Small Improvements that would make a large difference

[grarup]

I have finally gotten to play with my Glowforge, and after running through the basic print out on proffgrade material I have found two small things that could really make this unit a lot better.

1. Custom materials, It is really irritating to have to set up the same parameters again and again.
2. Duplicate a design. It would be really helpful to be able to copy a design to make small changes.

Hope this can make it in to an update soon. Thanks for a nice product.

[caribis2]

You’re not the first, but I hope you’re the last to ask for these. And by last I mean because they’re rolled out soon. Especially the first one.

[mad_macs]

I don’t know what we need to do to get Custom Materials. It’s pretty much universally agreed this wold be a beneficial feature. It gets more mention than being able to replace our own tubes, and look where that got.
So why is it not a feature yet? My guess is it makes Proofgrade look good, and they want people to have the best experience possible at the start. Plus part of their business model is to push the Proofgrade.

Duplicating designs would be cool, along with a nesting feature. Butting designs against one another and avoiding cutting overlap, would also be cool.

[rbtdanforth]

Another tha6t has probably been mentioned is FOLDERS I cannot imagine what @Jules or @PrintToLaser’s list of designs must look like as mine are already pages long and I have only been building it a couple of weeks!

[Jules]

It’s fairly massive. (But I also tend to delete them from the interface once I’ve processed them completely, and then just load the design fresh from my computer when I need them, so it’s manageable. And I’ve got one heck of an organizational system on my computer for files.)

It’s just as much work to click through folders on your computer and drag the correct one over to the interface as it is to click through folders on the interface, so I honestly don’t have a problem with the lack of folders on the GFUI. I realize I’m probably like the only one on the planet who doesn’t really care.

[rbtdanforth]

@Jules

: smile: It’s fairly massive. (But I also tend to delete them from the interface once I’ve processed them completely,

I guess I need a set of folders Just for the final design that went into the GFUI but many in the GFUI are set to precise locations for repeatability but even chasing down the free designs at the bottom of the list is a pain though less if the list was shorter. Perhaps this is @dan’s way of not overloading the cloud but as I am looking to eventually move much of the running of the Glowforge from a tablet the accuracy of the stored location pales to not having the design available at all (as it will still be on my computer hard drive.)

The trials of a noob: Uranus Shadowboxes

For starters, I would not try to do all of them at once, putting all your eggs in one basket as it were. if one goes wrong they ALL go wrong. #2 you cannot use all of a slab of proofgrade particularly with engraves, and so lose half an inch all around. If on the other hand, you have a piece of proofgrade cut into slices just bigger than your coins you can cut the first one, take it out and flip it over and engrave that, you have thus risked only one, by the time you get to 4 or six or whatever …

[rbtdanforth]

As an alternative to folders or better in addition to them would be a set of four numbers that are what the little blue square that is there when moving stuff about. The scales are a HUGE improvement and I even pan to them on occasion to see what the scale of the object is but the tablet is very clumsy trying to move or scale stuff and typing in the numbers would be so much more precise!

BTW the tablet thinks you can pick between one -two -or three passes and does not go to typing without argument, but picking another number does not do anything (small bug) in Android.

[AhnoldZ]

My only reason for wanting folders is because of the settings. If they added GF specific tags to the SVG to record the settings then I would just want one folder system. The one on my computer.

So they can kill two birds with one stone by adding GF tags to SVGs.

[jbmanning5]

The absolute best way to ensure repeatability is to just set the position of the design in the design using the design software.

I’ve had parts of Baltic birch puzzles that don’t cut completely, or had power blips mid-job, I can go back into the design and delete components and just bring back a recut of certain areas. Upload the new, revised file and just hit print.

[leahgee2]

I’m not sure what do you mean by duplicate a design, but ctrl+c ctrl+v works in the interface. however they only appear once on the left bar, so maybe you can resize but you can’t apply different settings.

[dwardio]

Fully acknowledging that not everyone’s use cases allow for this, I much prefer to dial in my designs in the source files (including placement using 20x12 artboards). The only designs I keep in the GFUI are a handful that I print on a semi-regular basis – mostly commercial products. Other than those, I only have Catalog designs.

Engravable logo for when I forget to add it at design time? Saved.
The wrench I made to fix the toilet? Flushed. (sorry)
Etsy-offered products? Saved.
The 19" handle extension for my wife to use at work? Deleted.

Again, not for everyone, but this works for me.