Cutting cardboard for a friend - files import strangely

[Helene]

My friend’s son (about 6 and adorable) has this cardboard thingy that attaches to his Nintendo Switch in some way and it is loads of fun, but it got stepped on and is no longer as much fun as it was before. The files to replace the cardboard parts have been made available, so her husband packed them up and she sent them to me. This project requires 2mm corrugated cardboard. The only 2mm corrugated cardboard that I have is a couple of Quaker Oat boxes from Sams. So, while replaceable, I don’t have an abundance of material here at home to fail with.

The 4 svg files are those files that have about an inch worth of line on a layer in a folder - about 500000 times . I figure I can’t leave it this way since I am cutting very thin cardboard and I like my house. (Please correct me if I am wrong and this won’t cause a heat problem)
For files -not- this huge, I have ungrouped / moved the layers out / connected the lines and gone about my printing. This job is just too much for that. I can’t figure out how to automate it (I looked at a dozen or so likely Affinity posts here, but I don’t know what to call it to search for it other than “PITA that I don’t want to do”)

So, I said to myself, “Hey! My Glowforge can print pdfs!” I’ve had it for years and haven’t tried a pdf yet. Now looks like the perfect time!
When I add the pdf to the Glowforge Dashboard it says something like - "We see you have dashes. Surely you don’t mean dashes. Therefore we have turned your dashes in to lines. "
I had asked my friend about the dashes earlier and she said that yes, it needs to be dashes, they removed the fold lines and will handle folding another way, but these dashes are supposed to be dashes.
Ok, so I look at what the Glowforge actually did, and it turned every line into - Dashes!
What I had before was solid lines and big long dashes. Now I have every line as shorter dashes.

So I need some help please

Do I have to combine all of those little lines to remove the stop/start? (they jump all over and are not in order) or should I be fine? or will that also be a problem with the dashes anyway? Is there a way to automate it?
What is with the dashes in the pdf? How do I politely ask my Glowforge to bend to my will and give me solid lines and long dashes?
What else is 2mm corrugated cardboard? Everything else that I have is 3mm or thicker and that won’t work.

Thank you so much for your help and advice!
Helene

[Helene]

Ah ha! I found that the dashed lines for everything is because with my new setup, I am not next to my Glowforge and it doesn’t have material. I fit everything inside the cutting area and told it it was maple and to cut it and the lines that were supposed to be solid are now solid.
I do still have the problem that the lines that were dashes are now solid also.

[eflyguy]

Dashes are a “style” applied to a path, just like strokes (specifically, stroke width). The GF only sees paths, so all styles are ignored.

Most design apps have a way to convert styles to paths, so (for example) dashes would be converted into multiple path segments that mirror the on-screen effect. Stroke width would be converted to an outline of the stroke, etc.

That’s why your “dashes” are solid lines.

[Pearl]

FYI, Amazon sells 2mm cardboard. I know it might sound silly to buy cardboard, but I like having a nice flat, sized, pack of cardboard around when needed.

[cynd11]

If you have Premium, you can turn a solid line into a dashed line using the Patterned Line tool: