The Glowforge Talkshow #7 - "On Time with Possible Delays"

[PrintToLaser]

Hehehe, @karaelena was just expressing cautious optimism, and Rebecca throws down the gloves!

I like her spunk!

[jacobturner]

First… drawing tables exist, and at my local charter school there is a semester long drafting class in 6th grade. So those kids will be able to cut hand drawn things that blow away some vector built stuff the rest of us make.

Second… the Brad Feld video is what you want to see something go from Illustrator to cut, no hand draw at all.

[karaelena]

Well. They already delayed this thing twice. The current standing by Team Glowforge is still ‘December- Yes. Delays- Possibly’ So… Yeah.

Plus with the population of Team Beta (Public) is still 3 (4 people but three units). With the curious statement of ‘Our assembly line at the factory is turning out beta units which are going out to customers.’

I dunno.

• Do I want to see the Glowforge ship on time. Yup.
• Do I want to see more beta units (public). Yup.
• Do I want see these beta units doing more complex things that’s superior to a K40. Yup.

As of late, we really have not see anything new (*** Hardware wise) that we have not already seen since we all got on this train. And this train is suppose to arrive its destination in December. shrug.

_** Basically the things we’ve seen in the initial demo video where we all were throwing money at our monitors. _

What we have not seen is:

• Pass-thru.
• Full duplex ops. (0.50" passes in 1.0" composites or dual sided engraves that require alignment)
• Variable power engraving. (Gradients / Photos that are not dithered aka stippled)
• The ‘3D’ title that’s currently on the Glowforge main page. The only example we’ve seen is a low poly pyramid.

Things that we thought were going to be zero-day support which we found later that wouldn’t be.

Pass-Thru & DXF support.

So yeah. Hopeful with a chance of doubt/disappointment.

If they do It and @Dan posts a GIF that says ‘NAILED IT’ Great! But as for now. My reaction is still ‘Meh’

shrug

[PlGHEADED]

@printolaser

I’m afraid I may never meet anyone here irl…

Never say never!! … “GLOW-CON 17”…

[jamesdhatch]

@jacobturner

drawing tables exist, and at my local charter school there is a semester long drafting class in 6th grade. So those kids will be able to cut hand drawn things that blow away some vector built stuff the rest of us make.

Sure. My oldest son’s an artist - he can do great things with pen & ink. Lots of folks like that out there but way more are challenged to make a straight line or even circle then fit these examples. I appreciate Dan’s vision of ease of use but it’s like the old days of desktop publishing - the printer is just one of the tools needed and there’s a world of difference between dreck and great or even pretty good. (Remember when everyone discovered fonts and you’d get newsletters with 10 different fonts and colors on them? )

Our expectations are colored by what professionals accomplish and our abilities continue to be constrained by talent (or lack thereof). The tools can start to level the playing field but won’t make up for lack of talent in the end. I think there will be a fair amount of disenchantment after a few months of use if someone expects trace to get them professional results. I’d expect a good artist may use the GF’s trace to short-circuit some design steps but in the end, it’ll be the folks using AI/Corel/Inkscape that drive most content out of the tool.

[ernesto.a.ramirezr]

Its an old video but in this you can see the glowforge using design software

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6v0UAITeIA

[jamesdhatch]

Thanks. I remember that video now that I see it again.

I think the 2 things I still really really want to see are multi-color lines being used to drive different speeds/operations (cut/engrave)/power/focus and 3D engraving. The first is something I can do today with a similarly priced commercial laser (but not a K40) and the second is one of the really unique GF features.

I don’t expect the former to be a big issue - almost everyone can do all of it (except the focus) now. It’s the latter that’s a game changer for me. Just getting late in the year. Looking forward to NY next month.

[soldiercoleman]

@karaelena

Things that we thought were going to be zero-day support which we found later that wouldn’t be.

Pass-Thru

I’m a bitt confused by this, this is the last word I knew.

@dan

Jamie:
Is the pass-through software expected to be working by the time the units ship in December?

Yes.

What did I miss?

[karaelena]

In the Q&A video they did after the delay announcement Dan said it would not be available for the Pro models at the time of shipping.

If that’s changed- Great.

[soldiercoleman]

I believe the Q&A was in April, this quote is from July. Sorry I didn’t quote the whole thing but if you open my quote you will see @dan say this.

@dan

takitus:
the hardware will support pass through. They said however, as far as software, it’s at the end of the priority list.

Sorry for the lack of precision: it’s last on the schedule. That does not mean it’s last on the priority list. When you’re flying an aircraft, putting down landing gear may be near the end of the schedule but it’s not low priority.

The passthrough is crucial but has a lot of foundation work, so the software will be finished close to release.

takitus:
Dan clarified elsewhere that it probably won’t be done at release time.

Again, apologies for whatever I said that left this wrong impression - we plan to have it done at release time.

Edit: http://community.glowforge.com/t/qsotd-will-we-get-specs-on-pro-before-shipment/2531/18?u=soldiercoleman

[cmreeder]

@jamesdhatch

it’ll be the folks using AI/Corel/Inkscape that drive most content out of the tool.

While I have no grounds to deny or counter your expectation, there will be plenty of use cases where hand-drawn will be the very genius of the Glowforge. We see in this forum a wide array of different talents and different kinds of artists. Different workflow doesn’t indicate inferiority.

For many, you are right, there will be no use outside the digital. For some, there will be little use of digital design software, and some of those will be very successful.

I get that your point is that you would much rather see a digital design in the demo - rather than the hand-drawn. I’d love to see one of those, too; but I was delighted with this one. Once in our hands, it won’t all smiley faces and llamas.

-Random Llama '16

[cynd11]

@karaelena

Plus with the population of Team Beta (Public) is still 3 (4 people but three units). With the curious statement of ‘Our assembly line at the factory is turning out beta units which are going out to customers.’

Actually, to nit-pick, there are 5 public betas: @jkopel, @cgunderson, @RyanL, @maryellen, and @Kallisti.

[jamesdhatch]

@cmreeder

I get that your point is that you would much rather see a digital design in the demo - rather than the hand-drawn. I’d love to see one of those, too; but I was delighted with this one. Once in our hands, it won’t all smiley faces and llamas.

Jacob pointed to a video from way back where Dan showed the digital workflow so it’s there (likely the easier component to make work too since it’s been done by everyone and doesn’t require the camera/vision support that the hand drawn stuff requires and is new development).

I honestly felt like @karaelena - he shrugged, I’m something of a “meh”. Except for a little UI most which we’ve also seen at least in stills, there wasn’t anything in the video that we haven’t seen before.

I understand Dan’s position on early reveals so I’m not really disappointed - it’s just more demo candy so I’m not jumping up & down going “cool beans!”.

But he promised something “delightful” for NY so I am getting my hopes up for that

[rebecca]

@karaelena

Do I want to see the Glowforge ship on time. Yup.
Do I want to see more beta units (public). Yup.
Do I want see these beta units doing more complex things that’s superior to a K40. Yup.

And, you totally want to make me something with a Glowforge (yup)…with added lights and music (something upbeat with “boots and cats”-type music). Oh, and I want it shiny…bright and shiny.

While I choose to fly high on optimism, it’s good to have folks who stay rooted to the ground!

All in good fun…

[SunnyStarbucks]

Whoa… so many betas in the wild… time to catch 'em all! Glowiemon!?

[dan]

@chevalier_jeanpaul

Can you share the size of that image file?

No, but remember that we regularly demo with tethered phone connections and such - we pack it down a lot and will continue to make it smaller.

@chevalier_jeanpaul

Do you have any plans to make the vector accessible so that we can manipulate it in say Ai to smooth out or adjust to our liking before sending back to the laser?

In the hopper! But if you plan to edit in Ai or similar, you can always just start with a photo instead of a trace.

@joe

will we have the option to set an order to the cuts after it is traced?

Yes!

@rebecca

if you have had opportunity to watch GF Talkshow #7

Of course… I think I was the 7th viewer.

[jacobturner]

@dan

Of course… I think I was the 7th viewer.

The seventh viewer of the seventh episode! Everybody run, we have a Sourcerer!

[wesleyjames]

But we have to be back for our appointment at 7 on the 7th.

[glotfeltys]

Great video.

I do have a question though. When the picture is resized and placed within the original eye, it appears Dan puts it directly in the middle of the eye.

When the glowforge cuts it appears to do the new smaller eye to left of the larger wood eye. Is this a registration error? Trick of perspective?

Dave

[jamesdhatch]

@glotfeltys

When the glowforge cuts it appears to do the new smaller eye to left of the larger wood eye. Is this a registration error?

Dan mentioned they’re working on the registration when someone else brought up the same thing.