In the Job Setup screen of the VMD software is a useful feature under Transforms, where you can Rotate, Scale and Mirror your part. You might ask why you would want to do this. I used this feature to cut 4 parts on a piece of scrap material that was not uniform in size. It is important to note that the origin, that is the point from where you set program zero will move as you rotate or mirror the part. Here you can see my origin is the lower left corner: Here you can see I have Mirrored and Rotated the part and the origin is now in the upper right corner of the screen. You have to be careful here, you need to set your Program Zero in the upper right corner of your plate. If you were to set Program Zero in the lower left hand corner as you would normally do, then you are going to set yourself up for a surprise. Program Zero is the upper right corner of the part, and it will cut your part in the lower left quadrant from where you set program zero. Scan and traced the cardboard template, made the part a little over sized for more strength and weld area, you can see how you need to pay attention to the pierce point as you rotate and mirror your object to fit on your material.
yeah I have done the same thing...Like you said when rotating and or mirroring, you really have to pay attention to program zero points