Inkscape Newb

#1

Was working on a design in InkScape today and was stuggling with merging two paths.

Effectively, I have

  1. a geometric design
  2. a rectangle path (white fill and black stroke).

Want to merge the rectangle onto a portion of the geometric design so that it shows up as a white space with a border (for inserting text later).

Attempted to Path-> Union the objects, but this was not working as intended (just created a big black box on the original design.

Had to resort to utilizing Path -> Difference, but this resulted in loosing my black stroke outline. Am I missing something?

#2

First, do do any path-type stuff with a rectangle you have to first convert it to paths (yeah, not intuitive).

If you just want it to show up on the other design, you really don’t have to combine them; just stick it where you want it. If you combine them, they both inherit the same stroke outline

#3

Many thanks, my original post wasnt clear but the rectangle is in fact a path. When I placed it atop the geometric design and imported into Glowforge Interface, it would still see both paths (I dont want to engrave the geometric design underneath the rectangle, I want it to over-ride it)

#4

Ah. That’s where me being a relative noob myself is going to become a problem. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Depending on what the geometry is that’s underneath, Path->difference might work. Make sure the image to be subtracted FROM is behind the object you want to subtract, using the little “send to back” icon in the top toolbar.

Oh, and I meant to mention that the GlowForge doesn’t care about stroke width. No matter how wide it is on your screen it will only be as wide as the laser beam when it’s cut. :blush:

#5

Many thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

I did end up resorting to Path-> Difference, it got the job done, but as a result I lost my engraving stroke around the rectangle. I guess I could maybe use 2 rectangles to resolve?

#6

Yes. You can use “duplicate” before “difference” if you want another for our purposes. Keep in mind, the Glowforge ignores the stroke anyway. However you can “score” along the path or you can “stroke to path” to create a path that encloses the stroke and engrave the interior of that.