Centering watch band design in glowforge

I need help! For some reason while designing on glowforge the design on the bands looks centered and great, but when it finishes engraving its to one side. I made my jigs on medium acrylic and another one on wood because its what I had handy. I am not sure what could be going wrong? I have ruined a couple bands due to this! Please help!!

Are you using the set focus tool and making sure that the beam hits directly on the material to be engraved? Is the design centered and in the same file as the jig? If the artwork is part of the jig, the engrave should not be offset. Perhaps you can share a photo of what you are seeing.

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When you use jigs you do not use the camera to place the artwork. Use the jig. Pay no attention to the camera view.

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I am designing the artwork on glowforge its not part of the jig. I am just using the jig to place the bands so they dont move. I set the design and focus.

I am not sure what I am doing wrong? I just started making these.

For jigs to work properly, the artwork should be part of the jig. Cut the jig and set the engrave to ignore, then remove the cutout, place the watchband and ignore cut and set engrave. However, if you are not going to do it that way, you can try using the measurement/placement tool, noting the coordinates of the jig and centering your artwork relative to those coordinates.

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So I have to make a jig everytime I am going to engrave a band?

There is a lot of information here in the forum regarding alignment, camera calibration and jigs. Have you completed the camera calibration program?

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You don’t have to make a jig every time if your camera alignment is spot on or you use the placement tool properly.

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How do I if my camera is aligned right? And which one is the placement tool? :weary:

When using the camera for visual alignment, your best results will be if you place your artwork directly under the camera and use the set focus tool on the material you will engrave. After the image adjusts from the set focus, you will be able to align your artwork. There is a small ruler icon on the left side of the interface which is the measurement/placement tool. You can read about camera calibration here: Lid Camera Calibration Beta

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Thank you so much for your help. I will calibrate the camera and see if that works.

The camera does not need to be calibrated to use a jig. I have used the same piece of amazon box lid for multiple watch bands over months - just position it in the same spot (mine goes in the bottom left corner, against the lip on the edges of the tray.)

Upload your watch band template.
Add your artwork.
Cut ONLY the template shape, remove pieces. NEVER move this in your file again (unless you plan to cut a new jig.)
IGNORE template, engrave artwork.

For new designs, just move the old artwork and ignore or delete it, position the new artwork inside the original template outline.

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