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The Glowforge App Workspace

The Glowforge App Workspace is a place to make magical things happen! Let’s get familiar with your tools.

For this article, we are dividing the app into four main sections, labeled below for desktop and mobile displays: 

    1. App Navigation bar 
    2. Main Menu 
    3. Context Menu 
    4. Print Steps 

Desktop:

Mobile:

App Navigation Bar

At the top level, you have a navigation bar that houses access to settings and menus.

This navigation bar, from left to right, contains: 

    1. Navigation menu (shown below)
    2. Glowforge logo links back to the app dashboard
    3. Print Steps entry point (on mobile browsers) 
    4. Materials selector button (on desktop browsers) 
      • Read more about the material sector tool in the Print Steps section below.
    5. Name of your open project
      • You can click here to edit the project name from the navigation bar. 
    6. Account settings and machine selector 
      • Opening this tab enables you to see and access your account settings, including switching between machines if you have multiple connected to your account. You can also select a machine from the Machine dropdown to set your canvas size.

App Main Menu

At the top of your workspace is the main menu, which is always shown.

 

On mobile, use your finger to scroll across all the main menu options: 

The tools in the Main Menu, from left to right, are: 

 

Context Menu 

The context menu appears whenever any object(s) are selected, and shows tools available to use on the object. On a desktop sized browser, it opens on the right-hand side, and on a mobile browser, it opens on the bottom of the app. 

On mobile, use your finger to scroll on the context menu for more tools: 

The icons on the Context Menu are: 

Print Steps modal

The Print Steps show you the components of your current design, and is used to apply cut, score, or engrave settings to each as your design requires.

Access the print steps in the top right section of your app: on desktop, and on mobile click the layers button in the Navigation bar.

 

To learn more about selecting settings, visit our Help & Learning Center section here.

Clean canvas mode
 
The workspace can also display a clean white canvas without the camera bed image. This mode is useful for designing and laying out artwork without the visual distraction of the camera feed.
 
How to switch to the clean canvas
 
- Click on the top right menu dropdown, and select the default canvas or enter your custom canvas size.
 
- The canvas size is determined by the machine selected in the Machine dropdown in the upper left corner. If no machine is selected, the default canvas size is 12 x 20 inches. You can also search for the laser you are working with to get its bed size, or enter a custom dimension.
 
- All design tools (Magic Canvas, Add Artwork, Add text, Box Builder, Trace Artwork, Outline, Smartfit, and more) work the same way in the clean canvas as they do in the standard camera view.
 
Who can use the clean canvas?
 
- Glowforge owners can switch to the clean canvas any time they want a cleaner workspace for designing, and then switch back to camera view when ready to print.
 
- Other laser owners who don't have a Glowforge connected will use the clean canvas as their default workspace. Since there is no camera feed, the canvas is always a clean white surface. After designing, click Export (instead of Print) to download the file for use in your laser's software.
 
When you're using the clean canvas
 
- No camera bed image — the background is a plain white canvas.
 
- The Print button is replaced by an Export button for users without a connected Glowforge.
 
- Print step settings are simplified to Cut, Score, and Engrave (detailed settings like power, speed, and number of passes are configured in your laser's own software after exporting).
 
- Material selection is optional and only affects the on-screen preview appearance.