An automated manufacturing system for constructing an engineered textile from a workpiece composed of superposed wires (140, 142), the manufacturing system comprising: a movable end effector; a processing head mounted to the movable end effector; and a system controller operatively connected to the movable end effector and the processing head, the system controller being programmed to: determine a plurality of predefined joint locations for the superposed wires (140, 142); command the movable end effector to sequentially move the processing head to align the processing head with each of the predefined joint locations; command the processing head to join the superposed wires (140, 142) at the predefined joint locations to form the engineered textile; determine path plan data for moving the processing head to join the superposed wires (140, 142) at the predefined joint locations, the path plan data including an origin, a destination, and a joint route for traversing the processing head from the origin to the destination; generate a trace of the joint route; determine a start position and an end position within a captured image of the workpiece; and superimpose the trace of the joint route onto the captured image of the workpiece with the origin overlapping the start position and the destination overlapping the end position. a movable end effector; a processing head mounted to the movable end effector; and a system controller operatively connected to the movable end effector and the processing head, the system controller being programmed to: determine a plurality of predefined joint locations for the superposed wires (140, 142); command the movable end effector to sequentially move the processing head to align the processing head with each of the predefined joint locations; command the processing head to join the superposed wires (140, 142) at the predefined joint locations to form the engineered textile; determine path plan data for moving the processing head to join the superposed wires (140, 142) at the predefined joint locations, the path plan data including an origin, a destination, and a joint route for traversing the processing head from the origin to the destination; generate a trace of the joint route; determine a start position and an end position within a captured image of the workpiece; and superimpose the trace of the joint route onto the captured image of the workpiece with the origin overlapping the start position and the destination overlapping the end position. determine a plurality of predefined joint locations for the superposed wires (140, 142); command the movable end effector to sequentially move the processing head to align the processing head with each of the predefined joint locations; command the processing head to join the superposed wires (140, 142) at the predefined joint locations to form the engineered textile; determine path plan data for moving the processing head to join the superposed wires (140, 142) at the predefined joint locations, the path plan data including an origin, a destination, and a joint route for traversing the processing head from the origin to the destination; generate a trace of the joint route; determine a start position and an end position within a captured image of the workpiece; and superimpose the trace of the joint route onto the captured image of the workpiece with the origin overlapping the start position and the destination overlapping the end position.