So I got curious and went and asked in three FB forums what features people wanted from GF, no polling, just brainstorming.
Number 1: aligning items in the user interface. Especially text.
About half of them relate to trying to design things and frankly they’d be better off with using a design tool. GF should probably give every one a download link for Inkscape or Cricut Software with their GF.
Here’s the full list with number of mentions.
15 Align/centre items, especially text
9 No internet connection
8 Organise/search past jobs
6 Rotate items without premium
6 Weld items (mostly text)
5 Ungroup items
5 Nesting
5 Resize on side only
3 Flip items without premium
3 Use own fonts
3 Repeat job
1 Adjustable height
1 Better fan
1 Better job status
1 Cheaper
1 Cheaper premium
1 Drop multiple files
1 Easier to clean
1 Export design
1 Filter status
1 Free basic shapes
1 HIghlight overlaps
1 Light under tray
1 More fonts
1 Reliability
1 Repeat job
1 Use the camera to nest around used material!
1 Zero X and Y axis?
I saw a number of items on that list that non-premium users already can do. So a lot of people still do not understand how to use their Glowforge (or do not work through the introductory prints). Sigh.
Yep. Some of it real basic stuff like not knowing you can cut and paste to duplicate.
As a premium user I was surprised that you can’t flip - didn’t know that was a premium feature.
Was also surprised easier cleaning was not on the list given how often it comes up here.
Bear in mind the FB groups were more in the “plug and play” camp if I can put it that way.
If you mean what I think you mean, you can accomplish it by clicking the scale icon and then inactivating the “link” icon, so that it shows a broken link. That will allow you to adjust the drawing size from any side without moving both the width and the height.
“As a premium user I was surprised that you can’t flip”
By flip do you mean mirror?
You can do this by selecting the art then holding shift and control. Then choose one of the middle nodes and drag it across the artwork until it is flipped.
Alignment is one I have always wondered about. The functionality is there, it’s just non-obvious and non-intuitive.
Does any user in their right mind look at a 9 dot grid and some x-y coordinates and think, “Oh, that’s how I align things?” It took me forever to realize it was there and even longer to realize the dots were selectable and correspond to the center, corners and sides of the selection.
Yeah, that would be very handy.
Easier cleaning of the Pro exhaust fan is something GF should definitely do, although it’s unlikely to help current owners.
Better introduction to, well, almost everything for new users is mandatory if GF expects people not to be turned off by the discrepancy between their laughably superficial and optimistic “use it like a toaster” marketing and the reality of using the machine. Not to pick on GF marketing people. It’s pretty much all marketing people. Best used to weigh down lawyers and used car salespeople. Says me, an ex-marketer…
But my pet peeve is how often existing users have to tell new people how to save a file from the forum - seriously GF, it’s got to be the most common post by orders of magnitude in the entire community. Put a note at the top of every thread, or at least the ones in the Free Laser Designs. Do something. Life is too short to read “Right-click on… and save as…” 10 times in every thread.
And for the new users may I gently suggest that you actually read the whole thread before asking that question? Or any other. Thank you so very much!
