I’m a CNC and 3d printer guy, so I see the value of not having a stepper driving it’s hardware, especially as expensive as the laser head, into the gantry every time I turn it on. So I skip all that and manually align it to the camera every time. Shouldn’t have to, it’s a MAJOR annoyance, but it’s piece of mind. 
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Then don’t do it. Turn it on and see what happens. Perhaps they’ve figured out a solution they are satisfied with and pushed it along with the camera updates. It’s easy to get stuck doing things just because it’s a habit.
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Not really losing space because of the camera view. The bed is far bigger than the cutting area. Currently they allow 11 x 19.5 with plans to go to 11.5 x 20 or so for a cut. Less for an engrave as shown here. (numbers off the top of my head). Even if the camera showed the whole bed you would not be able to use any more than you currently can. There are a combination of hard stops for the head and S/W limits for deceleration.
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I will agree with you for once. When I hear that sound, I hear a very expensive piece of precision machinery being slammed against a wall.
Here is an official statement from a company that makes stepper motors that this is “detrimental to the life of the motor”: http://forum.orientalmotor.com/viewtopic.php?t=206
My car doesn’t come with a note that says 5% of the time when you put it in reverse, it will go forward instead, so we recommend pushing it to the middle of the driveway before attempting to back out.
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Hard to see why we will be limited to 11.5" when they finally sort out the camera. Losing the ability use all the standard 12" material width is a big downside. The Y axis appears to able to move more than 12" and there isn’t any need for engraving overshoot in the Y direction.
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I guess I’d rather just see the whole bed with software-induced limitations (crosshatch pattern) than just have the view chopped off. 
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shrug our own @palmercr had this to say about it;
https://community.glowforge.com/t/cleaning-the-machine/12138/10?u=jbmanning5
but glowforge only need them to last a year sooooo, they care about a shorter lifespan why?
Yes with a low torque belt drive I don’t there is any big shock that will damage the motor and none of the other stuff on the page seemed relevant. So I don’t think the motor will ever be damaged.
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Sooooo, back to the original topic then?
The topic may as well be “water is wet”, it’s completely uncontroversial. Yes, the edges are unusable. The usable cut area is 11"x19.5" due to semi-mysterious software limitations. It’s supposed to eventually reach 11.5"x20" to match the specs on the Glowforge web site, but as with all future features and improvements, there is no ETA. We’ll be told about it when it’s being rolled out and not a moment before. There isn’t really anything new to say on the topic.
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Except to say that, when the day comes when the software limitation is lifted, the problem will still exist if the camera is physically unable to show the top/left edges of the bed.
… which I guess was the root of the question that I never actually asked in the original post.
So GF, is this a physical camera misalignment, or is the viewable area (ignoring usable area for now) something that can be fixed in software?
I think it loses 0.5" just because the camera homing can be 0.25" out in each direction. It can’t go right up to the ends of the axis until the camera is accurate without running the risk of hitting the ends.
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You mean like it does now? At the cost of bed space?
These two issues are mutually connected after all.
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I don’t think the head crash during calibration is connected. That is just some faulty vision logic.
Once it has calibrated it shouldn’t hit the ends (although there does seem to be something in the front right corner it can hit). But if it is only accurate to 1/4" in the centre you need an extra 1/4" each end.
And any wiggle room in the lid adds to the uncertainty of absolute position within the axes.
Thanks for the reminder! The last time the print area was enlarged, I took a 12" square of ply and “found” all four visible corners on the bed by setting it in place and refreshing the bed image. Rinse, repeat. In short order I had all four boundaries marked with sharpie lines (on blue tape) on the plastic bed frame. Huge time saver when trying to optimize material use. Did the same thing to mark the printable area (also on tape to facilitate changes). Took about 20 minutes to get it all dialed in.
One of these days, I’m going to make a set of nifty registration blocks à la @Jules to place on the left and front to speed placement even more.
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You know what was kind of cool about the silver trays? With time and use, the usable cutting area blackens on the tray. You can place material exactly based on where the smoke residue starts. 
(But the spacers work just as well, so definitely cut a couple from some scrap…I use those things a lot more than I thought I would for squaring up material.)
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Good idea. I’ve got a few 1 x 4 and a 1 x 2 blocks I will drop across the front as registers. Place the material and remove the block(s).
As Jules said, I can eyeball the edge now 
Think I’m gonna keep this tray and cough up the $150 for it. This thing bears the scars of my journey (besides, I like the contrast in the UI).
IKR? At the moment I glanced around for something to register against - scrap lumber ends to the rescue. 
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I apologize for the delay in my response.
Your Glowforge can currently print up to 11 x 19.5 in. Engravings take extra room to speed up and slow down, so the area may be a bit smaller. We’re working on software improvements that will increase the printable area as well as the camera’s field of view.
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