Hi everyone,
I have read the pdf on avoiding double lines, but I must be missing something. I am importing files into Inkscape, tracing the Bitmap, and I’m getting double lines in many of my images. I have been going into the nodes and deleting them one at a time, but that is taking forever. I understand how to avoid this when creating designs in Inkscape, but not how to avoid it when importing a design. I want to be able to cut these shapes out - not engrave.
Thanks for any help you can offer! The pic below shows the double lines and my deleting them one by one. 
double%20lines%20deleting%20nodes|625x500
Does Inkscape have advanced options for the trace function? In Illustrator when you open up the advanced options in the trace palette you get a box for “strokes”, the default is “fills” which would give you the filled shapes it sounds like you’re getting.
huh, I would have thought something like illustrator’s image trace option of “ignore white”
I’m going to move this over to Everything Else, since it’s not a Support issue and we users can help you there without the need for a support ticket slowing down the response to hardware issues. 
If you don’t check the “strokes” box and UNcheck “fills” you’d still get double lines on a line art trace (filled shapes).
What you’re describing is a centerline trace. The new beta of Inkscape 1.0 has a centerline trace option, but it’s still experimental and not great (from what I read. I haven’t tried it). You can download it from inkscape and give it a shot, it might do what you’re asking for.
Post an example of what you’re trying to do and we can possibly offer solutions. If you’re engraving, i’m not sure what the problem is here. If you’re cutting or scoring, different story.
Yes, I am trying to cut - not engrave here. I’ll try the new Beta but I feel like there must be some sort of setting already available or lots of people would be having this problem!
Thank you!
Well…
Again, it’s hard to know what problem you mean without seeing an example of what you’re trying to do.
Lots of people successfully work with text and bitmaps and get successful cuts/engraves/combos. There are ways to do it, but we can’t give very specific pointers without knowing the very specific intent 
My guess is that there is a tutorial on here that is exactly what you’re looking for, you’d have to be doing something really strange for for it not to have come up already – people love text cutouts, it’s been done a hundred ways.
After you trace the bitmap in Inkscape you need to break apart the image - which will make the interiors and exteriors separate - then you just have to click on the one you don’t want and delete it.
If your design has lots of “windows” (like flower petals or the like) you’ll need to delete each of the centers separately, but it’s definitely better than one node at at time!
What you need starts at about 2:45 in the video here:
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Thank you thank you thank you!!! Break apart was the missing step. So appreciate it!!
Sara
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I’m a learn-by-doer but that was one I couldn’t figure out on my own - luckily by then someone had put up the instructions 
The video makes it even easier to understand because you can follow the cursor to find out where the menu is they’re talking about!
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