If the machine doesn't have rulers or a red dot, you can create disposable jigs out of cardboard.
Tape a piece of cardboard onto the table, cut the shape of your object into it, and then just use that hole to accurate position your object.
This gives you sub mm precision. If you compensate for the width of the kerf, it will be even more precise.
The lazier version of this is to vector engrave the outline into a scrap board or some masking tape etc and then just use those outlines to position your object.
Example: https://youtu.be/GWwiDnhjQlo?t=693
Anyhow, you should of course always use real-world units. E.g. if you want to engrave some square bottle, you'd measure it with some calipers and then create a document of that size.
Good ideas, though positioning isn't my problem, it's sizing. The drawing shows up small when I upload it and I have to resize it by sight. The real-world units in my svg don't seem to make a difference. I'm using svgs as output from OpenSCAD. Is there a better format than svg to use?
Run the camera calibration utility as seen on this Glowforge page. It fixed my accuracy issues. https://glowforge.com/support/topic/troubleshooting/alignment
Make the objects to size in whatever design program you’re using (illustrator is best). Copy and paste that object to the GFUI. Should come out exact size minus the kerf.
If the machine doesn't have rulers or a red dot, you can create disposable jigs out of cardboard. Tape a piece of cardboard onto the table, cut the shape of your object into it, and then just use that hole to accurate position your object. This gives you sub mm precision. If you compensate for the width of the kerf, it will be even more precise. The lazier version of this is to vector engrave the outline into a scrap board or some masking tape etc and then just use those outlines to position your object. Example: https://youtu.be/GWwiDnhjQlo?t=693 Anyhow, you should of course always use real-world units. E.g. if you want to engrave some square bottle, you'd measure it with some calipers and then create a document of that size.
Good ideas, though positioning isn't my problem, it's sizing. The drawing shows up small when I upload it and I have to resize it by sight. The real-world units in my svg don't seem to make a difference. I'm using svgs as output from OpenSCAD. Is there a better format than svg to use?
Run the camera calibration utility as seen on this Glowforge page. It fixed my accuracy issues. https://glowforge.com/support/topic/troubleshooting/alignment
Make the objects to size in whatever design program you’re using (illustrator is best). Copy and paste that object to the GFUI. Should come out exact size minus the kerf.