I need lots of support. And by support I mean someone to hold my hand. I’ve tried troubleshooting this myself by searching posts and Googling everything I could find.
I am having my students create a keychain with their name on it. Some students have put their name on a shape (to be cut out) with their name engraved onto the shape. When they create on TinkerCAD, I can then go in and download a .svg file. How do I tell the GFUI that I want to cut certain parts, score other parts and then engrave something else…I’m lost. If I can figure this out, the sky will be the limit for me right now!
Make sure everything is in a different color. All cuts are one color, scores are another color, and engraves are a third color. (I use red for outer cuts, blue for inner cuts that should be done before red, green for score, and black for engrave, but there’s definitely no standard here.)
With the GF web-based user interface, any SVG object that is filled (and no edge) is an engrave; everything else is defaulted to cut. But you can easily change that:
On the left side the the GF web interface are the different items that need to be processed. (GF divides the items by colors, this is why every independent action needs it’s own color.)
You can use the mouse to drag the order of the actions (top actions are done first, bottom are done last.)
If you click on an action, it opens a menu window. At the top are where you can select cut, score, or engrave. You can also select the quality (HD is high definition / high quality).
Be sure to select the type of material first! That will impact the options when you select an action. (You won’t see the PG settings if it isn’t PG material.)
In case you’re a visual person - here’s an image of the commands with three parts done in three colours - and what happens when you click on the left side of the GFUI:
@theroar84 has a whole bunch of tutorials aimed at elementary ed and beginner lasering. He uses Tinkercad and shows you exactly how to do this to produce an SVG, as you have, add art or text and then set up the operations in the Glowforge User Interface (GFUI)
I made a simplistic key fob (needed one to assist in finding my extra truck key).
You are welcome to use it.
It is ready to score an inner highlight and cut the outside.
All you need to do is take their name, convert it to curves and place it in the inner free space (or a picture - whatever).
When setting it up - Just engrave their name, then remember to score the inner highlight and final process would be cut the outside and hole.
I am a visual learner and I have this whole thing figured out, but my main question is if I add something on here is there a way to separate it out and change the command???
If you use different colors when creating your file, it will be separate functions when you use the GUI. Then you can adjust settings or type of process you want.
Yeah, the answer to that is “it depends”
If they are different colours - definitely
If they are different functions (lines vs fills) - definitely
Anything else will sometimes group and sometimes not and the differences get specific to the art files, but you’ll get used to it once you’re working in it regularly
Thank you all so much! I am familiar with TinkerCAD and am going to browse through the tutorials of @theroar84 that @marmak3261 mentioned! What I have done so far that has been my original design (CEO logo ornament) was me adding things individually into the GFUI and then arranging accordingly (which I realized is a pain). My major issue right now is that I am SO limited with the Chromebook. I should have a department PC next week which will make things a little easier (Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, etc).
Thank you all so much for the help! I’m glad we could point you in the right direction. I’m going to close this thread. If you run into any other trouble, please start a new topic, or email us at support@glowforge.com. We’re here to help!
