How to create a cut line around bitmap in inkscape

[onefunkyfarmhouse]

This is my first post, sorry if it is in the wrong category, or format, etc. I am a newbie to everything. I am banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to create a solid cut line around an image that I want scored or engraved. Example, a flower that I want cut out, but the petals, leaves, and details are all engraved. I end up getting double lines, pieces not lining up, and sometimes fire because it cuts twice. One time, I was able to change the svg to a trace so I could see the piece of the picture and if they were overlapping or not. But that was not helpful when I doubled lines and burned the crap out of my piece. Any help is so appreciated! Btw, I searched the topics and only found help on illustrator and other programs. Sorry if I missed the answer. Thank you!!!

Edit: I tried to upload an svg and it isn’t working. I can not win today, grrr…

[eflyguy]

Inkscape - Auto-Trace a Bitmap

[image] iOS Video

Video tutorial Using Trace feature in Inkscape

Here is a video I did on making those foam inserts for my toolbox using the the trace bitmap feature in Inkscape. [Glowforge/Inkscape: Foam tool inserts, How To]

[marmak3261]

Inkscape Cut outline

In reading through this post, I figured that I wanted to see how to do something similar in Inkscape. A quick search didn’t bring up anything, so hopefully I’m not duplicating efforts here. There is no Shape Builder in Inkscape so it is a little more manual of a process. Draw a box that is larger than the shape you want to outline and give it some sort of fill Make a copy of your vector shape in Inkscape (You should have two copies of your shape) Select the new version of the shape Ctl+Shift+F…

How does this one work for you?

The forum strips out bitmaps from SVGs. The SVGs appear very small but you can change the size in the markup.

[onefunkyfarmhouse]

I think i follow you. It would be like slicing the image out of the box? I am used to cricut terms and they call it slicing. Then take the sliced out image and discard the left over box pieces. Let me try it, thanks!

[onefunkyfarmhouse]

This one should be it, thank you! It shows where I can find the outline feature too! It also touches on layers which i have not tried yet. I am used to working in layers because of cricut software. Each color is a layer and I am having difficulty thinking in terms of one layer with different functions when using Inkscape. I am too scared to experiment with Inkscape layers though Thanks again!

[onefunkyfarmhouse]

Sorry, I tried it. I have 6 objects grouped. I click on the image> Path> Trace bitmap> Click Edge Detection> Update> Nothing. The message bar says “select an image to trace” even though my image has all the arrows around or is selected from what I can tell. Any ideas?

[MakerMatthew]

Could you share a screenshot?

[evansd2]

I’ve never tried it but I suspect trace bitmap only works on ungrouped single raster images. If you have doc grouped objects you either need to ungroup them or go into the group by double clicking and manipulate the raster(s) one at a time.

Like makermatthew said, we’d need to see the art in question to give more specific advice.

[onefunkyfarmhouse]

I kind of need all pieces, wings, body, antenna in order to get the full outline. I did union and thought that would solve it, i did the paint can flood thing, but when I transfer to GF the old outlines are still there or nodes i think they are called.

[evansd2]

I’ll DM you for more specific steps.

[beerfaced]

Will this work?
You can engrave everything in black and select cut for the red background.

[eflyguy]

Did you get this working?

It’s very simple, but I don’t want to have to type it all out again if you’ve already solved it based on what was sent in private.

[onefunkyfarmhouse]

Sorry for the delay! @evansd2 helped me out but thank you! I had multiple copies on top of one another somehow. He had to ungroup a bunch of times and then do union. I appreciate your help though