Image moves while preparing to print

I am trying to engrave a dog tag but every time I click Print, the image jumps down. I can’t get it to engrave centered on the tag. I’ve done the calibration test and it said calibration was fine. What is making the image move!

You need to use the set focus tool prior to placing your artwork. Make sure that the focus beaam lands squarely on your material where you intend to place your artwork.

For precise placement, a jig is your best tool.

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Also try to place your work directly under the camera, although the suggestion to use the set focus tool will give the most accuracy. :blush:

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To answer your question, the most likely reason for the design to move like that is that while it’s preparing to print, the Glowforge is checking and altering its focus, which changes the position due to a parallax shift. Both of the suggestions above will help, however. Check focus should preset the focus, eliminating the shift, and centering the design directly under the camera lens will reduce the parallax shift.

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Thank you for reaching out. It looks like to got the correct answer from our community members.

The placement of your design jumps a little due to the lid camera having to focus for your print, it is perfectly normal behavior for your Glowforge.

If you’ve never used Set Focus before, you can find more information about how to use it on our support page here: Set Focus.

The Set Focus target allows you to select an area to take a precision measurement of the material’s height using the red dot in the printer head. When using Set Focus, place the focus area on the material, so it’s not near an edge. Then watch to make sure the red dot hits the material.

Please give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Set focus fixed the issue! Thanks for the quick responses!

That’s so great to hear! I appreciate you working through the instructions my colleague @MorganW provided, and I’m glad that this has helped to resolve the snag. We’ll close this thread for now, but please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at support@glowforge.com in the future if you run into any more trouble. We’re here to help :slight_smile: