Okay, so, I want to make a box for my mom in laws birthday. She’s the good kind of in law. I love her. I do art for a living and I have this one piece that she adores, decided that would be fun to put on a box.
Went to boxes py to get myself a rough box template which I edited to suit my needs (easier kid for mom to open). Now, I don’t have a computer. I do all my work from my iPad these days. So far I have been successfully converting pngs to svgs online and then working with them in Vectornator (I downloaded it the day it was free, yay me!).
When I download the svg from boxes py it won’t for the life of it open in vectornator. It opens in the glowforge app but not my actual editor… frustrations. So I opened it in my art program (MediBang, it’s pngs). Made my edits and then told myself I’ll just convert it back to an svg and go from there.
Nutshell: my blue lines go chunky when I convert and I’m afraid of manually redrawing them and making them inaccurate.
The whole tree: Problem. Every time I convert it the cut lines, the lines from boxes py, get all chunky and weird and I imagine if I cut them like this I’m just going to be wasting material.
Help?
Below is my png. Blue lines are gonna be cut. Black are going to be dark engrave. Red medium engrave. Second thing is my svg after conversion, I do think I could “remake” the lines/paths or whatever they’re called in vectornator but I’m worried they won’t be as accurate or line up as well as I’m still learning this software.
If your SVGs from boxes.py load ok in the GFUI, could you just import the art PNG in the add art button once you have the SVGs for cutting loaded?
You can position them accurately inside the box vectors. The design to design accuracy is just fine in the interface. It is just the whole design space can be off just a bit with placing on materials. Should be ok with a 1/4" margin at least.
Ok. I understand now. I wasn’t quite sure why you needed to edit the SVGs and now I see why.
Sorry that I can’t help. I only use the iPad to load designs I have already done on a computer.
Perhaps someone can suggest a good editing software for you for the iPad.
Curious as to why the vectors get such wide stroke definition, if that’s what is happening. I’ve seen it in some other types of programs when going from one to another.
Run a small test. I’ve never used Boxes.py, but the line width on vector paths for cutting makes absolutely no difference…the cut is going to follow the center of the line it sees.
The weird thing about box designs from boxes.py (and maybe it’s just me not knowing how to use them correctly) is that when the design comes in to Illustrator it is way, way off the artboard in two sections (one above the artboard and one below) and I have to select all, ungroup, and delete the top bits which are nonessential then drag the bottom bits onto the artboard. I suspect that is what is happening to you with Vectornator. I just tried importing a box design into Vectornator from boxes.py and the screen is completely blank, but if you check the layers palette there are actually things in there. I don’t know how to access them (I’m a complete novice with Vectornator) but maybe you can figure it out.
Meantime you might consider downloading Box-o-matic from the App Store. You won’t be able to make 5 sided boxes but it works pretty well with 4-sided designs.
boxes.py generates technically valid svg code, but can cause this artboard weirdness in Illustrator, Affinity, etc., so not surprised a mobile app would have issues.
Oh hey, I just figured it out in Vectornator! Go into the svg you downloaded into Vectornator and open the layers palette. Hit the drop down arrow. You’ll see a few layers labeled Curve or a Group. Tap on each one and change the y value from the ridiculous 6600 to about 100. That should bring the figure into view so you can move it around and edit it.
Update: I just did it in Vectornator using a 5 sided box from boxes.py and it came out great:
Look up Box-o-matic on the app store. I use it a lot on the iPad to create simple boxes, trays, drawers, cubes, etc. it’s easier to navigate than boxes.py, although far fewer options.
Hello dearies! Sorry no reply for a long time. I get busy and distracted. I ended up having to remake the entire file in Vectornator because it just wasn’t playing well with the svg I downloaded.
I need to recut the bottom piece because I made it an outie instead of an innie and I opened the lid not realizing the material hadn’t cut so there’s lines from misalignment as it finally did cut but ignoring my newbie mistakes I’m very happy with this piece.
I wanted to keep the natural wood look but also have some color so I mixed my acrylic paint with water and a special type of sealer to thin it down. Mom’s always really loved this art of mine so I’m really excited it came out so well. :3
