Layered SVG From Illustrator

[benjaminhcrump]

Hey Gang -

I am creating my designs in illustrator and exporting SVG. Sometimes my layers come through to the GF and other times they do not. What am I doing wrong?

I would love to be able to make files where the different layers are different cut paths that I can specify the order of, rather than just all my cuts being in one “CUT” pass. Seems as if sometimes all strokes are specified as cut on one layer…but other times it saves out in layers just fine…

I have tried opening the SVG up and remaking the layers and sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t and I don’t know what I am doing to make this happen. Feel free to respond if I haven’t been clear!

[Jules]

Understood perfectly.

The GFUI does not order operations according to Layers. It uses a combination of operation, color and the where the layer falls in the stack. (A bit complicated.)

The rules run:

Engraves will show up at the top of the thumbnail column.
Cuts show up below. (Cuts have to be converted into Scores manually at this point in time, so no way to do it except by hand.)

The use of color will next determine what comes higher or lower in the stack if you have multiple engraves or cut operations set up.

There is a good discussion of how to order operations by color here:

Custom Inkscape, Illustrator, CorelDraw and Affinity Designer Color Palettes for ordering operations in GFUI

Continuing the discussion from Space Invaders or Mitral Valve Leaflets, you decide: I have always been curious about how the Glowforge defaults the order of operations. I have tested it in terms of position in the workspace and order of creation in the design. Nothings seemed to click right, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it was dermined by color. The Glowforge catalog designs always load in the same order, though you can drag and change them in the workspace, so I figured there must be so…

Reasons why you might want to perform separate cut operations is to cut the inside parts out first in a shape if you are afraid it might shift in the air assist. (Good practice to set the interior cuts up to cut first. Just make them all one color, and the outside cuts another color. Black will cut first, Red will cut last.)

Where the actual travel path will follow the Layer stack in Illustrator is when you have a bunch of disconnected paths (layers) that are all the same stroke color - the head generally will go from the bottom of the stack of Sub-Layers to the top. (I think…don’t quote me on that, I haven’t watched it in a while.)

That’s it.

[benjaminhcrump]

Thank you!

[lairdknox]

You can also drag the items to change the order in the GF UI. I save my Illustrator files as PDFs. They seem to cause fewer issues. Also you don’t need to convert text to outlines for engraves.

[ritadian]

@lairdknox

I save my Illustrator files as PDFs.

I do the exact same thing. I’ve always had issues with SVGs not behaving themselves.