the imprecision that is in Cricut Adventures from a Designer's Perspective

…Design Space.

Oh Cricut, another fail. I never thought it would be so difficult to place a .5”x2.5” piece of brass on a mat and engrave on it.

I suppose it’s not.

Unless you have no idea where the machine’s going to decide to start engraving. At the 0 line like it shows in the preview? Or kind of .25” Or .5” lower than that like it did on the test with a pen and cardstock? Or .25” lower like it did on the first run with actual brass?

Sigh. Maybe it’s because I started this project on my old laptop and now I’m on my new one. Which brings me to…

Random fail #2571: can’t copy and paste between projects. LAME.

A few minutes later…

Nope. Officially had nothing to do with my different computer. Just started a new project, super simplified, and STILL…no idea what it’s lining itself up to.

Does it have something to do with the fact the “cut area” is a maximum of 11.5”x11.5”? So it’s shaving a half inch off around the border? Which translates to 0.25” at each edge?

Nope, not even that. 0.25” is too far.

Testing an eyeballed 1/8” right now…This is MADDENING. At this point, I would NOT recommend a Cricut to ANYONE.

1/8” inch offset. That makes all the sense in the world. On a mat that has no subdivided measurements.

Seriously, this thing is made for Grandma crafter.

2 out of 5 test plates gone. Coming up on 3 because the 1/8” offset is only for the top. Apparently the left offset is more than that. Like 5/16”. Can’t even be consistently stupid, can we?

And 3 test pieces gone. What a load of crap.