So, for the past two days, I have been working on a US flag with the Maltese cross on one end of it. Under the cross is an outline larger than the cross. I have been doing well putting everything together until trying to get the outline to remain a part of the wood, but it keeps trying to cut it out along with the stripes that do need to be cut away.
Is there anyone in this community that has the answer or maybe lead me in the right direction to find an answer.
Mike
If you make the outline a different colour than the stripes you can assign it to score or whatever you wish.
Does it help seeing this image of one like the one I am trying to make. I may have misspoke when I said outline. It may be more of an offset.
This is not my image. The part that the Maltese cross is engraved on is the part I am speaking of.
If you post the file you are working on it would be easier to help.
No idea how to pull that off in Inkscape…
But something like this?
flag2.zip (9.4 KB)
It has to do with first punching the white filled rectangles and stars out of the black rectangle background, then combining the gray shield with the resulting compound path.
Then you just give that part a red stroke and no fill, then shift over the engrave on top.
When this goes to the GF will the wood be left uncut and the white filled lines be cut?
Yes it’s going to look just like your example. The stars and every other bar will be cut. 
First thing tomorrow, I am cutting this. I will post results image. Now to go finish this thing.
Thank you, Jules. You are the one!
Jules, what program did you use?
Oh…Illustrator. I just know my way around that one.
I am trying to do what you said to do, to the same file I loaded here and I cannot get it to do right. Yours is correct, yours will get my flag done, but I need to learn what I am doing. SMH
I really don’t care for Inkscape…everything is just different enough that it’s a royal pain in the tush to try to interpret it. 
Right click on the flag and Ungroup it.
Select all of the White filled stripes and the White filled stars.
Path > Combine.
Select the White filled Compound Path and the Black Rectangle.
Path > Difference.
Select the Black Flag and the and the Gray shield shape and join them.
Path> Union.
Take that result and remove any Fill color and give it a Stroke color. Those are your Cut lines.
Then shift the engraving over into the shield shape.
That operation has to punch the white shapes out of the black rectangle before you try to merge the shield in…which is why the various steps are required.
Wow! That was so easy. I am so thankful for your replies and the time you took to educate me. Thank you!
Mike
I think I just learned something new from you too. This whole time I was wishing there was an easier way to take the difference of multiple objects, rather than selecting them all individually. Thanks!
@mforrester1962 I pretty much did the same thing @Jules did in Inkscape. I ungrouped the entire thing, clicked the stripes (individually unfortunately, going to be trying out jule’s tip now too) and than main rectangle and took the difference. After I did that for all the stripes, I clicked your gray area and hit union.
I left your engraved section off to the side, but before doing the union, you would probably like to center the engrave part over it for perfect alignment, then click the gray spot and union it to the main rectangle.
I’m attaching the SVG I played with. I made a duplicate copy underneath without unioning the gray part, so you can see how I aligned it first, then click the gray part and union it with the rest of the flag.
Thanks @jules, once again you’re magnificent! I’m going to close this thread since all is well now. @mforrester1962, don’t hesitate to open a new thread if you have another question.
