Aha! Yes, I’m so sorry, I misunderstood. Everyone’s designs are absolutely private, by default. We haven’t designed a way to share yet but that is forthcoming.
–dan
6 Likes
Excellent! That’s what I expected, but good to have the clarification.
It would be really cool to be able to have your own glowforge server. By which I mean:
a) I really want to be able to use glowforge off my own kit on my own netowrk
b) Much of your software will be open sourced based and pitched at makers, giving us the opportunity to work on the software will let us do things we didn’t know were possible.
I appreciate there may be some proprietary stuff in there, and no-one expects you to do all this on day one, but as with the commitment to open sourcing the firmware, opensourcing the software will really make glowforge stand out amongst open source makers.
I agree, I would really like to run my Glowforge off my own network because sometime internet is spotty.
@dan Sorry if this is a repeat but will the machine download all the cutting code before a job is able to start? or does it stream? If the connection quite in the middle of a job what will happen?
Like everyone in this post I share the same thoughts about offline vs cloud but like you pointed out Dan that this wouldn’t be for us if we wanted it super secure. Eventually all of us if we went commercial, except for people who own businesses/mfg houses, will have to send out our plans to manufacturers through the internet and even then your ISP or email client can hold the data and scan it, etc. So in a way Glowforge servers (Google Servers?) are just as secure as sending emails to manufactures. Is that an ok assumption to make? Kinda just going from the hip. I’m not exactly a comp sci guy.
However I do wonder since the magic that Glowforge servers do is basically like a manufacturing house (minus the machines) provide easy to use CAM and NC program/motion control the machines to print and lots of other awesome things, does this mean all users of the machines have a blanket NDA with Glowforge? I’ve dealt with many mfg houses and most either have a statement on their website about proprietary information or have to sign an NDA with the mfg house before any designs are sent.
Dan, is there somewhere on Glowforge or Google servers that would have the same sort of guarantee for users when sending our designs to the cloud? Or, like might be the case, is it implied that there is a risk when using the Cloud service?
I personally like the cloud idea to help since I’ve used hardware like octoprint and a smoothstepper (with ethernet) so I understand the importance to users who need to multitask and offload the cpu power to do other things but the fact that we don’t have control of the server physically probably is the big point with people. The octoprint and smoothstepper are physical things that I have control of on an intranet not connected to the internet. However, bottom line is for everyone if someone really wants what you made, if they even know what the flat patterns are for or how to assemble them, then you might not be hiding your designs well enough. That statement of course doesn’t apply to most professions, just something I think is true for engineers. And to add to that, like any business out there if someone really wants your design but not as fast then they could easily just buy the product later and reverse engineer it like most anything now a days.
I hear your requests that you’d like the server software to be open, supported, and locally run-able. I’m not going to say no, but it’s not our plan right now, and if it’s a requirement for you to be happy with your machine, then I’m afraid we might not be a good fit for you. I want to be honest about where are priorities are at because I don’t want you to have a Glowforge unless you’re going to love it, even if that costs us sales.
@markwarfel: Most jobs fit in a local cache, so if you lose connection, it finishes. For big jobs, it reaches a pausing point, then stops until it can reconnect.
@sl33pydog: You raise an excellent point. We should be absolutely clear that unless you tell us otherwise, we’re legally committed to keeping your designs private, and Glowforge can’t do anything with them except send them to your (and only your) printer. I’m going to have our attorney make sure that we have language to that effect before we launch. Thank you for bringing that up.
2 Likes
Personally, I don’t care if the server software is open. Yeah, that’d be nice, but whatever. I do think it should have some offline functionally that doesn’t require the end user to destroy their warranty by reflashing the firmware (so it doesn’t have to be your fancy package - just the ability to control it offline would be great). Even if it’s basic stuff for advanced users.
I really think you guys are underestimating how stable internet connections are, even here in north america.
1 Like
The open source lasersaur project handles this pretty well using a local server running on a Beagle Bone Black with a nice REST API now included in the alpha branch. Would be trivial to host the active job or last couple jobs locally using something similar and sync with your cloud servers for any intensive processing or toolpath calculation that needs to happen.
1 Like
I understand the ideology behind potential convenience of cloud based communication with the Glowforge, but it seems like you will be alienating more advanced users who want more customizable choices and options. I pre-ordered a Pro Model and am very excited to get my hands on this laser for a lot of reasons. But I’m pretty wary of the fact that this would be a $4000 paperweight if my internet connection goes out (which believe it or not happens semi-regularly enough). For someone running a business or large jobs it’d be nice to have a guarantee that we can run the laser locally without an internet connection if necessary.
I’m curious @dan what the disadvantage on your end is for the Glowforge to be capable of being run locally by its user?
@dan Something that’s been glossed over, you mentioned deleting a design from our profile, will it actually be deleted from your servers or merely not displayed in our profile? I would really prefer to know that once I delete something it is deleted either immediately or in some pre-defined period of time.
Seems like you might be setting this up so we can also select some of our projects in our private storage, to also be public. Kind of like YouTube with private and unlisted videos vs the public videos. Maybe we could also set a price on them to download them?
First off I can’t wait to get my GF. Second I also own an Inventable X-Carve 100mm CNC router which uses a web /cloud based program called Easel. There I can design, store, and retrieved my wood routing designs. Only if I hit a button that says “share” will it allow the rest of the community to see and use it. I am assuming that this will be somewhat if not the same. Of course it could always be hacked but that can happen no matter what as long as you’re tied into the world wide web. lol
I’ve used lint rollers. Some are cheap.
@jskinger re: permanent delete: will put that in the feature hopper (don’t know how it’s implemented at the moment, might be that way already).
We are working out the notions of private, public, and catalog, and what aspects will be for each one.
2 Likes
I’m afraid it’s just not possible for us to provide running updates on individual feature requests.
1 Like
@dan, ouch. I was referring to your comment above: “We are working out the notions of private, public, and catalog, and what aspects will be for each one.” Just wondering if it’s all sorted.
How is this a “running update on individual feature requests” for you? Cloud and privacy is important to us all. I’ll crawl back under my rock now…
2 Likes
I know, and I’m honored that you and so many other people care so much about what we’re doing! But unfortunately if I updated everyone on everything they cared about when they asked about it, I wouldn’t get any work done. 
2 Likes
@dan You’re being somewhat dismissive of an important question. Getting finality on this would be appreciated at some point. Preferably before the units ship.
I can tell you the things you make arent going to be shared with others by default. That would be quite the travesty.
They have spoken about the ability to share your designs with others once they introduce that functionality and potentially have some control over print/download/modify. Dan understands the need for IP protection, and would lose a lot of customers if the designs they were going to print werent safe; not to mention the lawsuits if others got access to private, copyrighted files.
I dont think you have anything to worry about on this front.
2 Likes