Cutting outside the lines

[prevntfyr]

I am working on creating a series of maps that will eventually get glued up together to form one large map of my fire district. All of the little maps in the series are bounded by a quarter section line, and that seems like a good scale for the Glowforge to work with. My problem is the quarter section line for the bounding. I am trying to save that line, so it will match up with the next one, but the GF keeps cutting it away. I am sure there has to be a simple solution for this, but I’ve been trying different things all morning without any luck. Does anyone have an idea of how to do that?

Thanks,

Pat

[evansd2]

None of this makes much sense to me. Maybe you are using terms from software that I don’t use? It almost sounds like a centerline trace issue.

If you could upload a pic or copy of the original file we can probably be of more help.

[ptodd]

If I understand … Sounds like you need the 1/4" line to be a different color … So you can set it to engrave.

[prevntfyr]

Sorry for any confusion, really what I am trying to do is cut away everything that isn’t a street and isn’t the “frame” surrounding the streets.

[evansd2]

Ah no problem. What software are you using?

The basic idea is that you’d trace the shapes. How exactly you do that depends on the software of choice.

[prevntfyr]

I am in Inkscape now

[evansd2]

Drag your jpeg into your SVG. It should come up as a bitmap object in the workspace.

Once you do that, select the map image, then go to the menus and find “trace bitmap”. Follow that process along and it’ll convert the image into a vector, suitable for cutting.

[bansai8creations]

Maybe try reverse image and outline/trace for what was white is now black to cut, not etch…???

[evansd2]

Did you get this worked out?

[prevntfyr]

Yes, I did. Thank you.