Two questions, Set Focus and Alignment

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I have two questions for the group. First, what is the relationship between “Set Focus” and material thickness. I would think if the GF knows the material thickness then what is the purpose of set focus. And secondly, whenever I position my engraving on the product exactly where I want it it always performs the engrave approximately a 1/16* to the left of where I placed it. Thoughts on correcting this.

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OK… Both of these are pretty broad topics that have been covered a lot on the forum.

I’d suggest reading the big threads on set focus, but the basic gist is that set focus lets the glowforge measure exactly where to focus on any given material, which has two benefits: It dials in the exact height even if your material is inconsistent or slightly warped, and it also optimizes the camera algorithms to give you the best possible visual alignment on that particular spot.

That being said, visual alignment is something that will always be a slight approximation. How good that approximation is can be tweaked a bit, the key term you need here is “calibration”. Searching the forum for calibration will find giant discussion about how to do it. It can really help you get the most out of your camera.

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Here you go, a shortcut because I was feeling like searching for calibration might be a little tricky. (It was. There’s a lot of noise in that signal.) This link will take you right to the calibration info.

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Thank you so much.

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Are you zoomed in when you set your target? I ask because mine seems to be just slightly off if I’m placing it at 100%, but at 450% it is accurate. Really accurate.

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Thanks. I’ll give this a try as well.

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Is the misalignment constant everywhere on the bed? You might find there is less error near the center of the bed than at the corners, due to fisheye correction. Do you get the same misalignment in each corner of the machine as in the center?

I have the tendency to place the material against one side of the bed, to make it square with the cutter, but this can work against you if you are visually aligning things using the camera.

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