Preflight Validation
Preflight is CraftStage's quality gate. It validates every item in your job against the template and generates a report of issues — so you never discover a problem after material is on the laser bed.
Running preflight
Click the Preflight tab on any job detail page to see the current preflight status. Click Run Preflight to trigger a new validation pass. Preflight also re-runs automatically when you fix an item.
Issue severities
Preflight issues are classified into three severity levels:
| Severity | Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Error | Red | Must be fixed before export. Export is blocked until all errors are resolved. |
| Warning | Yellow | Should be reviewed but doesn't block export. May indicate quality concerns. |
| Info | Blue | For awareness only. No action required. |
Issue codes
| Code | Severity | What it means | How to fix it |
|---|---|---|---|
OVERFLOW | Error | Text exceeds the field boundary even at the minimum font size | Shorten the text, increase the field size, or lower the minimum font size |
MISSING_REQUIRED | Error | A required field has no value | Add the missing data to the item |
EMPTY_JOB | Error | The job has no items | Parse or manually add items |
NO_TEMPLATE | Error | No template is assigned to the job | Select a template |
SHRINK_WARNING | Warning | Text was shrunk more than 30% from the base font size | Review if the reduced size is still readable |
MISSING_FONT | Warning | The specified font wasn't found, using a fallback | Check font availability or use curves export mode |
LONG_TEXT | Warning | Text is unusually long and may need review | Verify the data is correct |
SPECIAL_CHAR | Info | Non-ASCII characters are present (accents, special symbols) | No action needed — just awareness |
The fix loop
The preflight tab is designed for a quick fix workflow:
- See the issue list, grouped by severity
- Click on any issue — it opens the edit dialog for that item
- Fix the problem (shorten a name, add a missing field, etc.)
- Save — preflight re-runs automatically
- The fixed issue disappears from the list
- Repeat until error count reaches zero
When all errors are resolved, the Export button becomes active.
Preflight and export
A job must pass preflight with zero errors to be marked as "production ready." Warnings do not block export but are worth reviewing. You can export a job with warnings, but not with errors.
For detailed information about resolving specific preflight issues, see Troubleshooting: Preflight Errors.
Next step
Once preflight is clean, generate proofs to preview the output before sending to your customer.