here’s what my latest design looks like in the GFUI:
there are missing features on the right side that are there on the left side. i have no idea why these are not propagating. i have gone back into my design software and cut those holes out of the object multiple times and each time i send the file to the GF it gets rendered like this. here’s the source file: 
thanks for any help anyone can provide!
This looks like a fill-rule issue…
https://community.glowforge.com/search?context=topic&context_id=40739&q=Fill-rule&skip_context=true
Can you export PDF? You’ll likely have better luck.
*sigh* I really wish Glowforge would fix that already.
The easiest solution for now is to rasterize anything you plan to engrave.
If you’re using Inkscape, there’s a “reverse path” function that will fix the ones not showing up.
now if i can find out how to do that in affinity designer… inkscape on macos is, how shall i put this, not my cup of tea.
I am an Inkscape fan but Affinity must have a “combine” command that would make the entire object one thing. It obviously did that on half of it. It is basic to any such software.
In Autocad you would select the outer object and subtract the holes.
oh there is and i have done it many many times. but every time i import into GFUI it comes up as shown above. originally this was a single curve object but to try to diagnose it i split it up. both versions perform the same way the GFUI for me. here are two test files one with the whole object a single curve, the other split up.
here’s affinity showing test1 - single curve object
here’s affinity showing test 3- split up into multiple curve objects, different fills to illustrate
here’s the GFUI with both files added. bottom most layer is test1, the others are the components of test 3
and here’s geek2nurse’s file for good measure in both affinity and in the GFUI:
top most object in the GFUI
so something is off with how the GFUI is interpreting the SVG being output by Affinity…
OH HO! i think you’ve hit it… i do have an option in Affinity to change the fill mode:
and when i do i get the badness… now how to avoid it?
with that new setting changed, i split the object up and re-subtracted the “windows” from the main shape. looks fine in Affinity, but export to SVG and import into GFUI and same result… damn!
I use Inkscape on MacOS. It’s doable. I like AD, but there are still some things that work better in Inkscape.
It’s a known issue; search on “winding rules” and you’ll see it’s come up often in the past. 
yes i see that, just got finished reading a quite long thread on the subject. lots of troubleshooting but not to many solutions implemented in the GFUI yet i see.
what build of inkscape on macOS are you using? i found that xquartz was a nightmare of window focus problems. i used to have access to Illustrator but wanted to try to focus on Affinity since it was so much less money while being a macOS native application.
Looking at the blowup of the GFUI; It looks like you have two things on top of each other. If you just changed the color of one they would be two layers in the GFUI and you could ignore ir even deleat it there, or you could try and delete one in Affinity and undo if you get the wrong one.
I have 0.92. I mostly use Affinity, but when it comes to node editing stuff, I still prefer Inkscape.
no that’s not what’s happening. its seems this is a fairly well documented bug (Bug: SVG fill-rule:evenodd not supported) that hasn’t been addressed as yet. this is a single curve object with holes in it that are being filled erroneously by the GFUI’s interpretation of the fill-mode type
in my design software those filled in areas are empty.
i’m going to resign myself to finding another work around (PDF, give inkscape another try on macOS, voodoo, ritual sacrifice) but would LOVE IT if GF fixed this aspect in the GFUI so that it interpreted the fill-mode properly.
Do you see that your design in AD is black on one side and blue on the other - while @geek2nurse’s fixed one is black on both sides - that would indicate that even AD understands there is a difference between the sides. That’s not a fix, but certainly a road worth researching
oh i can work around the issue, already have actually. its not about fixing my print anymore, its about fixing why GFUI isn’t rendering the original properly because it should.
My point is that it’s not the GFUI in this instance. Your program recognizes that there is a difference between the two sides, and the GFUI recognizes there is a difference
If your program was saying they were the same, and the GFUI was saying they were different it would be an issue with the GFUI
The bug is in the Glowforge interface. It absolutely needs to support both fill rules.
Affinity Designer uses the even-odd rule for the results of any Subtract operation. This is an entirely reasonable behavior as it makes implementing the operation easier and the SVG spec requires support for the rule. The Glowforge is non-compliant with the spec by not supporting it.
It does make it a real pain for AD users. The easiest workaround is to just rasterize shapes if they’re going to be engraved on the GF. (If they’re going to be scored or cut then the fill rule doesn’t matter.)
