Job origin vs workspace origin
Two different reference points decide where your job ends up on the machine. Knowing which is which prevents bad-direction-jobs.
The most common surprise for new laser users: the job lands in the wrong place on the material. Almost always, the cause is confusion between two different origin concepts.
Workspace origin
The machine's own zero. Set by homing. After homing, the head is at the workspace origin and all coordinates are measured from there.
- On most diode and gantry machines, workspace origin is at the bottom-left corner of the bed.
- On some CO2 machines, it is at the top-left.
The Device Settings Origin field tells Beam Bench which your machine uses.
Workspace origin does not move unless you re-home. It is a property of the machine.
Job origin
Where the head should start for this job. Configurable per project in Laser Control via two settings:
- Start From dropdown:
- Absolute Coords: the job uses the workspace origin directly. The design's canvas position is its absolute machine position.
- Current Position: the job is offset so the head's current position becomes the chosen anchor of the job's bounding box.
- User Origin: same as Current Position, but using a saved User Origin from the Move panel instead of the live head position.
- Job Origin 3×3 grid, when Start From is not Absolute, this picks which corner (or center) of the job's bounding box anchors to the head position.
How they combine
| Scenario | What happens |
|---|---|
| Start From: Absolute Coords | Job uses workspace coordinates directly. The design's position on the canvas is its position on the bed. Job Origin grid is disabled. |
| Start From: Current Position, Job Origin: Center (C) | The head's current X/Y becomes the center of the job. The job draws around the head. |
| Start From: Current Position, Job Origin: Bottom-Left (BL) | The head's current X/Y becomes the bottom-left corner of the job's bounding box. The job draws up and to the right of where the head is. |
| Start From: User Origin, Job Origin: BL | Same as above but using the saved User Origin point instead of "wherever the head happens to be right now". |
A practical example
You have a piece of scrap wood you placed roughly in the bed and want to engrave a logo onto it without measuring.
- Jog the head to where you want the bottom-left corner of the logo on the wood.
- In Laser Control: Start From: Current Position, Job Origin: Bottom-Left.
- Frame to verify.
- Start.
The logo lands where you put the head, oriented per the bottom-left anchor.
Try this instead:
- Start From: Absolute Coords.
Now the logo lands wherever its canvas position said, probably not where the wood is. That is the workspace-origin behavior.
Why this trips people up
The canvas in Beam Bench is a representation of the machine bed. It looks like the workspace. So new users assume "where I put the design on the canvas" = "where it goes on the machine". That is true only when Start From is set to Absolute Coords.
For most workflows where you place material casually on the bed, Current Position + a chosen Job Origin corner is more useful.
Framing
Frame (in Laser Control) always shows the actual planned position. If Frame walks off the material, the origin setup is wrong. Stop, adjust, and re-frame before starting.
Related
- Laser Control: Start From, Job Origin, Frame
- Device Settings dialog: workspace Origin (BL vs TL)
- Move panel: Set User Origin, Go to User Origin, jog the head, save positions
- Coordinate systems
- Job is rotated or mirrored