Contour Cut Query

[jthomason]

Hey guys, this ever happen to you?

So, I've imported a file into Flexi 8.0v3 that I designed in Illustrator CS3. They are decals for a softball team. Everything is vector. I go to contour cut to make a nice, .125" contour around these decals and it acts likes it's doing it but nothing happens. I can't see the contour cut line. But if I go and actually right click on the image it will give me the option to either clear or separate the contour cut.

So I'm thinking to myself, okay, maybe I need to split these decals up. So I uncompound them. Well, now it works just fine (I should have thought of that first anyway). So I'm going through and hitting cut contour on these decals individually and I get half way through and then it just acts like it did before. It won't show the cut contour outline. The ones that it worked on before I get to this one are still visible. Just the others now won't work.

First of all, did I explain this well enough? And if so, what gives? Anyone have any idea? I can figure this out and get the job done. That's not my problem. I just hate when something happens and I don't know what the heck is going on.


Thanks guys!

Jasin

 

[iSign]

I'm not one of the many Flexi haters around here, because it does what I need it to do... but my personal choice of "what I need it to do" almost never overlaps with anything I could just do in illustrator. If you design in illustrator, why don't you just create the vector path you want to use for your cuts in illustrator as well?

I agree that what you are explaining sounds like something you should be able to expect consistent & acceptable results from in Flexi... and now that you are there, trying to do it... it seems like going back to Illy is an "extra" step... but in the future, I would do everything in Illy that Illy can do, and only leave what Illy can't do for Flexi to do.

 

[thewood]

I would recommend taking one of these graphics and creating a .125" transparent outline around it. Group the outline and the graphic together. Go to Effects>Contour Cut and add a contour cut of zero to this grouped graphic and outline. Step and repeat the resulting contour cut graphic as needed and print/cut.

 

[bob]

I would recommend taking one of these graphics and creating a .125" transparent outline around it. Group the outline and the graphic together. Go to Effects>Contour Cut and add a contour cut of zero to this grouped graphic and outline. Step and repeat the resulting contour cut graphic as needed and print/cut.

Why not just make the outline you created the contour cut via Arrange->Contour->Make Contour Cut? The you won't have a superfluous path hanging around.

 

[thewood]

Because it sounds like that method is causing issues for the OP. Sometimes Flexi will hang up when applying a contour cut to a complex image. Outlining the objects and then applying a contour cut is a workaround for that issue. Perhaps I misunderstood the original query.

 

[bob]

Because it sounds like that method is causing issues for the OP. Sometimes Flexi will hang up when applying a contour cut to a complex image. Outlining the objects and then applying a contour cut is a workaround for that issue. Perhaps I misunderstood the original query.

Try to follow along...

If you can make an outline as per your original recommendation then it's simpler to change that outline to a contour cut than it is to make a contour cut around that outline yielding Yet Another object.

 

[thewood]

Try to follow along...

If you can make an outline as per your original recommendation then it's simpler to change that outline to a contour cut than it is to make a contour cut around that outline yielding Yet Another object.

Gotcha. That makes perfect sense.

And, jthomason, how are you coming along?