This is an open letter to the Snapmaker staff.
I received my A350 a little over a week ago and have been impressed with the assembly of both the device itself and the enclosure. I have been mostly successful in creating objects with all three of the product’s interchangeable heads.
But in the process of doing this work I have found the documentation to be lacking. I was able to do a 3D print using the section of the Quick Start Guide that came with the printer. I was also able to produce the cell phone holder using the instructions from the Quick Start Guide aided by additional information provided in the online User Manual. The Laser head however, was a different subject. I struggled with the process outlined in the Quick Start Guide and found that the information in the User Manual really didn’t help much since it did not reflect what I was seeing while looking at the Luban 3.9.0 software. I documented my findings in a post to the Product Features section of the forum [Comments on Quick Start Guide and Laser User Manual].
While I have received some favorable comments to my post, there have been no comments from staff about this disconnect between what is in the User Manual and what is seen in the Luban software.
Most troubling about the issues I’ve seen is that there are sections of the UI shown in Luban 3.9.0 that have no definitions of buttons, or how to use those buttons. Are users expected to figure this out on their own, or can we expect Snapmaker to update the existing User Manuals (which are all dated August)?
Having worked in the industry for many years I do understand that there is a push to get out updated software (to solve customer issues, bugs and provide new features) sooner rather than later. And there’s always a lag in getting accurate User documentation that matches the new software.
With the delivery of the last Kickstarter customer units (of which I am one), and the Snapmaker 2.0 going into full production I suspect that this gap between what we see in the software and what is documented will only get worse.
So, with all that said, what is Snapmaker prepared to do to resolve this issue? The OOBE (Out Of Box Experience) for new Snapmaker 2.0 customers may be less than ideal if they face this documentation gap.
Is there something that current customers can do to help close this gap? There appear to be many users on the forum that have very good experience in using the product. I’m not volunteering them, but I am willing to help if that is possible. I am - as you might have guessed - a documentation oriented person, so there are things I could help with here.
So what say you?
Rick
) and you are correct the lounge is for “regulars” and staff. and i agree with you, for people to become proficient with the capabilities of the SM2 we need better documentation. much has already been written here on the forums but we need someone with time and experience to culminate it all into one, good, readable, document. I will let you know what i hear, and the people i tagged at the bottom of my last post are all staff, so hopefully we will get some attention from them as well. let me know if there is anything i can do to help.