Am I looking for an Inkscape needle in a haystack?

[RyanD]

I am a daily reader of every new post if it has anything to do with me or not. Because of this a lot of my trouble have been cleared up by reading what others have asked. I went ahead and used not only the search here but on google as well and I can only seem to find only a semi related topic that is of no help.

I am breaking up a board into 4 sections that are held together by a nub of sorts. It’s really just a basic puzzle if you want to think of it that way. The trouble I’m having is that my GF wants to cut all 4 shapes out fully, one at a time. This is causing the laser to double back on my already cut lines. When I try to search this issue I come across people having issues with both sides of a stroke giving them a double cut. This is not my problem. I know it can be done because cutting out a puzzle is an option with the GF.

The part that is really driving me crazy is not being able to word my problem correctly in searches. So if you do double check my work and find me an answer within these forums, please include what you searched for. Thank you all in advance!

Side note, I am using the full sheet and cannot separate the 4 tiles. Also, I do most of my design in Lightburn because that’s what I used with my last laser and I know that program. The trouble there is the option to remove duplicate paths is in the print menu, which is not used with a GF.

Help|690x471

[evansd2]

Your problem is that your puzzle pieces are full shapes, and so it’s cutting them exactly as it sees them.

If you want the cut the inside lines in one pass instead, you have to delete the duplicate path sections using the node editor. Momentito.

[evansd2]

Original:

Separate the pieces out… and set the inner parts to the side. Group those internal parts.

You can see the duplicate lines laying on each other. No good. Use the node tool…

And then select the nodes you don’t want to have lines between them and click the “delete segment between two non-endpoint nodes” button: (oh and realize that you should move it so the page outline isn’t making your screenshots look like garbage… and up the line weight to make it more visible, and heck, make it red just for contrast.)

Repeat this process…

Snap 'em back together:

Almost there. Group the puzzle piece outlines, and then align it with your interior parts from before:

Oh, and I also color coded it so that the interior pieces go first, the outline will cut last. If you haven’t already done it, setup a custom palette, you’ll be happy you did.

Here is the SVG:

[evansd2]

Oh wait, I have n alternate way to do it for you, the way I just posted will make 4 approaches to the center intersection which may lead to overburning. One sec.

Here we go:

Instead this time I broke everything apart and made one vertical puzzle line, and one horizontal:

Color coded for clarity:

And then everything else is the same, mechanically speaking.

New version:

The advantage here is that the laser just makes 2 passes across the center intersection, should be a cleaner cut with no undue overburn

[RyanD]

I feel like your first, amazing, explanation would fix my problem but I’ll hold.

[rbtdanforth]

You can join the lines and make one closed shape. I do this frequently

[RyanD]

I completely understand the method of thinking on this. I just couldn’t get my brain to find the starting point. I even ready a few posts on node editing to help but it just didn’t click. I hope this can help people out in the future! Thank you!

[evansd2]

Node editing is a great core skill to master.

Node editing tutorial here:

http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Paths-Editing.html

It’s for a slightly older version of inkscape, but the commands are largely unchanged.

[markevans36301]

Totally agree with the other Evans on this one. Nodes are far from obvious but super important to master.