Engraving negative Space. Affinity Designer IPad

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#1

Hello.

(Disclaimer) I am brand new to Glowforge so please be patient with me if I posted this somewhere i am not supposed to or if it has already been asked a million times.

Question. I am trying to engrave negative space. I have followed tutorials to a T online and yet it doesn’t happen.

I make a shape. I put my letters on the shape. I convert my letters to curves. I group the letters and the shape. I subtract the letters. It looks good on my file when it gets to Glowforge in the commands side it shows me the letters but on the actual bed it does not. If I zoom in real close I can see the letters behind the pink but when i engrave it just engraves everything.

Does anyone see anything I am doing incorrect? Does anyone else use affinity designer?

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#2

I use AD. It sounds like you’re following the correct sequence. Sometimes the subtracting doesn’t work for one reason or another, and it’s not obvious that it hasn’t happened. I always apply a fill to the object just to make sure, before exporting it.

One thing is to make sure the objects you’re subtracting are on top of the thing you’re subtracting them from. You can do this by selecting them and using the “bring to front” tool.

Another thing that traps me sometimes is if the objects I want to subtract are grouped – it won’t subtract a group from another object.

If you want to upload your artwork here I’d be happy to take a look and see if I can narrow it down for you.

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#3

Ok i made a sample here for you to see. I did it without applying any suggestions you had so you could see what I was doing before.

negative space

#4

That one’s just fine – I imported it to my GF dashboard just to be sure, and it’s seeing it correctly.

#5

Ok So even though I can see the letters on the Glowforge its not going to engrave them? I must say that I think the fix was you said ungroup the letters. I thought I had done that before but I just went and checked and they are still grouped. I think that was the one change that got me over the top. Thank you so much for your help.

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#6

You’re seeing the negatives of the letters. It will engrave where the color is, not where the letters are. :slight_smile:

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