It’s likely that those leaves don’t full close, and the curve isn’t done with a point in the middle so the machine is trying to guess exactly what you want and is “closing” an open shape. If you want to post your actual art somebody here could verify that.
The issue with open shapes is ongoing because probably 75% of the time it’ll interpret “correctly” and 25% not. Sometimes just rotating the art a few degrees will fix it, but making sure all your shapes are fully closed is the only 100% solution.
Also, check for a duplicated line or shape there in the file. When one line or shape overlays another one exactly, and they are the same color, it cancels out in the Glowforge user interface.
I was going to suggest that… The way the leaved are bifurcated says either the shape is open or there are duplicates of the “missing” curves.
I really appreciate it! Interestingly, I drew one of the petals rotated and copied them to create the ‘flower’. I just can’t figure out why some will cut and others will not?
I did double check the file and all of my paths are closed. I’m sure I am doing something wrong I just can’t figure out what.
Send a copy of the file to the Glowforge crew…they have experts on staff. (Or you can upload the file here and someone might be able to see something in it. What program did you use to create it?)
Oh… hold the phone…that might be the Switchback bug. Extremely rare. (I’ve only seen it a couple of times in the last five years, and both times were reported. But because it is so rare, it’s been very low priority.)
What I think is happening is, when the path that the laser head is travelling on hits a sharp point with immediate and rapid direction change, (like a switchback), it can lose its position. Then it just closes the path. Sometimes it makes a little bubble. Sometimes it makes a straight line to close it. Either way, it has something to do with rotation as well, so that’s why you don’t see it on every petal.
The ways that I found that worked to get around it is to add a few more nodes to the petals, at least one on either side of the switch. (You can also slightly round the tips and that does it.) Or actually cut the petal if you are planning to Score or Cut the lines, precisely on that end node at both ends. It will still follow from node to node, but it will pause for just a fraction of a second at the end and start points, and reorient itself.
With a very clean Bezier curve setup like that one, you can add nodes without impacting the processing time, so that might be the quickest way to fix it.
Thank you everyone!
I deleted the file and re created it from the start and it will s cutting just fine now! I have to believe it was user error and something was wrong with my initial file I’m any case, I do appreciate everyone helping!!
It should never try and close an open path from a cutting perspective, only from an engraving perspective. For engraving, it needs to have an area to fill, so it closes an open path to create that area. From a cutting or scoring perspective, it won’t close an open shape because it’s completely normal and acceptable to cut an open path.
I’m glad you resolved it! Thank you for the great advice @Jules, @linefeed and @deirdrebeth! I’m going to close this thread. If you run into any other trouble, please start a new topic, or email us at support@glowforge.com. We’re here to help!