How are you doing the graphic inside of the watch band? and i noticed looking at the file you have multiple copies of the band ontop of itself some with stroke and some with fill
Nevermind. You have two sets of outlines and two sets of red fills with no stroke. If you tried to do an engrave those two fills would cancel each other out. The laserhead would move back and forth, but never fire.
I think so he can make a jig for strap placement. Doesn’t need the interior cutouts of course, but they wouldn’t harm anything.
So what are the design objects above the watch strap? Rasters or vectors?
You want to do an ungroup on that watch strap, and then drag each object around until you have two sets of red fills and two sets of outlines. Delete all but one set of outlines. Then we can work on moving the objects you want to engrave into the watch strap.
That’s why the engrave vanished - the forum deletes bitmaps from SVG files.
So how do I proceed? I’m at a total loss
Zip the file and then upload the zip. It’s the software used to run this forum that strips the bitmaps. Don’t know why.
Zip that design file? How do I do that?
i presume your pattern above the strap in the picture above is a bitmap? the one with the different logos?
first, that really needs to be all black, if possible. the different colors in that may engrave at different depths as the colors change. bitmap colors don’t really mean anything to the engrave, they’ll be interpreted as grey.
once that’s fixed. in illustrator, i would take the black stroke outline (no fill), and put the pattern inside of it. then do the clipping that you did before to set up the pattern the way you like. then (important step), convert that clipped image to a bitmap (not sure how you do that in inkscape). that turns the clipped larger image into an image in the clipped shape (hopefully that makes sense) and then there’s no longer a clipping path.
Right-click on the file, select Send To -> Compressed (zipped) folder.
thx u guys for all your help! so far, I have been clipping, then i was saving as a PNG, upload back on Inkscape and turn it into a bit map, and then align it with outline of the band and finally saved as a SVG, and finally uploaded it to GF, but it must be an easier and faster way I hope
This is going to be easier than I thought. Unless these are unlicensed Disney objects. Then we will probably be killed while we sleep tonight. Disney is pretty serious about their IP and my dog isn’t much of a guard dog. You’ll probably want to delete the post with the zip even if it is licensed so someone else doesn’t download it.
And it just got a little more difficult, but not too bad.
So these Disney objects are vectors. That is really good news. If you open that file you uploaded do a Object -> Ungroup. Then do a Path -> Break Apart. Once this is done each Disney thing will be its own object.
Step 1: Take a single outline of your watch strap and delete all the interior holes so you only have the outline. This will be your jig. If you don’t want an engrave to go over a hole in the strap, place your objects first (step 2) and then remove the strap holes.
Step 2: Move the items you want to engrave into your watch strap outline. This will place them where you want them to engrave. You can resize them if you want using your cursor or using the Transform menu in Inkscape (Object -> Transform).
Step 3: The objects are gradient fill. You don’t want that. Select each object inside the watch strap, one at a time probably, and on the Fill menu in Inkscape select Flat Color.
Step 4: The circle objects in your file are multiple objects stacked on top of each other. Some of the other ones may be as well. The mouse outline appears to be just one object. For the ones that are stacked, you need to delete all but the top one - otherwise they will cancel each other out and your engrave will not be what you expect.
Step 5: Choose the same color for each object in step 3 when you made the color flat. Otherwise each color will be a separate engrave operation.
Step 6: Upload your file and do a practice engrave on some scrap - like draftboard or plywood. There are a lot of things that could go wrong on the above steps. Best to debug on scrap.
Step 7: Once the file is engraving like you want, put a piece of paper or some other cheap material in your glowforge. Set the engraves to ignore and the outline to cut. Cut out the outline.
Step 8: Remove the outline from your cheap material. DO NOT bump or otherwise move the cheap material. Carefully remove the outline of the strap. This is your jig.
Step 9: Place the actual watch strap in your jig. Set the outline to ignore and set the engrave to engrave. If the GFUI shows your engrave as being off, as in not directly over your strap, trust the force robs - the GFUI likes to lie. As for the settings, I’ve never done this. I’m assuming you have those researched.
You should now have an engraved watch strap.
One more thing. In Inkscape, go to File -> Document properties and make the Height and Width setting 12 inches and 20 inches respectively for your final file.
Thx u so much! I’ll give it a go tonight!! I appreciate all of u guys!
I’m glad it helped!
Hi! I’m engraving watch band but even though I’m cleaning them with hand soap followed by alcohol, I’m having that white cast left only on the darker color bands… Any suggestions? Thank you!
Are you using the original bands that came with the Apple Watch or silicone bands purchased separately such as from Amazon? Evidently the original bands are made of something other than silicone (someone else can chime in with what they are made from), and I’ve seen different statements of whether or not they are safe to laser.
To be extra safe I have only lasered bands labeled as silicone. I either scrub them well with a toothbrush and Dawn or I have even tried cleaning them in my ultrasonic cleaner.
