The First Rule of Proofgrade 😎

:relaxed::+1:

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I’ve got a couple of ideas in my head about this as my pile of partials was growing quickly until Prometheus went down.

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I created a file with a bunch of simple shapes on it. :smile:

Once a sheet of Proofgrade gets too cut up to save as a whole sheet - I apply that Shapes file to it and get some little spacers and tokens to toss into a baggie for future use and testing.

(I’m going to tokenize a couple of sheets today, as a matter of fact. Might have to get hubs to cut the ends off too - wish I could get the whole thing in there to save the ends… That’s it! I need a Pro! :relieved:)

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Turn it 180 degrees, then you can fill up that sliver. :slight_smile:

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Oh yeah, the top is filled too! :grin:

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I made a file called light saber. Just a horizontal and a.vertical line, each a different color. It was great for chopping off stray bits and squaring up the leftovers.

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Excellent idea! Might be able to save the ends without waiting for hubs.

Thanks! :grinning:

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I have a bandsaw but I need to do this as well. I was already thinking about it, now I know it is a good idea if you were going it.

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Well I might have just used the bandsaw also, except the laser was inside and the bandsaw is out in the shop and I am lazy.

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Me too :slightly_smiling_face: Was using it last night - my Glowforge, my table saw :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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It’s a whole quantity thing. One or two cuts, laser. Stack of scraps, bandsaw.

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You could also just draw a line directly onto the material and let the GF trace and cut it for you. :slight_smile:

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I did this too! (Didn’t call it light saber though.) I also have files of simple circles and squares that I can pull up (wish I could resize non-proportionally though). I think I learned this from one of @marmak3261’s posts.

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Gotta get into the habit of using trace more. Thanks for the reminder :slightly_smiling_face:

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Oh my dear people, the search string you want is “SVG Shape Packing”

There are a couple really good ones, but I like this one best: http://svgnest.com/

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That would be super handy for getting the initial odd shaped pieces laid out…bookmarked! :grinning:

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There’s one out there that’ll use a GA and Simulated-Annealing to pack everything as densely as possible, too, which ought to save more proofgrade material. IDK where that went. Let me do some hunting and report back.

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I was actually kind of wondering what happens if you use the spot with the barcode on it. Does the rest of the scrap no longer work as Proofgrade Brand Proof Graded 3D Laser Printing Substrate?

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You currently have to reload the settings from a menu at the top of the screen. (That might change later - it’s something they did for us PR users.)

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Best one I’ve found too. But that’s only good for original files. One of our issues right now is the work bed is slightly smaller than the actual physical bed of the machine so we lose access to parts of the overall 20x12 artboard (and 12x24" common sized material). On top of that is we have about a 1/4" “danger zone” in terms of focusing toward the edges vs actual placement of the work so we don’t get too close to the actual edge. That means there’s a bunch of slop being added to the placement of the file on the physical board that results in swiss cheese material over time :slight_smile:

What would be really cool @dan is if the GFUI could use the bed image and svgnest type of processing to help place components of a file around the pre-existing holes in a work piece. That would help maximize material use as we use the same sheet over & over again. Any chance you could hopperize it? :slight_smile:

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