Also, just to throw it in there, did you run your camera calibration with your sacrificial piece of draftboard yet? I forget where the test is located, nevermind, found it. I usually have to run it when I move my glowforge. Also, make sure the surface is sitting on is flat (level and flat are a little different). You’ll be able to tell if its flat because the lid of the glowforge won’t sit flush with the body of it.
All those aside, set focus is your friend. If you get an error message, it’s usually because the material is either the wrong height for the laser (too high or low), reflective, too dark, or not level. Lots of ways to fix those problems on the forums.
If you’re trying to place an object like a box and align a design, it’s best to put it directly under the camera.
I usually make a jig for accurate alignment, but I’m not great with jigs without a crumb tray. Recently there have been some great posts about material placement without a crumbtray. She shows the rulers she made and placement.
Also, you don’t have to respond individually, just type @ and the username and it will tag them in the reply so that you don’t get that message from the forum gods about talking too much by yourself.
Looking for some of the threads I was talking about, here are some:
https://community.glowforge.com/t/reinsertable-grid-file-and-tutorial/93366