I am making earrings from a file I bought, and the outline around the earring needs to be thicker but I don’t want it to affect anywhere but the outside (theres lots of cutouts in the middle), how do I do that?
It won’t let me ungroup the file and I am lost, thx!!
Sounds like a Compound Path. Double click on the outline, might take more than once depending on how many times it has been grouped, to enter Isolation Mode. Once there, you can resize just that path.
(When you’re done, right click and Exit Isolation mode.)
Welcome to the forum. A little more explanation might help us help you. What type of file did you purchase? Is it a straight vector or is it a bitmap or bitmap vector combo?
What happens when you bring it into the Glowforge? Do you get the cutting and engraving operations you need?
Do you mean thicken a line going around the shape to engrave it or do you mean make the vector outline bigger to cut out more?
AH! So just using the corner to drag it out after it’s isolated? Here I was doing offset paths and outlines which were all affecting the inside shapes. That should help! Thank you!
Yep…hold the Shift and ALT keys to constrain it to growing from the center evenly. (Or you can do an Offset Path on just the outline once you’re in Isolation mode, then delete the interior one before exiting Isolation Mode.)
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It’s a vector file with ai and svg versions. I was using the ai file and trying to isolate just the perimeter of the shape (a leaf) without affecting the cutouts inside. The file cuts perfectly, it’s just that the hole was too small when I resized the earring to make it smaller so I needed to make the jump ring hole bigger, and when I did that, the area around it isn’t thick enough…
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I don’t know why I didn’t think of that, I was making it more difficult than it needed to be. I tried going into isolation mode but for some reason it wasn’t working. Thank you!!
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Happy to help! 
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Offset and scaling from center are not the same thing for shapes that are at all complex or asymmetrical. You might want to try both and see if you get a better result one way or the other.
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