Hello! And thanks in advance for any advice you can give. I was engraving a cutting board for a friend (which is why I’m in beyond the manual).
I spent hours working on this file, cleaning up nodes and all kinds of crazy. But after I engrave it, there is a thin line across the board. It definitely wasn’t the board, because I checked it beforehand, and when I checked my file, I couldn’t find anything (the line is too prefect to be a break in the wood).
So I go back, and spend a couple of more hours cleaning up the file again, checking everything I could possibly think to check, and I go to print it again.
A million hours later, it’s done, but the line is there (deeper in fact, since I didn’t think the flowers showed up well enough, so I ran just the flowers several times). So, the line is somehow connected to the flowers, but I can’t find it still.
If anyone isn’t too busy with their own projects, can someone help me find the line and get rid of it? I’m already down two cutting boards and like ten hours of engraving time (not even going to mention how long I’ve been in front of the computer trying to work on this). I think a fresh pair of eyes might see my mistake better than I can.
Also, anyone know of anything I can put in that line in order to not have to engrave yet another board? I think I’m going to end up supplying her with enough faulty boards to gift her entire family at Christmas if I keep this up.
You have an open path somewhere in there. How to fix it is roughly the same process, but the specifics of how to do it will depend on what you’re using.
I was working in Inkscape. If it’s an open path, is there a shortcut to finding it? If not, I definitely see a link between two flowers, so I can start checking everything in there.
Inspecting the center of my flowers I see a hot mess. I’ll clean that up. I missed a lot, I’m not sure if ignoring my coffee to work on this was a good idea. I think I need that coffee…
Select the suspected flower. Go to node editor. Look closely for a node that has a smaller diamond shape. Chances are it’s a path break and is actually 2 nodes.
while they are both selected remove the segment between them (probably isn’t one, but this will be sure), then join the selected nodes. It’ll change to a single selected node.
Thanks. I definitely see what you are talking about. I normally clean them up, but this excessive amount of nodes, I stopped after cleaning up the branches thanks for the help. I’ll get right back on this after I finish my coffee.
I think I’ll look for one now. My understanding of the plug-ins I have now is minimal. But I’ll figure it out. Thanks so much for your help. Definitely going to be doing this on cardboard next.
Careful of cutting designs with lots of fine details and nodes on cardboard – that’s how fires get started. I stick to big simple shapes with cardboard. If you’re doing a light score maybe, but in general I try to use cardboard carefully if at all.
Thanks for the heads-up. I’m really cautious with cardboard (don’t ask why), but I’ve got all my settings for cardboard engraves figured out, specifically for testing purposes now. I would just engrave my flowers anyways, where ever the problem is, it’s within that section.
Thanks again. I don’t have enough coffee in my house to fix the flowers in that file, too many nodes, so inkscape is moving at snail’s pace. So I decided to work on one flower and duplicate the correct flower. Maybe I can rasterize my single flower and insert it where needed. I’ll try it out next. After I fix it, I’ll put the file back up minus the names. I decided it was probably best not to share my friend’s info with the world, she’ll kill me. Maybe I’ll actually sleep tonight.
Ok. Fixed my flowers, got thhem back into the file, tested on cardboard, no more line. Thank you for all the help. I made a general file to share for thanks. I left it a million colors because I’ve been playing around with either engraving the tree and engraving the outline of the flowers, or doing the outline of the tree and engraving the flowers…now I have to go buy some more cutting boards
If not, I definitely see a link between two flowers, so I can start checking everything in there.
