Need Some Help - What am I missing?

I need some help from people with more AI, PDF and GF understanding then I have. I am working on the project below - Engraving an Ikea cutting board for an up coming wedding.

I have created the project in AI, saved the project as both an SVG file and also a PDF.

When I upload the file as a PDF into GF, everything works until I tried to adjust the settings for the straight lines (see red arrows). GF will only allow those lines to be set as “Manual Cuts”. Everything else in the file can be set as “Engrave”. I have imported the file as an SVG as well and have the same problem. I even tried uploading a project that was a simple, straight line. It too was being forced to be a “cut”.

Why is the GF forcing me to “cut” the liens and not "engrave?

P.S. - I understand why the end of the lines have the “tear” drop look - the laser head is slowing down and starting back up. I am confident that if I can get it to “engrave” and not “cut”… those will go away.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Without looking at the file itself, those are probably single stroke lines, which means that you only have the option to Cut or Score them.

If you want to engrave it, you’re going to need to Expand the stroke in AI. (Select those lines > Object> Expand.) That will turn them into really skinny filled rectangles that will allow the Engrave function to be applied. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks Jules!

That makes sense! I will give that a try.

…You learn something new every day…

Or change them to Scores and change the focus to something like .5" - that will make them a thick score and (I think) mitigate the blob at the end because you’re not as power focused.

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