Getting to the Bed Editor
When your plate design is ready in the Plate Editor, click the Move to Bed → button in the top right corner. All your plates will be arranged in a grid that matches your engraving bed.
Understanding What You See
The Bed Editor has four main areas:
Canvas (center): A preview of your engraving bed with all plates laid out. Rulers along the top and left edges display measurements in your selected unit.
Hovering across the ruler displays a measurement line that follows your cursor in real time.
Clicking on the ruler drops a persistent guide line with a teal measurement badge showing the exact position (e.g., “2.548 in”), useful for aligning elements to specific coordinates.
Bed Navigation (top-left): Displays your current bed (e.g., “Bed 1 of 1”). If your job spans multiple beds, use the arrow buttons to move between them.
Zoom Controls (top-right): Center the view, zoom in/out, or see your current zoom percentage.
Settings Panel (right): This panel contains your unit toggle and collapsible sections for fill direction, material dimensions, plate spacing, bed margins, bed dimensions, and layout statistics.
Working with Multiple Beds
If your job has more plates than can fit on a single bed, Etch Express automatically creates multiple beds.
Look at the top-left to see “Bed 1 of 3” (or however many beds you need)
Use the ◀ and ▶ arrows to move between beds
Each bed shows a different set of plates from your data
Finding and Replacing Text: Use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + F to open the Find & Replace panel. This lets you quickly locate and update text across all plates in your job without returning to the Plate Editor.
Configuring Your Bed Settings
Choosing Your Units
At the top of the settings panel, toggle between in (inches) and mm (millimeters). All measurements convert automatically when you switch.
Fill Direction
Choose Horizontal or Vertical to control how plates fill the bed. Horizontal fills left-to-right first, then moves down. Vertical fills top-to-bottom first, then moves across.
Material Dimensions
Enter the size of your plate material (the full sheet before cutting):
Width: Material width
Height: Material height
Plate Spacing
Control how much space is between each plate:
Horizontal Gap: Space between plates left-to-right
Vertical Gap: Space between plates top-to-bottom
Tip: Setting horizontal or vertical gaps to 0 allows the laser to make one continuous cut across the full row or column, reducing overall production time.
Bed Margins
Set how much empty space to leave around the edges of your bed:
Horizontal Margin: Left and right margin (symmetrical)
Vertical Margin: Top and bottom margin (symmetrical)
Tip: Add margins if your engraver can’t reach the very edge of the bed, or if you need space for alignment marks.
Bed Dimensions
Toggle Show bed outline to display a red dotted outline anchored to the top-left corner of the bed. When enabled, enter your bed’s width and height using the input fields or increment steppers. Helpful for verifying plate placement within your machine’s working area.
Filtering Plates
Use the filter button to narrow the bed view to specific plates. When filtering is active, only the selected plates will be visible and included in your export.
Tip: This is useful when you need to reprint one or a few plates — filter to just those plates, then export without re-running the full job.
Reading the Layout Statistics
The bottom of the settings panel shows useful information about your layout:
Statistic | What It Means |
Total plates | The total number of plates in your job |
Total beds | How many beds you’ll need to engrave all plates |
Grid layout | How plates are arranged (e.g., “2 × 5” means 2 columns and 5 rows) |
Plates per bed | How many plates fit on each bed |
Total characters | The total amount of text across all plates |
Avg characters / plate | Average text length per plate |
Exporting for Production
When everything looks right, click the purple Export button to download your files.
Export Options
Option | Best For |
SVG Beds (ZIP) | Vector-based engraving software. Each bed is a separate SVG file, all bundled in one ZIP download. |
General use, printing proofs, or engravers that accept PDF. Creates one multi-page document with one bed per page. | |
SVG Plates (ZIP) | When you need each plate as its own file. Creates one SVG per plate, all in a ZIP archive. |
Tips for Best Results
Match your equipment: Enter your actual bed dimensions for accurate layouts
Check all beds: Use the navigation arrows to preview each bed before exporting
Maximize efficiency: Reduce margins and spacing to fit more plates per bed — fewer beds means faster production
Save your settings: Click Save to remember your bed configuration for this design