Combining Lines to Make 1 Graphic in Illustrator

I am trying to make a set of hexagon coasters in Illustrator. My first attempt resulted in each side of every hexagon, even though most of the hexagons share sides that could only be one command to cut and save time on the Glowforge. Is there a way to combine all the lines into 1 graphic?

On the same note of saving time while engraving, I have several images for each coaster. Can the individual Clipart images be combined to make a mega-graphic so the Glowforge treats the printing like an old dot matrix printer, where the laser goes back and forth line by line along the whole piece of wood instead of printing one image at a time? As a contrast, when I add multiple Clipart images from within Glowforge’s interface (not in Illustrator), each graphic is engraved in the order it was added to the layout. This just seems inefficient. I’d like to cut down on 14 hour engraving jobs, if possible. This is why I’m trying to use Illustrator to “simplify” the commands to Glowforge.

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Welcome to the forum.
To combine the graphics from the interface so that they engrave as a unit, you will probably have to export the file and rasterize, then reopen in the interface. To combine cut lines, see if this thread helps: Inkscape or Illustrator: Combining Cut Lines?

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Use the white direct selection arrow tool to select an overlapping line segment and hit delete.
Repeat for any others that overlap. It will help visualize if you make the strokes of the hexagons different colors. Once you have all the lines the way you like you can set them to the same color again.

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To combine all the different graphics into one, first place all the hexes where you want them This needs to be done first. Then place all the graphics on the hexes one all are in place, select all the graphics and rasterize them this will make one big graphic if the hexes seam to disappear don’t worry just select the large graphic and using arrange move it to the back. Hope you can understand this if not you can contact me.

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This is a great idea for engraving but is, unfortunately, not going to work for cutting or scoring.

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Well, depending on the design and what you want to cut. You may be able to use image trace in AI. if you can upload an image with what you want and how many you want laid out to cut I may be able to suggest more.