Newbie Procreate Vectorize SVG File Question

[thefireflyfields]

Hi Everyone! We have setup our Glowforge and are working on figuring out how to print files that we’ve made in Procreate (the Pocket version). We had seen a youtube tutorial where you draw your file in Procreate (in three colors for cut, engrave and score), export it as a jpg, open it in Illustrator, vectorize it and save it as an svg. All seemed to be smooth sailing, but we are working with CS3, so all of the vector options and svg file save options that we had seen in the video are not there. We attempted to wade through the water as best as we could see (my background as a photographer is in photoshop, not illustrator, so I can’t say that we have the most complete understanding of illustrator).

Long story not so short, when we upload the svg files to glowforge, we don’t get the three layers (one for each color that should be the cut, engrave and score layers). We get too many or too few layers depending on what settings we select.

We subscribed to a trial of the current adobe suite to be able to use the current illustrator program and unfortunately it says that our operating system on our Mac won’t run everything.

I also tried bringing our file into inkscape, but perhaps I’m not making the correct settings in there either, as I’m getting more layers than I should (the three layers for each color)So here we are, looking for advice on how to easily vectorize our procreate jpgs so that we can convert them to svgs and start the glowforge party LOL. I really like drawing in procreate, especially because I can from my iphone (we don’t have a tablet or ipad).

Help please and thanks!!

[dklgood]

Welcome to the forum.

The Glowforge interface does not recognize layers, it only recognizes colors. Making different operations different colors will allow you to select each and cut/score/engrave individually. Your best bet is probably going to be Inkscape since it is free and will run on your operating system.

For help with a specific file, you might consider zipping the file and uploading here for someone to assist you and then you may be able to go it alone after that.

[ekla]

As @dklgood says, GF uses colors to delineate steps. EXACT colors - dark gray and slightly less dark gray would be separate steps. JPGs are inherently a little fuzzy when you look closely at the borders between areas of color - there are technically many shades present.

In any version of Illustrator when you use the Live Trace function there’s a slider for number of colors - dial that down to three or whatever your intended target is. Add 1 if you have a white background that should not be processed by GF - you can delete the white bits after you expand.

[aidan]

I have just started using procreate on ipad. you should be able to copy your layer and make 3 layers of different colors. There was a list of the color order the gf prints somewhere in the forum.