Pro Tip: Learn software first

It should be easy enough to design a wallet.
I can draw it out on paper.
I have sort of been learning inkscape, and my husband just got AI, then updated my mac, which broke Quartz and killed inkscape.

So here I am killing myself over how to design lacing holes. The forums say go for round holes, and people have suggestions of how to accomplish that.
I am too inexperienced to make stitching holes, to line them up from one piece to another (getting two pieces was a coup.)
So for you friends who are waiting… go design a wallet with round stitch holes. That’ll help pass the time.
:slight_smile:

The design time takes WAY more effort than the cutting time. Cutting is fast and easy and breezy. Learning Illustrator as I try to make a wallet… not fast. Not easy. Makes me want to go make a sandwich, instead.

Or line the wallet with fabric instead of the nice thin pigskin I got… Hmmm

That may buy me some time with the kid. I’m off to burn some leather.

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The last good discussion I saw around the holes was in this thread. Where were you reading about round holes?

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old discussions. 2016.
stitch holes, being my search term.
Thanks, I’ll look at that one.
I just tried to prototype my first effort, and Glowforge software isn’t ready for dashed lines, yet.
So back to the design.

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Yup, the only thing that has taken more time to laser than to design have been some engravings. Design is a €] <>} {{##+

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Dashed lines in illustrator are only an appearance applied to a vector line so that they remain editable. if you use outline mode (command-y) you’ll see that what the laser is seeing is actually an unbroken vector line.

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My sympathies. I have been WAY off plan in learning the software (Fusion360; probably also should do Illustrator). Now that the gardens are done, I may have a few weekends to dedicate to that. Maybe not a terrible thing that the GF isn’t here yet…

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This was the information I needed. Thank you.
Let me to a googling of HOW to do that.

according to How to Change a Stroke Into a Shape in Adobe Illustrator | Small Business - Chron.com

  1. Choose the appropriate Adobe Illustrator drawing tools and create the objects and shapes you need for your artwork. Open the Stroke panel by choosing “Stroke” from the Window menu if the panel isn’t already visible. Enter a value in the Stroke field.

  2. Select “Outline Stroke” from the Path fly-out menu of the Object menu. Adobe Illustrator turns your object’s stroke value into the dimensions for its path elements.

  3. Double-click on the Fill swatch in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox to bring up the Color Picker. Choose a fill color for your object. Open the Gradient panel by choosing “Gradient” from the Window menu if you want to apply a gradient fill instead of a solid color.

  4. Add a stroke weight and color to your object if you want to outline in a contrasting shade. Apply a dashed or dotted line style for an interesting edge treatment.


Wish me luck.

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Take a look at layers. You can create the two pieces on top of each other on separate layers. Then you can turn off the layers to look at one piece or the other. For the holes select them all on the first layer. Switch to the second layer and do a “Paste In Place” (name may be different). They will be perfectly lined up between the two layers.

Adobe products can have a steep learning curve to get the most out of them but once you are comfortable you will be churning out new designs like crazy. :slight_smile:

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Hey! That’s a nifty trick. Thanks! I’ll try that.

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BTW: Paste is place can be used between documents as well.

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You can expand appearance on these lines and turn them into vector circles though.

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This is an easy shortcut to remember if you already know basic copy and paste shortcuts from most any other program: in Adobe Illustrator the shortcut (on a Mac) for Copy is “⌘C”, Paste is “⌘V”, and Paste in Place is next in line on your keyboard: “⌘B”

(the ⌘ key is the “command” key. If you are using a Mac you should know this. If you are using a PC, you will use the Ctrl key instead of the ⌘ key.)

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Sticking this here for now about the GFUI and keyboard shortcuts: One tip that @cynd11 dropped somewhere along the line was the spacebar activating the hand/move artboard in the GFUI. I had been clicking on the hand and clicking on the pointer and it drove me nuts to have to do it. Space bar and it toggles. Let up and back to select.

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Well that’s a handy one that sure would have been nice to know a couple months ago.

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The first functioning wallet is in the kid’s possession. She’s happy.

Here’s my learning bit of hide. I made several mistakes with it, and each step before I did hers, I did something wrong on this one first.

But worth showing the fantastic art from a google image.

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