Perhaps I’ve never noticed the auto-focus feature, or maybe it’s a new feature? But I just had it do some really bad scoring and cuts that didn’t go through. The scores are very wide and the cut tapers out half-way through the PG Med Clear Acrylic. (Being clear, it makes it really easy to see the problem – wrong focus.)
When I opened the score and cut menus, the height was set to “auto”.
Within about 3 inches of the work area, I had some magnets holding down the material. I think it mistook the magnets for the material height.
So my questions:
(1) Is there any way to tell it to never use auto focus? Either I’m using PG material (so the thickness is known) or I manually set the height because I’m using non-standard material.
(2) When using PG material, can I tell it to override the auto focus? (I mean, doesn’t PG mean “known material and known height”?) When using PG, the web interface did not allow me to set the height – it was “auto”.
(3) How far away should I put the magnets so that the head doesn’t think they are part of the surface material? (Clearly putting the magnets within 3 inches of the work area is too close…)
UPDATE: Apparently being away from the computer for 3 days is too long and this thread was closed. Yes: It was the Set Focus. I didn’t realize that. I think it auto-focused on a magnet. Problem solved. Thanks everyone!
“Set Focus” takes the measurement very close to where you place the marker, and if you watch closely when the screen refreshes you will see the marker shift to exactly where the measurement was taken.
I love the set focus tool, I haven’t touched my calipers since it was introduced.
Also, if you missed that there’s a good chance you missed Lid Camera Calibration Beta which is not to be missed!
That being said - you can always go in and put a height in manually, just do it after you’ve selected your material/settings and before you place your designs (because it will update the bed)
Auto-focus has always been a feature. If your material is clear, you might have problems though - Proofgrade or not.
Proofgrade settings also use auto-focus.
If you want to override the auto-focus, you need to specify a material height manually, and then specify a focal height in each job that is different from the material height. (I.e. 0.125” material height, 0.124” focus height). That’s how it has always worked, at least.
I suppose you could leave it at Proofgrade material and just change the focal height for each job. Just as long as it’s not the same as what it has in the background as material height (which it doesn’t show you).
Thanks everyone! Set Focus is a great solution here, and you can use manual settings if you’d prefer. I’ll let the team know that you’d prefer to be able to skip autofocus entirely. I’m going to close this thread since I think you have a solution and it’s quieted down – please post a new thread if you have another question.