I took the rotary laser class at TechShop http://www.techshop.ws . I find that going in right away to actually do a project on my own helps me to better remember all the steps. So a few days after taking the class I went back to TechShop and brought a box of glasses to learn on.

Step 1:

At home I had made files of grape vines and verses about wine. The first problem I ran in to was that my grape vine art work was too fine the lines too delicate, for the machine to recognize. I finally had to trace a design and increase the pen width. (this is all in Corel Draw).

Step 2:

I put in the recommended settings for etching glass.

Step 3:

Once I overcame the design problems, I thought I was set. But when I did a test run the orientation was all wrong. I needed to set the design according to the 'new file' template which is the whole laser bed, rather than a page template of my usual Corel Draw page.
Now, I was sure I had it.
But nothing happened.
I found a TechShop staffer and he was flummoxed as well. We rebooted the machine and still nothing. He finally figured out it was the focus. The focus was redone and finally the etching began.

Step 4:

Figuring out the software, and the settings takes time. As I said, it was a learning day. Once I get used to settings and trouble shooting it will be the proverbial piece of cake. And there are such possibilities for this machine.