Where can Snapmarks be found? I thought with Premium, they were available.
Snapmarks were never an official feature. Only the machines that had them back in the early days will have them today. Never came out of beta.
3 Likes
(the premium features are outlined on the page dedicated to it - snapmarks are not mentioned)
2 Likes
I used them very successfully in 2019. Now I find no icon indicating they are available. I have changed machines. Wonder if machine precision has changed making snapmarks functioning no longer work?
If anything the precision has gone up for most things. The only thing Snapmarks was great for IMHO was fine rotation as that was the only thing that would address it. If you have a Pro the pro passthrough is basically what the snapmarks were designed to get data for.
1 Like
Snapmarks were assigned by machine, back when they were introduced, not by owner.
They were used to refine the lid camera calibration process.
2 Likes
Yes Snapmarks were enabled to the specific machine. I happen to have two printer heads and it’s interesting that although the function is enabled on the machine itself, only one of the heads works with Snapmarks. The other fails to recognize the marks.
Thanks for reminding me. I need to switch back to the original head. Have a large job in the next week that uses the Snapmarks on my old jig.
5 Likes
The functionality of snapmarks depends on the accuracy of the camera in the head itself. So, in theory, if you put that head in a new machine, it would be capable of having them, but unlikely it would automatically transfer over.
I was remembering that Snapmarks were mentioned to be available only for Premium subscribers back when Premium was first introduced. This was another encouragement to go Premium. Too long ago for me to find such text now.
Glad to know about your experience with your two machines.
I’m fairly sure that never happened.
2 Likes
That never happened.
At one point, those of us that had them were wondering if they would leave it enabled (which they did) but it was never promised as part of Premium. They simply couldn’t, because it’s hardware dependent.
2 Likes
Snapmarks and fine rotation are… ok I guess… But for me they are for print and cut situations. Trying to print something (or in my case dye sublimate) and then line it up for a cut is next to impossible to get fine placement. But snapmarks makes it a literal snap. As long as it recognizes the marks. The marks are a little finicky at times.
3 Likes
I was using them to cut Kirigami patterns as well as for cards with front/back alignments. Sure miss them. Wonder what is was that made them work on some only machines and not on any machine?
1 Like
Alignment/accuracy of the camera in the head.
It was a testing project to get the “camera calibration” working.
Not sure. At least you were just in the boat where you thought they were included with premium. When I was researching the glowforge, some youtubers were showing them off and that was one of the biggest selling points for me. I knew I was going to be using it in a print to cut scenario. Then when I got the machine they were nowhere to be found. I eventually got them a year and a half later when they were beta testing something else (for passthrough alignment I think) but It’s definitely left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.
I’m guessing that the alignment on some machines just isn’t up to snuff and even snapmarks doesn’t make it work perfectly. Just a guess on my part though. If it were ME… I’d release them to everyone with the caveat that they may not work for all machines and if they don’t work on yours… there’s nothing that can be done. That way people would get use out of them. Because when they do work… they work really well.
Again, thinking it has something to do with the head itself. I don’t have two machines as you thought, just the one machine, but I have a spare head. My old head works with Snapmarks and the newer head doesn’t. The spare head was sent specifically for Snapmark testing.
Oh that’s interesting, and I hadn’t thought of snapmarks not working with a different head. I don’t use them often, but I’m glad you mentioned it as I would have never figured out why they were no longer working. Glad I still have my old head if I do even need it.
1 Like
I answered this above.
The head camera determines whether the machine is capable.
1 Like
Saw that, and have no reason to believe otherwise because logically that makes sense. I was only willing to say the head because more broadly I can see a few other head related possibilities, and a more unlikely S/W related issue that has to with the sensor limits. My narrowing it down further would invoke some obscure engineering law that guarantees I would be wrong. But you are likely correct.
1 Like
It’s how the calibration and ultimately the passthrough were implemented.
The lid camera is nowhere near high enough resolution to provide accurate positioning but the head camera is right on top of the work and (especially during the calibration process) can center over those GF logos and produce a motion map that gives <1/4" positioning accuracy.
Snapmarks enabled them to record data as we used them, and fine-tune the process to make the calibration possible. It also played a major role in perfecting alignment between “steps” in the passthru process.
My estimation is that those who have issues with passthru likely didn’t have snapmarks, as the camera was not as accurate as needed. Unfortunately for those owners, that was a promised feature so they pretty much had no choice but to enable it.
1 Like