I’m trying to run the attached file, and I’m getting the “filled shapes are open” error. (As an aside, I wish the GFUI would give some indication which shapes are filled and open.) I’ve read many of the threads about this in this forum; the puzzling thing about this situation to me is that I don’t think I have any fills in this file at all. I’ve used Adobe Illustrator CC to click on each and every individual path in the file (there are a lot of them) and “join” all of them, one at a time.
It’s worth sharing that I’m brand-new at this (both Illustrator and GF) and maybe be making a colossal and super basic mistake. I’ll appreciate any wisdom somebody more experienced can share.
Thanks for taking a look! Sorry: the file isn’t comprised of white paths… they’re blue and orange… and just very, very thin (.001). This is a sheet from a tight-tolerances craftsman kit for a 1/48th scale coal shed.
I see the error during the “verifying…” step after pushing print. The file uploads and appears just fine until then. I’m able to set power / speed levels, push print, get through the “verifying material” step… and get the error in the “verifying [I forget the exact word, but something to do with image / plan]” step. This step immediately precedes printing actually starting, as I’ve learned when I’ve gotten a few other files to print.
Huh! You might try increasing your stroke size…I generally use 0.2 pt. The thickness of the stroke has absolutely no impact on where the cut happens, but it might make it easier for the interface to pick up. It’s the only thing I can think of…everything else looks like it’s set up okay…the paths aren’t joined, but they don’t need to be for it to process.
Thanks. I’ve tried with a .25 stroke, too, though… same result. The most puzzling thing to me is the reference in the error message to fills: there are literally none in the drawing that I can find. O_o
Oh, interesting. I wonder if it’s a settings thing in the GFUI. The WiFi connection’s pretty stable. Would you mind screen-shooting (or otherwise capturing) the settings you used for each of the layers when you successfully printed the page?
Oh, that was easy…2/500 for the cuts and 1/500 for the scores. I was just seeing if it ran, not trying to actually cut it out of the cardboard…I knew those settings would just mark it without cutting anything.
Keep in mind SVG attachments on Discourse have their style sheets stripped out, so if there was something filled in the original, it may have been unfilled by the act of posting it here. A zipped version would be better for troubleshooting.
So posting the file here could be a way to solve the problem. If you get a “filled shapes are open” error post the file here, download back to your machine and then try it and maybe it will be fixed. Granted it would probably be better to determine how to fix the problem in your design software but if you have exhausted your options of finding the problem maybe that is a good work around.
In Inkscape you can close all open paths in a single command usually. Boxes.py does all open line segments and was a pain to work with till I did that.
After taking a look at the information from your Glowforge, it appears you were trying to engrave lines.
When you upload a file to the Glowforge app, strokes (or outlines) become cuts, and fills (filled-in shapes) become engraves. The print failed here because these lines didn’t have any enclosed area to engrave. Thanks for letting us know about this.
To print successfully, you have a few options:
You can keep your current design and choose to score it instead of engraving it
You can edit your design by replacing the lines with thin rectangles that have a fill
If you need more help learning to design for your Glowforge, we have a tutorial that walks you through creating a design from scratch, with step by step pictures about how to create a shape to cut out using Inkscape, a free design program.
This is a sheet from a tight-tolerances craftsman kit for a 1/48th scale coal shed.