Setting work zero to the center of your material
| Important: This Work Zero option is not available in the 3D environment of Easel. |
The grid in Easel is a handy visual for lining up your design on a rectangular or square piece of material.
By default, Easel uses the front-left corner of the material as the work zero. You can see the design is centered on the material (1: Edit > 2: Select All > 3: Center to Material), and the work zero is on the front-left corner of the material.
If you use the homing switches and clamp your material to the front-left corner of the wasteboard, the work zero and home position are the same. (More information on Work Zero and Homing)
However, if you clamp your material somewhere else on the wasteboard, you will need to set your work zero to the front-left corner of the material by jogging the bit over during the Carve menu.
Easy, right? But what if you have an oval-shaped material or want to make sure you are cutting in the center of your material? Not to worry, you can change the work zero position to cut from the center out.
Changing work zero position in Easel
- Go to Material Settings and set your material size to match your stock exactly. This is very important! For oval or circular shapes, use the diameter for size.
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Open the Work Zero tab (1) and change it from Front-left corner to Center (2).
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The Design Preview will change the grid lines to show the center point.
- Click Edit > Select All to select all of your design objects, then Edit > Center to Material to move your design to the center position.
Setting work zero position in the Carve walkthrough
- Find the center point of your stock material and lightly mark it.
- Clamp the material anywhere on the wasteboard, and make sure you leave enough room for clamps around your design.
- Click Carve, and when you get to the Work Zero step, jog the bit over to the mark on your material. If you use the Z-Probe, click Probe (1) and probe right on top of this mark.
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After probing, tell Easel that you want to set your X, Y work zero position manually by clicking Manual (2).
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Use the jog controls (1) to move the machine until the center of the bit lines up with the mark on your material (2), then click Use new position (3).
| Helpful Tip: If you use the Z-Probe, you do not need to lower the bit to the surface of your material by hand. Instead, you can use your Z-Probe as normal. |
- Once you have confirmed your work zero position at the center of your material, the rest of the carving steps are the same.