That’s part of what started this whole thread, if you have Premium you may/will(?) get them in the near future even if you never had them before! 
Those who already have them will keep them (and hopefully CS can fix @ESteele‘s issue with then being blocked.)
not all machines had snapmarks previously. it was just a test that was given to a limited number of people. my machine goes back to 2017 and i have snapmarks because i helped test it.
Also I think it’s fair to say it was never released so placing them in premium isn’t quite like previous grandfathered cases where a fully available released feature was grandfathered.
While I think grandfathering would be nice I don’t see it as an obligation per se in this case.
i’m not sure i agree. if they gave us a tool to test and said, “we’re done testing, but you can keep the tool even tho we’re not doing a general release for everyone,” and you have that tool for 5+ years, it’s a pretty crappy thing to say, “now we’re releasing it, but it’s a paid feature and we’re taking it away from you unless you subscribe.”
Fingers crossed then, because I do have Premium!
Marilyn
Crappy is subjective. I said I agree with you but I also recognize that that’s just my opinion, man.
crappy is my opinion.
and honestly, right now i think GF needs to cater to their users more than ever. there’s a lot of doubt and uncertainty in peoples’ minds with the restructuring. better to reward long-time, loyal users than cheese them off by taking a tool they’ve had for years and burying it behind the paywall.
You could equally make the case that they’re in an existential fight and that releasing a killer feature without premium is irresponsible for the future of the company.
Like it or not old school users that had snap marks are a small group compared to the larger open-ended future group of new users who will want it and maybe go to premium. Glowforge really needs to think about their bottom line.
Older users don’t generate much income as it stands. We’ve all figured out our preferred materials and our preferred workflow… Glowforge isn’t about to start selling proofgrade guitar bodies, if you know what I’m saying. If they want to draw users like us (specifically @shop and me, but there are lots of us) back into the ecosystem snapmarks are exactly the kind of thing that they should put behind premium.
Now about pricing of premium… I won’t reiterate my stance in too much detail but I think it should be much cheaper and mandatory. I know people don’t like this idea but I think it’s a really good idea for Glowforge’s future.
Change is hard but without it there’s no growth.
i wouldn’t argue that. it’s fine that it’s behind the paywall. that’s not the argument at all.
and the “small group” is important here. it’s not like it’s a huge financial burden (especially since some of that small group already has premium). but goodwill still means something. and when there’s already doubt and uncertainty, it’s probably not the best PR to add “unhappiness or anger” to that. word of mouth is still valuable and pissing off the existing userbase hurts that even more.
so yeah, behind the paywall is one thing (and i won’t argue w/it), but not grandfathering existing users is a bit of a slap to the face. and even if you aren’t one of them, the perception everyone else can take from that is “they could take anything away from us and put it behind the paywall.” and considering how many people already pitch an absolute fit over the existence of the paywall, why add to their ammunition?
(and you know i’ve always agreed w/you about the price of premium, why would you pay 80% of the cost of the full adobe creative suite for a very limited set of tools?)
You make excellent points, but I will say that as far as this point goes: We have no idea. We only have a view into the noisiest squeakiest wheels, and against a large user base, only GF corporate can tell you how many of those people are genuinely an issue, or if they’re just ranting and quietly paying for premium.
Pitching a fit in a small corner of the internet doesn’t necessarily turn into a real issue for GF.
As for the slap in the face, it’ll be a bigger slap if GF has to cease operations. That’s all I’m saying.
Wow what an array of jigs!!!
I use snapmarks on my shot glass engraving jigs. dunno what I would do without them.
You could use a traditional jig workflow just as easily, and in some cases, even more easily. If you want to know what you can pull off with jigs you can look at any number of standard jig posts, or if you want to get really deep in the weeds and know what high effort jig work can do, look at @purplie’s dome puzzles. No snapmarks were harmed in making those puzzles.
He also posted a tutorial for how to do a really precise adjustable jig but I can’t locate it now. Maybe he can tell us where to find it.
i have the snapmarks on the jig itself. fortunately I don’t have to do without them
Right, but if you do a lot of them a reusable corner jig skips the need to scan the snaps entirely. it’s faster and less prone to error or affected by dirty camera lenses.
ya good point!
I was excited to see Snapmark appear in my UI menu, so I decided to give it a try. I’m getting an error message when I click on “Align to Snapmark,” however: “We’re sorry, an unexpected error has occurred.”
Is this most likely an error on my part, or is it possible Snapmark is appearing in my menu, but I don’t actually have access to the feature yet?
They’re finally rolling it out to all?! After all these years? That’s AMAZING! I’d be lost without them. I use them ALL the time.
Fun little thing I tried with them is i wanted to precisely cut stickers. Printing Snapmark marks on the paper allowed me to print them on my printer, then cut them with my laser cutter. Worked shockingly well!
This was always one of the best use cases for Snapmark. It seems like it would be especially handy to have it on their lower power lasers.
There’s an easy jig workflow to do this too. Snaps aren’t necessary
Not necessary, no, but super useful.
Snapmarks allow for absolutely perfect results without any sort of jig when used for the print-and-cut application.