Thanks @cmreeder…I love how helpful everyone on the forum is. 
I’m already using a jig to position the material…the problem is that each time I open the machine and put a new piece of proofgrade in the same place and the bed image refreshes, the uploaded file has moved and I’m again eyeballing how far down to move it again. (for me, horizontal alignment is spot-on. It’s just vertical that is wacky.) I’ve nearly perfected it now by centering horizontally and then bumping down a finite number of bumps using the down arrow on the keyboard, and then just bravely hitting the start button even though the image is showing me that my file is hanging off the top edge of the material… it was just those first few cuts that had me crazy 
Love my GF so much but REALLY lookin’ forward to some improved alignnent. Or snapmarks. Or, preferably, both. 
yeah…that came to my attention. otherwise just use a normal woodworker’s square.
Your laser head alignment shouldn’t change at all in reference to the bed between jobs unless you are bumping the gantry. The only thing that does move a bit is the lid camera, which would make it look like things are changing, but they really aren’t. If you left the design in the same place it would engrave the same exact place on the bed every time unless physically disturbed.
Really? 
Huh…I’ll try it with a scrap and see! Definitely not bumping the gantry. Thanks!
I took takitus’s and went - huh - why haven’t I don’t this for myself already too? Reworked it to clean it up for my own purposes and figured I’d upload here as well - I have 6" and 12" forward and reversed (so on acrylic I can view through it reversed and have the marks closest to the paper if I use it for drafting on paper or on top if Im measuring something that is on level with the marks so as not to have any distortion when viewing). I also went down to 1/32 on inches, have a perfect 10mm x 10mm offset from origin for the snapmark center. These are made for 8mm x3mm amazon magnets.
Thanks @takitus - great inspiration!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zq3t1r5lx784ozb/AADtWg8dMZ8447M1_D2vfUcSa?dl=0 (updated to dropbox link because I went through 5+ versions of this since posting. I basically tossed everything and restarted. 
Score the ruler lines, score the fiducials, and cut the outline and you will be happy - 8mmx3mm round magnets from amazon will fit tightly in this - included the .ai if you want to change the magnet sizes… the magnets all stack between the ruler and the wedges for holddown - so they make one nice, small package when not in use. Just get the alignment of polarity on magnets right and you’ll be able to stack all of them.
I was going to say the very same thing. 
Awesome job on this alignment aid. I can only wait for Snapmarks at this point. It will allow me to use the Glowforge for all the things I originally had envisioned using it for. 
Thanks! hopefully its something theyll roll out to everyone soon! I think its too helpful not to!
As a follow up, I did roughly the same thing for a project of 30 customized plaques.
I also marked the bottom of the pg template with tape (where it lined up with the crumb tray) and the just reloaded the entry on the GFUi, and dropped the pieces in place in the jig. Just keep away from the keyboard once you have the first one set…
Dan has stated it’s outside of his control if, who, and when somebody gets the feature. There is a specific team that does all of that. They’re rolling it out slowly based on some methodology.
These are great! I’m starting to grow my own little collection of fiducial rulers! Haha
Who tests Snapmark?
Short answer: we’ll roll it out gradually. Some customers may not get it for a long time based on technical considerations, and we may cancel it before everyone gets to try it.
Long answer: Each Glowforge goes through a rigorous calibration process at the factory, where we take measurements of each major sensor system. To enable Snapmark on a machine, we process the calibration data through new server software so the Snapmark measurements can be made precisely.
This process takes a long time, and some units take much longer than others. The calibration software is still being developed, and some units have noisy calibration data that won’t process without further work. Testing Snapmark will speed development of Pro Passthrough and other forthcoming vision features by providing real-world calibration data.
We’ll roll Snapmark out to the easiest devices (Basic, Plus, or Pro) first. If all goes well, we’ll add progressively harder ones over time. The full process may take weeks or months to fully deploy (we’re still learning)! We may also decide to change plans and modify or remove the feature before we roll it out, so not everyone may have a chance to test the feature.
If Snapmark had been rolled out to your machine, you’ll see this button on your toolbar:
Ok thank you for the explanation. So I have not way to know when my glowforge pro will recieve it. What do you mean with easiest devices?
The ones their calibration tests before it left the factory show are easier for the Snapmark algorithms to handle successfully. The others likely need to benefit from the continued tweaking of the algorithms to handle more & more cases of base misalignment or camera skew.
I had Snapmarks on my original order not and had to have it replaced. It hasn’t come to my new unit so I’m sad but can still do what I did before Snapmarks so I’m not really out something but I did taste the chocolate once and I miss it 
I have made the rulers proposed by takitus and by dave1 (thanks for the designs!). I found the holes in dave1’s design a wee bit small for the 3mm-diameter magnets I was using. The diameter of the holes in takitus’ rulers was perfect but the magnets slipped out when I jostled the rulers. Gluing magnets to acrylic is difficult. I’ve read that some have success with thick cyanoacrylate glue, but CA doesn’t always work. I tried Goop, which is my go-to adhesive, and made a mess, though the magnets stayed in place.
Someone suggested cutting rulers in fluorescent acrylic, which inspired me to get a small slab of green-glowing acrylic at TAP Plastics and cut a set of dave1 rulers with resized magnet holes.
After a couple of untidy gluing failures I found a simpler solution: clear tape. Scotch matte Magic Tape is not the answer – it makes the acrylic less translucent. But its glossy clear MultiTask tape holds the magnets without fogging the acrylic. I put a strip on the underside of the ruler, press the magnets in place and trim off excess tape with a razor.
Thanks @petej.
Really curious to hear if anyone else has a different strategy for holding the magnets in place
For mine the majority of magnets stay in place via friction. The holes, while the same in the design don’t always cut the same so one of the magnets would fall out. I used gel consistency cyanoacrilate around the outer edges of the magnet and then slid it in from the underside. I left the masking on while doing this, but if no masking you can use acetone to clean off any spillage. (Carefully though, acetone eats acrylic if left on)
in the dropbox link I changed mine to you’ll find my updated design - will hold the 8mmx3mm magnets nice and tight, consistent every time. Your original design looks like a scan or outline/trace of some other original - mine is built from scratch as vectors so should be more consistent. I also did a set of test cuts of circles at 7.5mm to 8.1mm in 0.05mm to settle on the size of magnet holes that were tightest but also had none from my batch of magnets that failed to fit. yeah - I had a lot of free time that day.