read 100 posts; still, illustrator cut line prob

[Salmoneye]

I am using illy to make my die cut and my regular vinyl cut lines. I am having nothing but problems. Today my issue is: I am making a graph for a white board with cut black vinyl. I have a rectangle with many lines intersecting to form boxes like a spread sheet. Offset path and pathfinder treat each of these lines as a separate path. I can get one stroke line on everything or I can get it around everything but then it wants to cut through all of the intersections. Do I need to just get flexi and export all my designs there for cutting. Frustrated. Thanks again in advance for any advice.

 

[J Hill Designs]

I believe it would be - stroke paths to proper width, create outline from path, delete original path, weld remaining.

I believe...

 

[Fred Weiss]

Are you trying to cut strokes? Strokes will print but not cut. They need to be converted into paths and then merged using Pathfinder.

Object > Path > Outline Stroke

 

[rfulford]

Be sure the points on your graph are joined.
Object > Path > Join or command/control J
Then you can outline the path

 

[Salmoneye]

How do you weld? Fred, I have not had any problem cutting objects my putting a stroke of my cut color around the object. When I do it the way that you say object, path, outline stroke I get all the problems I talked about in my original text, all the intersecting lines get cut too. I tried to load the plug in you turned me onto the other day but the extra tools didn't show up in my toolbox so I haven't tried them yet

 

[x2chris7x]

path>outline stroke, and then path finder add to shape

 

[Salmoneye]

rfulford, I tried to do that and it wouldn't let me. To test it I Made a box out of a 8point stroke with no fill with the rectangle tool. I then drew a 8point line segment from the left to right side of the box. Selected both paths and tried to join them.

 

[HaroldDesign]

Sounds like it's cutting what you're telling it to. If I understand correctly, you need to have it cut separate "box" areas - not the paths that appear to be boxes made by intersecting lines separated visually on screen by the stroke weight.

 

[Salmoneye]

Chris, I just tried what you suggested and it worked like a champ. Thank you very much. I have only tried to work with the little sample that I mentioned but I will work with it some more later. I read an illustrator book over the weekend but it still didn't explain the pathfinder very well. I need to find a better book. Thanks again.

 

[iSign]

think of illy drawings like a coloring book. The "preview' mode is the coloring... any kid can come in a make any mess he wants, but underneath that is the black line drawing (the "outline" view)

Your plotter ONLY sees the vectors in outline mode. Turn off the preview!! Outlines NEVER show strokes, therefore, strokes have NO place in cut vinyl drawings. You can use them as a drawing tool, but you MUST convert strokes to paths to create vectors at the correct locations, to cut shapes the way they look when designed with strokes.

Because your plotter see the vectors as they appear in outline mode, any EXTRA lines, or INTERSECTING lines seen in outline mode ned to be dealt with. The pathfinder tool box is your friend. "WELD" is a common term among sign makers & sign making programs, but it is not an Illy term. In illustrator, you use "UNITE" in the pathfinder toolbox.

 

[rfulford]

I'm glad you got this to work Salmoneye. To clarify my earlier and vague post. You should use the direct select tool to select the points on the path that touch and then use the join command. Join only works with two endpoints selected.

 

[signmeup]

"WELD" is a common term among sign makers & sign making programs, but it is not an Illy term.

Why do you suppose that is?

 

[iSign]

my guess is they were already doing it under their own name, before there were any sign programs calling it "weld'

 

[Salmoneye]

Ford, some places where I am joining these points is not at the ends of paths so there is not always two handles to grab where they intersect.

 

[iSign]

Ford, some places where I am joining these points is not at the ends of paths so there is not always two handles to grab where they intersect.

in vinyl cutting, you never want any lines besides closed contours, so why join a line to the middle of another line?

You need some training on basic vector graphic design work. You can get some of that here, but I'd suggest learning to take screen shots of your challenges to post here, & write detailed posts stating your objective, what you do understand & what you don't understand.

Use the pen tool, hover over line segment that you need an additional point. pen tool Cursor changes include to a + when you are over a line. Click & you will have another point. Use the white pointer & click on the segment you don't need, & you can delete it. Then you can join a new line to that new point.