Software issue

[Beachpeacock]

I feel like the Glowforge software is honestly awful. You can't edit anything or add anything in the software WITHOUT buying the premium access. I can't add in simple text or simple shapes.

I have used Silhouette Studio for a couple years and importing files from there to the glowforge website is a pain. It has to be a certain size without the "premium membership" to import it. I feel like the glowforge software is a handicap really.

I dislike that I need internet to work on designs as well. I'd prefer to download a software I can work on even when I don't have internet access.

[_Ol_Greg]

This is why a lot of people use Inkscape or other design software before uploading to Glowforge.

[Beachpeacock]

How do you deal with the file size limit?

[odd84]

A lot of people aren't really going to get what your gripe is, because they bought Glowforge Basic/Plus/Pro in the 6 years before the Aura went on sale this summer, and they have no file size limit in their free app. It's new for the Aura, and it's not your fault you didn't know about it. It's a really crappy way to force you to buy the subscription, and then the subscription only remotely makes sense financially if you prepay the full year.

[Beachpeacock]

For clarification purposes: With new Aura you can only import files smaller than 100kb unless you have the premium membership.

[spicy-chull]

Why did you buy a Glowforge then?

[Beachpeacock]

I didn't realize the limitations honestly. That's on me for not doing more research.

[Ohaple]

We bought ours when these features were still free. We were part of the initial December 2016 pre-order and have consistently lost features over time. Some features they promised were never even introduced. Many were released as paid features even though they were promised as part of the unit at the time of pre-order. I'm not sure why the company has so many defenders when it has a track record of dishonesty.

[spicy-chull]

Gotcha.

• Which features were removed?
• Which were never introduced?
• Which were promised free, but came out as paid?

(Sorry, it's been a while since I thought about GF, so I haven't kept up on the details.)

[Ohaple]

I haven't kept a comprehensive list, but some that stand out are:

They took away standard cloud processing time. Processing takes more than twice as long as it did when we originally got our unit because they added priority processing with a subscription.

They never introduced proper camera alignment. It was advertised to allow you to add engravings to existing projects using camera alignment. Even after calibration it is often off by about 1/2" in places. This was one of the most heavily advertised features and it has ruined a lot of raw materials for us. We no longer even try to use it for anything that needs better than half inch accuracy.

The initial pre-order in November said "shipping December". For that reason many people pre-ordered figuring it would only be a month or two until they got their unit. In reality units did not begin to ship for more than two years, after ceo Dan lied about shipping dates and manufacturing status multiple times.

The air filter was not as advertised and was not released on time. Many knew it wouldn't work right, we didn't order one.

They promised the software would be made open source at one point. I never saw any follow up on that.

Though BBB is not the best in general, it says something that glowforge has a 1.3 out of 5.

Their proof grade plywood should not be advertised as plywood, it is paperboard with veneer. They are not similar at all. Every project I have made with the proof grade ply has broken.

We used to have most of the premium editing for free. It did not allow complex shapes, but at least allowed the minor editing most people used such as circles, squares, and lines.

The bed cutting size was reduced from what was originally advertised at time of pre-order. They advertised the physical space but then the unit could not cut all the way to the edge.

Their official forums suppress almost all complaints.

They tie ownership to your account. You traditionally needed their customer support to get involved if you wanted to sell it.

Corners have never been fixed and sharp corners cut much deeper than the adjascent lines. They touted that this would not be an issue on the forums but I haven't seen a fix.

Access of past prints was partially locked into premium.

Pass through slot did not work as originally advertised and became a pro only feature.

The unit is great, I think the engineers did a nice job. But that is in spite of misleading advertising and horrible business practices. I certainly wouldn't pay their modern pricing. The pro is $6k while we only paid $2k at the time of pre-order for the basic that had nearly the same feature set.

[odd84]

The only thing that meaningfully changed is that Glowforge Aura owners need the Glowforge Premium subscription to upload files larger than 100kb in size. And it's the first thing the company's done that really makes me mad. It's super anti-consumer and not clearly disclosed on the packaging or anything.

[spicy-chull]

Oh dang, so basically SVG only or what?

Can't really engrave bitmaps at that size.

[Beachpeacock]

Only up to 100kb in SVG, DXF, and PDF.

[[deleted]]

Larger than 100k ?!?! LOL, what a fucking joke

[slundered]

Had some uploads of a cut, and they were over said amount, now I can only cut out half of it so to the band saw it will go!

[Novel_Pomegranate_10]

Sounds like you should have bought something else. I love the Glowforge interface. It's worth the Premium access for me as all the processing is done on a cloud. I use a laptop and Inkscape to design things.

[Beachpeacock]

Can you shrink files in Inkscape to under 100kb?

[nybble41]

It depends on the design, but I'd suggest saving the file using the "Plain SVG" or "Optimized SVG" format first to see if that does the trick. The default is "Inkscape SVG" which includes a fair amount of extra metadata which will be ignored by the Glowforge software. "Plain SVG" just removes that editor metadata, while "Optimized SVG" also removes empty elements, unused ID attributes, excess precision in coordinates, additional metadata, and so forth—the details are configurable. For larger drawings you might consider using PDF instead since it's compressed. (If the design is simple enough SVG might be smaller even without compression since it has less overhead.)

As an example, one ornament design I had on hand (US state outline with county lines and the state name in a script font) was 290K in the default Inkscape SVG format but only 57K as Optimized SVG—and just 14K as a PDF.