very possible that the QR code on a piece from one lot of 1/8" maple plywood and one from another lot of 1/8" maple plywood result in slightly different settings on a glowforge. We manufacture a range of single-use sensors and we handle lot to lot variability with a calibration code. So the calibration code for Sensor type A, Lot X is different than the code for Sensor type A, Lot Y.
Learning the proofgrade settings as a starting point for your own explorations, especially before you are experienced enough to just know I start with these settings as a base point and then experiment, I could see as being very useful.
I thought using two materials at once was already done? Or is the hopper for using 2 QR codes, but that doesn’t make sense either.
@karaelena just showed wood and acrylic being done at the same time, and we saw the wood and acrylic tea light holder you made with Tested way back at the beginning.
I haven’t finished it yet. I have the settings dialed in for the particular white oak that I am using for the base. This is old white oak from barn wood that I planed down. It’s got a very tight grain and is quarter sawn so that means there are ridges from the grain standing up in the engraving. I need to have a little higher dpi to get the bottom smoother and a uniform depth. I also tested it with the raster going at a right angle to the grain.I just haven’t had an hour and a half to devote to babysitting the engrave that it will take. Maybe tonight.
Ah ok, I thought you were using proofgrade veneer. I was going to attempt something with that. Either way, Id love to know what settings youre using. Cant wait to see the finished product too!
