Hello GF family/friends,
I am new to the GF family and have recently done my first two cuts! One was the helicopter offered as a premium member through GF and the second were those super handy crumb tray clips provided by eljefe4. Now I have a million questions, but I’m just going to ask the first two/three for now… if anyone knows, please help me understand? lol
So I did my first two cuts and on both after removing the masking on the top of the cuts everything looks great, no charr or burned masking residue. However, when I flip the wood over to remove the masking from the back it is all charred on the edges and I have to scrape the tape off because it’s more in melted pieces. Does this happen frequently and if so, is there anything I can do to reduce the charr on the back side? I am using the proof grade materials that was sent with my GF
My last question is, because I have printed a helicopter from the GF site, I wanted to find a way to download it to my computer so I can cut some vinyl decorations to its exact measurements. Almost immediately after clicking the buy button for GF I also bought a Cricut machine to help me practice and expand with possibilities… so anyways I was hoping/wondering if anyone knew if we could download a file to our computer from GF premium so we can then insert it into Cricut (or whichever platform) to make more designs to the exact GF creation…? if that makes sense?
I’m very much looking forward to learning and designing with all of you! 
So the first question, the key term you’re missing is “flashback”. Try searching the forum for that term and you’ll see a lot of discussion. You might also want to search for “gorilla tape” and “plastic razor” for tips about removing masking.
The second question: you can’t download purchased designs from glowforge. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
As for the million other questions I bet you’ll find this post interesting:
evansd2, Thank you so much for reaching out, I appreciate your help! I have seen posts about the gorilla tape but I’ll have to look up the flashback corrections. I’ll be looking into what you have advised. Yes, that is sad news about not being able to download, but I’ll try to work something out, none the less, thank you for letting me know and also the referral! 
options:
a) put all your cut helicopter pieces on a flatbed scanner, cover with a contrasting piece of paper, scan at full size: close to perfect template for auto-tracing and creating your vinyl decal shapes.
b) place a piece of graph paper in the glowforge, score the helicopter, manually transfer the design elements to a corresponding grid in your design software (Grid Method)
@jbv, I’m so excited to get home and give this a go! I hadn’t even thought about scanning the pieces and I have never heard about the grid method. Thank you so much!!!
cool, let us know how it turns out!
the grid method is more often used to transfer small drawings into large paintings (ie sketchbook to mural) but I don’t see why it couldn’t work in this application.
Welcome to the family!
I find the masking I apply myself is a lot easier to remove than the one on the Proofgrade materials.
And @evansd2 evansd2 has already answered your second question.
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