Merging two shapes together

[tina1]

I am trying to create leather keychain that has a “loop” at the top of it to go around the metal hoop. I cannot figure out how to unite the object and the part of the keychain that will become the loop into one thing. I am trying to make it so that the loop part will not be cut separately from the actual object. I read online that I am supposed to group the two objects together and then “edit within the group” but I cannot find out how to edit in the group, when I right-click on the group that is not an option that pops up. Is there anything else I can do in order to merge these two shapes together?

[ekla]

Which design software are you using?

[geek2nurse]

You didn’t say what design software you’re using, but what you’re looking for is a “union” or “weld” or “boolean add” or “merge,” depending on the terminology in your particular software. Grouping doesn’t create one shape out of two, so it’s not going to help.

@Jules has some posts in the Tips and Tricks section that walk you through the process for Affinity Designer, Adobe Illustrator, or Inkscape. Just search for posts in that section by her, with “make a name pendant” in the title.

[evansd2]

It can also be done in the premium UI.

[tina1]

how? I have premium

[evansd2]

heh, I don’t know exactly because I don’t use it.

I want to say it was maybe @xabbess that gave a tutorial about it?

The gist, as I recall, was to select the entire design and use the outline feature to make a new outline that encompasses everything? Someone will probably be along shortly to be more precise than this.

[deirdrebeth]

@evansd2

select the entire design and use the outline feature to make a new outline

That’s the gist of it - create your loop circle above your design, select and group them both, and then make an outline with a buffer of 0 around them both.

[evansd2]

All that being said: The UI design tools are a constant series of compromises and workarounds. My recommendation is to pick a proper vector design software to learn and do your work there. Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity, Cuttle, even Corel and other less-popular options will be much more capable than the UI.

If you’re going to get serious about making your own designs, you’re really far better off using dedicated programs to do it.

[cynd11]

Here is a process using Premium that should work for you:

Font to single cut whole words

Surprisingly, I just checked this in Glowforge Premium and the script typefaces I checked (look under Handwritten, or Elegant) came already welded! If the typeface you are interested in doesn’t do that, you could select all the letters then use the Outline tool to add a minimal outline (probably smaller than the default 0.25) until all letters are surrounded in one piece. Like this: [image]

Also, Glowforge has a tutorial:

Make a Gift Tag from Scratch using Premium Creative Tools

[rbtdanforth]

@tina1

I am trying to make it so that the loop part will not be cut separately from the actual object.

If you make a fairly large ellipse on the top of your design and with the design and ellipse highlighted make an outline of both. Then you can make the ellipse about half the size so there is distance between the ellipse and outline, and not digging into the design.

Then you can make the outline and ellipse cut and take the former edge that was cut to a score or ignore and you have your design with a loop

[randy.cohen]

Post a picture of what you’re trying to do.

[Xabbess]

@evansd2

gave a tutorial about it?

T’weren’t me

[rvogt]

What @deirdrebeth said, but after your outline is made, i then go back to the small circle you added to create the loop and resize it inside that new outline and that makes the loop you need to put the metal keyring in.

[randy.cohen]

Is this the kind of thing you’re looking to make?