Splitting a large image in printable

[stuchee]

Hi everyone,

Im starting to use my Glowforge now as we’re all stuck at home so have a question that might be very simple.

Is there a way to split a vector across multiple sheets of say A4 or A3 material?

i ask because I’m trying to create a large character silhouette for a playroom wall and would like it to be much larger than i can print.

Sorry if this is a daft question. I use Infinity Designer software for my vectoring.

Thanks for any help.
Stu.

[marthajackson1970]

You’d have to cut t into pieces in the software. A rectangle the size oof the cutting area would work, or you could try to cut in a way that’s not obvious.

If you look at YouTube videos for cutting larger than may size for the Cricut you’ll get the idea.

[evansd2]

@stuchee

I use Infinity Designer software

Just to clarify, I assume you mean Affinity, not Infinity?

There are definitely Affinity people on this forum, if there’s a software called Infinity Designer I am not familiar with it.

[eflyguy]

Technical support can’t help you with your design software questions. I moved this to an appropriate discussion forum, although they will still have to check in now that your post opened a support ticket.

[geek2nurse]

Here’s how I would do it:

1. Draw a rectangle the size of your printable area (10.5 x 19 ish). Replicate it (ctrl-J) several times until you have enough rectangles to cover your whole image. (Make sure the snap function is on; it’s the little magnet at the top of your screen. That will make it easy to make sure the rectangles are aligned exactly against each other.)
   

   

2. Replicate your vector image (ctrl-J again) so you have as many copies of it as you have rectangles. Hide all but one, so that you can see what you’re doing.
   

   

3. Hold down the shift key and select the visible vector image plus the first rectangle, and click the “union” boolean function in the top menu bar. This will leave you with only the portion of the vector that fits inside the selected rectangle.
   

   
   
   
   

4. Now make the next copy of the vector image visible, and repeat #3 with the next rectangle, until you have a piece of your vector for each rectangle you created.
   

   

5. Here’s how it looks when I move the sections away from each other so you can see them individually:
   

   

[eflyguy]

I think you should copy that into a Tips and Tricks post.

I did a similar thing for Inkscape a while back, mostly so that I could refer to it if needed in the future, as I can never quite remember how the steps work.

[geek2nurse]

Done.

[stuchee]

Geek2Nurse - Thank you very much. This is how I’ve ended up doing it and its working great. Still learning the vector world so duplicating the image multiple times, didn’t enter my head!

Brilliant stuff, thanks again.