Saved Preprocessed Jobs - Lets you choose certain jobs you do often, and replay them without the server render time. This would have a number of benefits:
0 waiting time for the user doing the job.
Largely reduce rendering time for others, as these repetitive jobs arent clogging up the queue
Potential ability to use the glowforge offline if those jobs were storable locally (questionable, but possible)
File Organization - After a few years of use, this has become a nightmare. Please let us organize our files
Numeric Inputs/Readouts for resizing objects in the GFUI - This is a really simple one. The logic already exists in your code, just add some boxes to let us type in width/height or position. It would make so many things so much easier
Reflect/Invert Tools - Reflect for those times when you need to engrave something on acrylic instead of wood etc, and invert for raster graphics, usually for the same reason. Maybe just call it acrylic mode. Doesnt matter. We needs it
Add notes to files in the glowforge interface - I like to store information on each file. It would be great to be able to keep it WITH that file, instead of elsewhere and have to go look it up
File Reset - Restore the file you have to the original uploaded version in the case that things happen which cant be undone. Glowforge stores the original version of the file, and when you open it, loads it, then applies all the changes youve done to it (or maybe just the last state of the file). It would be trivial for them to remove all state updates on a per file basis to give you back what you originally uploaded.
I would say these are my top wants, in order, and would make everyone’s lives much easier when using the Glowforge. What say you @Dan and staff? Are these doable? Are they maybe already in testing? Im pretty sure I can vouch for most of the people on this forum, that these would be a major boon.
Not sure what that exactly means? Presumably you know the size since you made the drawing or source material (or own a program that can open and measure it). Do you mean precise positioning (i.e. absolute positioning?). You can do absolute positioning by using a 12x20 source file, and when the GFUI sees a file of that size it absolute positions everything.
Not sure reflect is needed (sure it’s handy if you get in there and realize you forgot to in Photoshop or whatever).
File organization is a long requested item in the “hopper” (the place feature requests basically go to wait). Yes, for those of us dating back to the PRU days, I have a stupidly long list of files.
I have an object that I commonly engrave at a certain exact sizes. If that size is changed in the GFUI through purpose or accident, I will never be able to get it back to the original size effectively. This means ill have to re-upload my file every time I need to make a change.
As of now, for certain things I make I have multiple files in my library that basically say “Object x - 5 in. version”, “Object x - 4 in. version” “Object x - 3 in. version” etc etc for each type of object I make.
So not only do I have pages of repetitive objects that I have to dig through to find the right object and size, if I ever open one up and my mouse slips and it resizes a little and then I go to make something else, that file is essentially ruined forever. Have to go find the original, remake it, re-upload it, etc. Its a huge hassle.
If I could use numeric resizing, I would know I was hitting 5, 4, or 3 inches exactly, and not have to have this multiplicative effect in my file system.
This was a feature they put in, for me, back in the pre-release days, so definitely aware of it =).
This is a very common issue, for me at least. Its especially painful when I have a very old file I want to do on acrylic or wood from previous acrylic setup. I may not be able to find the original, so I have to [acquire a copy of the file from somewhere], then do all my modifications, then re-upload. Its a pain.
Yeah I think everyone can agree on this one… Its long overdue
It has certainly been big for me as I often need to scale a design. The first Time I opened a file I ha no way to know how big it was, and made a comment in that regard. the next day there were rulers in the GFUI that I use all the tome now.
Not as good as the Inkscape interface, but way much better than no measurement at all!
It would be so great to have that sort of planning, but I use the page size all the time in Inkscape for centering and drawing size purposes and never know in advance where the wood will be or the best place on the wood. Just getting it square is a challenge.
Wait, there’s a way to download something from the UI to an SVG file? I did not know that, will have to look into that (although I agree with you it’s a pain but I have found myself wishing I could do it, can’t remember why that is now, though)
All of the files you upload to the GFUI are stored in the cloud, permanently, even if you delete the file from the file list, the actual file stays on the server and can be accessed from whatever URL it was at previously. I have a link to a file I deleted years ago and its still there.
Asking for any kind of “design” features in the Glowforge GUI is a surefire way to start an argument, but I am definitely on the side of “give us numerical control.”
But even those who religiously do not want us to have that ability should read this quote:
If we are not going to have the ability to make fine adjustments in the Glowforge UI, if indeed all design is to be designed by the designer in a proper design app… then the Glowforge had better at least give us the ability to LOCK objects so they CANNOT be accidentally resized. This is all too easy to do.
I think this should be a master toggle icon in the top tool bar. When on, it prevents all resize/rotation handles from functioning.
This happens to me all the time, I’ll resize something when I only wanted to move it. Or, I’ll realize as I move something that I forgot to group it, and then the undo doesn’t work, and my alignment is all messed up and I have to upload the file again and start all over. It would be really nice.
Although I will say that I used to also complain about the rotate and never being able to get things straight until I stumbled across the “Tips for the UI” help document @Jules did and learned that if you hold down the shift key while rotating it uses 45 degree angles. That was super helpful and not at all intuitive to figure out without instructions.
Ah you reminded me of another one I’ve been wanting. Ill add it to the list:
File Reset - Restore the file you have to the original uploaded version in the case that things happen which cant be undone.
Glowforge stores the original file, and applies changes to it that have been made after its loaded. An ability to remove all those changes and just reset the file to what it was when it was uploaded would save users a lot of trouble as well.
I normally disagree with one or more things in lists like this, but I think you’ve nailed it (I don’t need all of those features, but can see how they’d be useful AND none of them automatically break other functionality).
My biggies would be file organization and numeric Inputs/Readouts.
While a few locks might be useful, or a file reset. undo works as long as you have not left. My biggest problem in that regard is f I accidentally close the window or go to a different place losing that. When I go to the dashboard again even if it still goes to the same positioning window It loses all the undos.
I must be doing something to clear it out, because sometimes it will work, other times not. I haven’t quite figured out why (although I haven’t really tried very hard either-- usually just re-upload the file). And for that matter, sometimes I wish I could revert the settings to some previous starting point. But I wouldn’t really need that either if I would just learn to write stuff down while I’m testing. I’m really bad about that, just want to find what works. And then when I do find it, I’m so excited I forget to write it down.
