I cut a lot of puzzles and I set up every design in Illustrator on a 20x12 artboard. I set up a guide on the left side of my design in the cutting area and let the Glowforge do its positioning based off of my file.
Any puzzle that miscuts means I’m out the material $$$ and time, which eats into profits. I lost power about 1/3rd of the way into my last job, meaning I had a bunch of lines that were already cut. Recutting those lines means the print is wasted. Trying to manually position (even if accuracy were almost perfect) would mean the print was wasted. Since everything is positioned absolute in Illustrator, I was able to just look at what had been cut, spend 2 minutes in Illustrator deleting those portions and uploading a new file to resume the cut exactly where it had left off.
Glowforge works for me!
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Good suggestion, BUT, I created hundreds of 12 by 20 format files while waiting for GF delivery, then found out the cutting area is only 11.5 by 19.5. Bummer until the spec becomes 12 by 20. Or I’m going to have to purposely implement a shrinkage experience! 
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If you have elements that are too large for the existing cutting area and fall outside of it, yeah, I can see that not working for you. Is your stuff larger than the actual cutting area or just positioned in no-cut/engrave areas? My stuff is within the current useable bed limit and it takes just one template with guides set up to have a working document ready to go.
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All my files go to the edges, but rescaling is an option for some of them. We all adapt! I started with the premise that a 12 by 20 art board would have a lot benefits, good to see someone else was thinking about how to resolve registration before we found out there were no cartesian / absolute coordinates in the GF!
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Yeah, this is a good idea for any projects that take longer than a few mins.
If you really need to make sure you do not lose power I also recommend a UPS. If your living situation permits, pairing a UPS with a generator set is golden.
For REALLY long cut time projects, I recommend breaking them into different objects and/or colors so you can break it into a series or shorter operations if there is a need. Typically, I try to keep any single operation to 30 mins max. Though that is not reasonable with some types of engraves.
Just putting some additional options on the table!
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Definitely good options. I don’t have a UPS. My average cut job for a puzzle is about 24 mins. UPS would help with a blip for sure, but probably tough to run it to completion (depending on when it happened). Breaking them up into a series of operations is also good so that you don’t leave the laser unattended (until the pause/resume is brought to fruition).
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Thats a great suggestion! @jakerember
Not gonna make it. I think the final spec they’re aiming for is 11.5x20.4.
Dan’s announcement said that quite some time ago, but I don’t think they’ve updated it since then. I don’t think they can push it much beyond that though from examining the physical limits. Certainly won’t make 12 front to back. There’s not enough travel with the current size of the head.
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Guess I will have to lobby the Bureau of Standards to officially convert the length of the inch to 11.5/12 or 0.95833333333. Then all will be ok!
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