Cutting the inside of a project first Signcut

[Suzan]

I think I have seen a thread on this but for the life of me I can't find it. How do you make a project cut the inside stuff first then the outside. For instance my house with windows I want the windows cut first then the house. Sorry I just can't find it. This is in Signcut.

Thanks in advance

[Suzan]

Ok never mind I found it. Duhr having a bad bad mornng.

[MeFlick]

I've had those days Suzan (seems more and more lately! )

I don't have Signcut (yet - ) BUT please go ahead and share with us how you found to do it for those who DO and may not know how to do it and for those of us who are still contemplating getting it!

[Suzan]

http://www.blackcatus.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1084

Here you go. I know what you mean. Aren't weekends for relaxing and enjoying instead of pulling your hair out and going crazy. LOL

[MeFlick]

Thanks for sharing! Relaxing, ummm. . . . . . what is that (I have 2 teenage children (soon to be 15 & 16!!) who play sports - I thought weekends were for traveling to sporting events more often then not!)

[Gigi]

My kids are out of the house and I still can't seem to relax on the weekend - it's my catch up time and I usually have about four times as many things on the list as are humanly possible to complete - but I keep trying!!

Glad you found it Suzan - thanks for sharing -I have wondered that as well!

[Suzan]

I think I read some where there is another way to do it. I will have to go look at the UK forum. I just can't remember the exact way. I think it is how it is drawn but I could be wrong.

[pigtailpat]

Suzan -

in order to color your paths different colors in inkscape, your paths have to be ungrouped (ie broken apart), so that the individual paths can be selected so that your strokes can be assigned different colors. I have extensively done this when I used funtime. I still think of it as "inline" sorting, the "innies" in my mind are always colored red, to get my attention to do those first. I find (and I have not done that much signcut cutting - but I have seen the process), that if I color the paths (or fills for that matter - you can also make it all fills instead of strokes and throw the fills to signcut toooo) in inkscape first and then throw it to sign cut, then it is simply a matter of checking which color box in signcut I wanna cut. Then cut. Let the cutter come back to a rest. Then cut the next color and so on. I have done this ALOT with the gazelle and funtime. I was taught that manual inline sorting this way can be more accurate than software's interpretation of what the inline sort is (ie that our thinking about what to cut first can be better than what the software thinks it is). Alot also depends on how much of a hurry you're in, and how squashed for time you are. Sometimes it is good to let the software do the thinking, sometimes not. As always, that balancing line has to be tiptoed.......

Hope this helps..?

[Thyme]

It can also be ordered by the level in Inkscape, ie things drawn first and therefore at the bottom will cut first when sent to Signcut. If you don't draw them in the order you want to cut them you can use the raise and lower selection to put them in the order you want

[pigtailpat]

Dawn you mean by hiding the other layers in inkscape before sending to signcut? sending only the innie layer to signcut, because the other outter layers have been hidden?

Pat

[Thyme]

No, although you could do that if you wished.
Best way to show it is to draw yourself a few different shapes in different colours and make a note of the order in which you drew them. Now send them to Signcut.
On the right hand toolbar you will see that the first shape you drew is the top one of the coloured squares, the second you drew is the second one of the coloured squares - and so on. Now either use preview or actually cut them (don't choose any of the colours, just send the whole lot to cut) The top colour will cut first, and this is the one you drew first in Inkscape, second colour will cut second and so on.
But if you didn't draw the shapes in the order you want them to cut, you can alter it. There is a set of four icons in Inkscape that let you alter the order (it is like layers, but mini layers cos they are all still on the same layer in Inkscape)

order.jpg

Hover over each of these when you have a shape selected and you will see what it does to the order

[pigtailpat]

Oh.. I understand what you're saying now...

thanks so much for the clarification..every little nuggie of information helps...

[Thyme]

You're welcome

[Suzan]

Thank you so much Dawn, I knew I had heard or read that before. This will be so very helpful.

[Thyme]

You're welcome Suzan. I have to admit though that I don't use that a lot, I prefer to cut by colour

[Suzan]

I do also, but yesterday I was finishing a file for the store and it is 12 x 12 layout of a spooky manor, with lots of inside cuts, like ghostie eyes, and cracks on the tombstones, those pieces are smaller and they just didn't cut well. It might have been I was going to fast or such. But I want to try it.

[Thyme]

Okie dokie

[Gigi]

Very cool, Dawn. Thanks for the info!

[Thyme]

You're welcome Gigi