I’m trying to find documentation regarding how the Glowforge interprets file formats, and haven’t turned up what I’m hunting for.
In the past, other laser cutters I’ve used allow you to control the speed / power of the laser using different colors or line thicknesses in the file itself. Does the Glowforge operate on the same principle? Or does it cut all vector lines in a file at the same power based purely on the material specifications?
I’m trying to figure out how to get settings for various materials I have (woods, but of different species / thicknesses), and usually the first thing I do is make a file that makes a grid of cuts at every 10% of speed / power, so that I can carefully tune the laser for that material. Is there documentaiton on this somewhere?
It is a two part process. In your vector files each color is considered a separate operation. Then in the UI there is a tab for each color where you set the speed and power.
The line weight for stroke thickness is completely ignored in vector graphics on the Glowforge. As @lairdknox said, each color represents a unique job and opportunity to assign power/speed/focus in the user interface. No colors have pre-determined settings.
Catalogue designs can select the type and order of operations in an SVG file but the GFUI explicitly stops you using those same definitions. Power and speed, etc is determined by the material setting, but only for PG materials.