We already have a proof-of-concept. Been there, done that, it works! ;)
Well...Quote:
I'm not bloody stupid you know...
I'm just kidding. :)
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I see on their form that Glowforge can not ship to a least 20 countries so they are sending out emails saying that the person will be getting a refund after a 2 year wait. Very good business concept this from a company that calls a laser engraver/cutter a 3 d printer. why did it take this long to realize that you need to be approved to ship over seas
Great way to get an interest free loan.
Attachment 369561Found on the gf site...... Speaks to the general mood.
It's because lasers are dual use for export purposes.Quote:
I see on their form that Glowforge can not ship to a least 20 countries
Remember when I said GF didn't employ anybody that knows anything about lasers ? ;)
Oh, thanks. I noticed you have an Epilog. Here's what their wordsmith marketing says. I noted the good parts that you'll probably need to discuss with them. Ask them if their driver will allow you to engrave/cut directly from a screen saver file.
Epilog:
"You can engrave scanned photos, logos, bitmaps, other images, text, and AutoCAD files. *Essentially, if you can print it, you can engrave it.*"
"Attached to your computer just like a printer, the system will cut designs you create in *most graphic software programs.*"
"Our laser systems work through a print driver, so you can design your files in many different graphic software packages including CorelDraw, Illustrator, Photoshop, AutoCAD, *and much more.* CorelDraw is the most commonly used software, but the laser *works with many different packages.*"
Here's Universal's:
"Virtually any design file format can be used."
Trotec:
"As easy to use as an office printer. Using its vectorizing function, you can send the files from your usual graphics program directly to the laser machine for marking. No intermediate step is required and work preparation is reduced to a minimum. "
That's probably enough about print drivers for me.
Ok, I'll bite: what exactly do you mean by "screen saver file"? The executable programs that generate the cool patterns? The BMP files used as wallpaper? Something else?
(In some cases, the answer is "Yes." In other cases, the answer is "No, but neither will any other printer I own.")
There's also the question of what you mean by "directly": if, for example, you right-click on a .PDF file and select 'Print', Windows launches Acrobat Reader to do the printing. It can't go directly to the printer driver because printer drivers are not stand-alone programs. In any case, at that point, it doesn't know what printer to use.
Again, that is true for any printer driver, not just Epilog/ULS/Trotec.
A lot of the countries on the list are in warm climates. The GF probably wouldn't work there unless they invested in A/C so they should consider themselves lucky ;)
my lasers can raster engrave virtually anything that's on a computer screen... I just click 'print screen', open any program I want that will display it, paste it, click 'print', choose my laser (can't avoid this! ;) ), click the photo icon, send to the laser...
But "cutting" requires a toolpath, and toolpath's don't just happen, they must be created beforehand. How the toolpath is created is totally insignificant. It simply must reside in any program that will print it AS a toolpath rather than a photo of a toolpath, aka a bitmap...