I have a clear picture of GF new headquarters with a massive structure on one wall tapering down to a little square opening with a flap over it.
It is labeled “The Hopper”
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I’m looking forward to the day(s) that we might get a message of “_____ is OUT of the hopper and functional with your GLOWFORGE!”
Hey @dan I know we’ve seen a ton of things go into the hopper. Can you give us any examples of things that have been removed from the hopper because they are done? (small success stories please?)
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Personally, I’m not expecting them to even start rummaging around in the hopper until after release.[quote=“dan, post:110, topic:2952”]
Our focus right now is on delivering the functionality we told you we were going to deliver.
[/quote]
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very true, but many times in development something gets made and a “tweak” is all that is needed for a hopper type item to be done. I fully agree that focusing on hopper items will cause some major scheduling creep, but also don’t discount “accidental” hopper item completion 
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Random musings from an overactive mind…
I think they’re hoping to surprise us with a few extras. But lets do let them get the basics built, and completely functional before we start pushing for things that they weren’t initially planning to include.
We’ve all got ideas of what “the basics” are, and to someone who is not familiar with designing, those basics are a lot more basic than what the experts interpreted them to be.
Sad fact is…the people most likely to be disappointed in the software are the ones who know what they are doing.
It’s not going to be a miracle machine that does everything for us and makes our lives “one-button-simple” in the beginning. It’s just going to be a tool, at a reasonable price, that we can use as part of our already established work flow. The only people I have seen this truly benefiting in that way are the ones that really have never done any vector type work, who will be able to have simple drawings converted for them into something laserable. They are going to be thrilled with that, and that is the bulk of the customers, and that is all Glowforge has promised us for initial delivery. (And we’ve seen that part work, so timely delivery, barring unforeseen complications or Acts of God, is looking pretty good.)
Somewhere down the road, in the hopper, they might opt to add in a few things that make designing easier for the rest of us. Or they might not. They aren’t under any obligation to do so, and there is no financial benefit to them to do it immediately. It will in fact cost them significant time and resources to do it.
The time to add improvements and increased functionality is later, after the first flush of sales is passed and a half dozen clones have hit the market, because additional improvements will enable them to recapture the market from the clones. They have to think long-term about adding functionality, if they want to stay in business.
And we really, really want them to stay in business for many years, since our continued use of the machines depends on it. 
The suggestions of ideas to add to the hopper are extremely important, because they need to know what the designers are most interested in, so they can target that with further development. But pick your battles…if Glowforge is smart (and they appear to be), the improvements are going to be dribbled out slowly, over several years, to give the machines a leg up over the competition. Focus on the ones that you think are most important first. If that’s kerf compensation…fine. If it’s nudging the placement, also fine. But don’t expect them to give us everything at once, it would be suicidal from a business standpoint, and we’d be stuck with $3000 paper weights.
There will likely be no hopper items released initially. It’s something I accept and heartily approve of from a business standpoint. Down the road, I believe that adding additional functionality, a bit at a time, will keep the company on top, growing, and viable.
In the meantime, brushing up on our own personal design skills in whatever software we choose is a really good idea, and will give the people who do the ability to contribute to the catalog up front.
The absolute best market for catalog sales is going to be at the beginning. There is going to be an avid audience of neophytes, ten thousand people strong, who don’t know what they are doing yet. That will continue for several years. Start creating sales files now if you plan to submit items for sale in the catalog.
Start creating sales files now if you plan to sell physical items as well, because there are only a few years before the market is flooded with items from the neophytes as they catch up and learn to use the software. When that happens, you will need to have something unique or extremely artistic for it to sell.
Competition seems a lot more brutal this last decade or so. Painful as it is for a handful of us, I really do think Glowforge is making the right calls for long-term stability in the market.
Got to quit now…food needed…badly. Chuckle!
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Most of the nice-to-haves can be implemented by the user base with a plugin system. Hopefully that happens one day. I write UIs for most major CNC controllers to bring functionality to the platforms that the otherwise wouldn’t exist and the arrow key fine adjustment feature is a great example of how users could contribute. If a plugin system existed, I’d release that on the first day. Just something for GF to consider if time permits…
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The only surprise you should expect to see might be the delivery of all or nearly all the functionality promised for the product during the marketing cycle (e.g. Glowforge website).
I agree, let them get the basics built, the stuff we have seen no sign of to this point:
- DXF to GF direct
- Manual kerf adjustment (ya, I know where you are on this one so we can leave it at that)
- Two sided processing
- Pass through slot
- 3D high res engraving
- a Glowforge Pro
- and anything else I’ve mised. . .
I believe they are smart as well, so I don’t expect to see anything dribbled out. Well, at least not for free. I believe you will see “packages” of software functionality as a fee based service of some fashion or another. There needs to be a revenue stream going forward in excess of that generated by margin on Proof Grade materials or Pay for Product catalog. That revenue stream would be in all our best interests even if we as individuals never use a single of those pay-as-you-go “extras”.
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Tampermonkey =).
All their stuff is written in react from what I’ve been told, so hopefully it should be pretty easily extensible.
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Very funny! 
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agree I would much rather see them deliver on the list of original features promised that So far is only vaporware
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I’m just trying to get a few ideas written on sticky notes to be put on someone’s monitor at GF. Assuming they ever allow it, I’d love to get in there and start adding features if/when they have time to implement a plugin system.
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You and me both lol. I’m sure they have the next 6 months of Dev already planned out.
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We’ve already seen most of what they said they were going to deliver. 
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DXF to Glowforge - yeah, that one might be delayed, although converting is a pretty simple thing. Definitely not a deal breaker for me.
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We were never promised any kind of kerf adjustment. I know a lot of people interpreted it that way, but if you’ll think back to what the flyer actually said…“Accuracy to Within a Kerf” means you will be off by as much as the amount of the kerf, and I read that to mean that if you want to account for it, you needed to do it yourself.
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Two sided processing. - True, we have not seen that performed yet, but since other lasers are capable of doing it with jigs and indexing, this one should be able to as well. (I provided a sample they could use to develop and test that a while back, and when they are done figuring out the process for it, I’m sure they’ll show us.)
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3D Hi-Res Engraving - I don’t remember seeing that in the promises anywhere, but variable depth engraving is is in one of the answered questions on the web page. The Hi-Res engraving, which we have seen, looks very sharp and ready to go. Variable depth engraving will also be possible - Dan has already done a small sample of variable depth engraving, using the initial power supply, so all they have to do to finish that up is fine tune it for the current power configuration. But it should be available should we decide to take advantage of it by adjusting the focus and power settings.
- A Glowforge Pro and the Pass through slot - Granted, we have not seen the Pro in action, but isn’t the Pro just a basic with a slot in it, with a slightly tuned tube and a cooling system added to keep it from overheating on longer runs? It’s going to work just like the Basic, only faster.
The things they did promise that you didn’t mention:
Trace mode that scans material with a drawing on it, then cuts and engraves over the top - Ready to go and demonstrated heavily at the fairs.
The optical camera alignment (visual placement) -Drag-and-drop with live preview to position designs on the material- Ready to go and demonstrated heavily at the fairs.
Catalog of premium, customizable, ready-to-print designs - Haven’t seen it yet. (We do still have a couple of months to go though, and rumor has it that it’s coming along.)
So it looks to me like they are in pretty good shape to meet their promises.
As a matter of fact, we ought to be feeling the excitement start to build right about now.
That’s actually not a bad idea - not for everything, they can afford to give the initial customers a few upgrades gratis, (like a placement nudge or a puzzle generator or something splashy and easy to create), but they might want to add a “Designer Tier” subscription service if they continue to develop the abilities of their in-house software. Basically they are having to re-create Illustrator, and that takes money and people and testing.
I’m sure they’ll come up with something. Lots of fun surprises ahead. 
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That would actually be really cool.
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That’s not all it says though. It goes on to say it compensates for the kerf.
Hmm… I don’t remember that either. They are calling it a “3D” laser printer, but they’re apparently referring to the autofocus function.
This is a double-edged sword. They appear to be very similar, which does imply that a demonstration of a Pro may not be necessary because it wouldn’t be much different from a Basic, but it also implies that a demonstration should not be difficult.
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Might not have the injection molding done yet for the Pros. I don’t know that for sure, just guessing. (And we’ve still got a couple months to go.)
Look at that, you were right. I don’t remember ever seeing that page.
You win the internet.
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You’re correct. But, when I go to pickup my car from the garage after having it in for some work, I’m really more concerned if there were things they didn’t do that I paid for more so than for things they did do.
Are you on the Glowforge payroll by any chance?
So Tesla downloads an update when it is ready as opposed to saving up the changes or improvements for the following model year. Tesla doesn’t have 2016, or 2017 year models.
I hope Glowforge follows suit.
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