Here is what I did to solve it. I opened up the eleksmaker plugin in notepad++, and changed the orientation_scale for millimeters to 1 (from 3.5433...). Didn't fix the inches option, but I stick with mm anyway.

I now get the correct scale automatically. No idea why its like this on my setup, but it works now. Newest inkscape, latest linked eleksmaker plugin.

@pledgy yes? The issue happens both with a document in inches and in mm. when I do it in inches, the scale object is set from 0,0,0 to 5,0,0.

I realize now that y'all just copied the jtech plugin, but maybe you could modify it a little to default to the document size and 0,0 always in the lower left? I don't know how open inkscape plugins are, but I might end up peeking in there myself. Having to set up scale a second time just doesn't make any sense - I made my document the size it is because I want it to draw at that size, no more and no less.

The Eleksmaker plugin from this forum I believe: http://forum.eleksmaker.com/topic/28/inkscape-0-92-1-and-plugins-download

Here is a photo for reference (edit: updated with helpful lines). this gets generated after the first gcode export. Scaling and positioning the object on the bottom (as described, with the two arrows and coordinates) affects future gcode output. I just want the bottom left corner of my document to always be 0,0 and the scale to be 1:1 with how I designed it in inkscape.

I'm trying to master the inkscape plugin for my eleksdraw machine, and I'm having issues with scale. Its never mentioned in the tutorials, but for some reason it always wants to scale my gcode wayyy down in the x/y directions. After generating, another object appears on the document showing 0,0,0 and 100,0,0 with two arrows. if I stretch that horizontally to match the ruler at the top of the screen, I can get near the scale I want.

But why is this there in the first place? I designed the document in inkscape to the scale I wanted it to be, so why rescale it before outputting the gcode? is there a way to disable it?