Would it be possible to add a text box to make it easy to add text while engraving/cutting. Also I realized that while the speed is set to slow the cut head is slow moving to the next spot for engraving. Is there a way to have the speed bumped up while it is move to the engraving section it would greatly improve the speed.
I don’t think you should expect the Glowforge app to become a design application. That’s not its purpose. Kinda like how your printer driver isn’t a spreadsheet app… it just prints them. They’d probably be really bad at it anyway considering all of the design applications that already exist in the world. It’s just not their thing, ya know? Different tools for different purposes. You design in your design app, you cut with your Glowforge app.
I haven’t noticed that being the case. I mean, I admit I haven’t paid close attention to that over the years, but I’m pretty sure if I engrave an object in the upper-left, and another object in the lower-right, it would speed up to get there. I wonder if your objects are being combined so that it thinks they’re part of the same job? I mean, are they showing up as separate objects with their own settings for you? If not, that, I think, could explain it.
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I heartily agree with you. And yet I am curious as to the difference between the hobby vinyl cutters like Silhouette and Cricut having design software and the Glowforge not having it. For some reason I think that the vinyl cutters are more apt to build out their ecosystem to minimize inter-operativity. That is generally a sound business practice if you can leverage that. Hence Silhouette charges you $50 to full SVG functionality with their machine.
Glowforge made the decision early on to get a solid inter-operative standard with the SVG and PDF. Didn’t need to reinvent that or lock anyone in. Their lid camera tech for placement and their Proofgrade seems to offer the best use for their small staff. from the outset. No need to do a half-baked design feature that anyone with a modicum of tech literacy would blow right past. Too busy getting the product out. Not to mention the cloud based solution. Yes web based widgets are getting more and more powerful, but they could concentrate on their unique tech niche while dispensing with the usual hardware and motion control solutions in legacy laser systems that are often tied to one computing platform.
I don’t know what I’m talking about but just thinking out loud.
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It’s interesting you say this. Originally those machines relied on proprietary cartridges to get designs, with design software that wouldn’t open any other kind of file. Eventually, people hacked the system and created external software to allow people to cut other kinds of files. Cricut and Silhouette had to adapt. Now, you can use pretty much any reasonable design file/image. You don’t need to design in their software, but it is significantly more user friendly than other design packages on the market, while still allowing for some powerful edits. The tiered software system that Silhouette uses may seem obnoxious, but since the base software is free (with or without the machine), it’s hard to complain about paying for additional features. That said, I think Cricut and Silhouette still make a good portion of their money from the designs files they sell from their own shop.
As for the rest, I agree that I’d rather GF stay in their lane rather than wasting time and money attempting to reinvent a wheel that is already perfectly round.
Can’t hurt to ask, though!
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Just for the record: Silhouette has always allowed you to use your own software instead of cartridges only via the Connect plugin, even back in their CraftRobo days.
It’s why I’ve always favored them over Cricut.
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Yes! You are totally right. I was mostly thinking that the early evolution of those machines was cartridge only and had forgotten that Silhouette wasn’t even around yet.
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They took over US branding of CraftRobo 
This I knew, but I though CraftRobo came later, too. Did it predate Cricut?
It depends on your definition of predate I suppose. Cricut’s been around for 15 years or so, Graphtec/Craftrobo since well before 2009 (they were already firmly established when I bought my first Robo then)
ProvoCraft/Cricut has been actively hostile to letting users make their own designs until quite recently. Just a few years ago they sued SCal and MakeTheCut for making their software compatible with digital Cricuts.
Meanwhile, since Graphtec/Craftrobo were marketed at the vinyl sign industry instead of home crafters, they’ve been on the make your own artwork train from the beginning. Graphtec/Silhouette became the rebranding for the craft market around 2010ish.
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I mean, “Predate” isn’t exactly subjective. 
I agree about Cricut. And, honestly, which company came first isn’t important. The point I was trying to make in response to the above comment was that it used to be a lot worse and that this is a relatively “open” situation compared to where we started.
[I started with a Cricut ages ago (maybe 2005?), but when Silhouette was rebranded, I got a Cameo for the same reasons you did. I wanted nothing to do with the proprietary Cricut carts and their insistence on locking us into their designs. I’ve stuck with Silhouette products ever since. But I do think that both brands use their own design stores as a prime source of income, which explains a bit of Cricut’s stingy behavior.]
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Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll make sure the team gets them.
I’m going to close this thread now, if you have any questions or concerns you could open up a new thread or just email in at support@glowforge.com. We’re here to help!