You might have the index lines placed outside of the view areaâŚtry doing a CTRL+A to select everything in the Glowforge interface, and then click the SHIFT+ right arrow key on the keyboard to start moving it over.
Be very sure you have everything selected (CTRL+A) and use the arrow keys to move it. You donât want to change the relationship between the marks and the design.
(Or just go back into your design and shift the marks closer to your design before re-saving the file.)
Found it. View / Snapping Manager / Snap to Object Geometry will help get the breaks right on the intersection of the rectangle
I got thanks!! Had to back out to 67% and then I could see it was way off to the left out of viewing area. I think it may have been because I didnât move it to the page border in Inkscape before I saved it. Thanks again for your help and for this tutorial.
OMH! I have been trying to figure this out for 3 days and I STILL get lost half way thru your 1st line⌠rectangle, snap, Margins??? Can anyone make a video of this for us idoits to follow? Ok for ME to follow? But thanks for the help, Im just afraid I am beyond anyone helping and ALL of my designs need the pass through! Grrrrrr
Welcome. Did you read the write up posted by Jules in this original post? If all of your designs need the pass through, you are going to have to master this. There are youtube videos out there, but recreating Julesâs sample and cutting it in cardboard is going to give you so much more assistance as you can follow each step and clearly see the Inkscape screen as you go. The process used for breaking up a word file is the same as for files that arenât text. Donât give up.
Here is a video - there are others â https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPyWd_EdNw
I was going to also suggest maybe trying it with the nodes first if you are having trouble with the rectangles concept. Itâs more work the first few times, but might be easier to understand. All you are doing at that point is coming up with a way to cut the lines of the word.
There is another design tutorial here that I recommend everyone read first before starting to design for these.
The technical terms and operation terms arenât always intuitive. Like using the word âBooleanâ for chopping things up, especially if someone refers to the functions this way and your user interface makes no mention of this term. If you havenât studied modern logic, programming, or mathematics, that world just doesnât make any sense. Why would we be calling a process that transforms an object after some 19th century mathematician? There is a good Netflix documentary about George Boole that would explain why.
Yes, defining margins of the design space. Defining guides and grids on the art board so you can snap paths to exact spots on the artboard. Understanding the transformations that happen when going from landscape to portrait and thinking through them with the dimensions. Then referring to the curtains or the margins on the crumb tray where your material will lie and getting alignment figured out with that as you move the materials.
Keep at it. And if you would like some help slicing your designs, you could always send me a private message with them and tell me what size you need them to be and what size of material you are working with. I can get one prepared and then you can get a sense of what the resulting file might look like that you are aiming for.
OMG cardboard!!! Great idea I have wasted so much wood. I have read so many peoples versions that my mind is gunna blow as non of them seem to work for me. I think part of the prob is which version of Inkscape Im using??? I have a different version on different computers. I really appreciate the help. Thank you so much!!!
OMG!!! your brain!!! KAboom. Thank you for the offer. I just might take you up on that.
I really appreciate your time!!!
Cris Strank
Hello again Jules,
First, thanks for this tutorial. I am unable to get my letters to unionize. Any suggestions?
Just check to make sure that you follow the steps exactlyâŚwith Inkscape you will need to Ungroup at a certain point (as well as converting to Path) in order to get the Union tool to work.
I would love to try your suggestion - it sounds so much easier! If you have the time, I would really appreciate it if you would write up step by step instructions.
Jules, I will pay you to teach me passthrough. Please Iâm a visual learner. Help. My email is patrickdunham6116@gmail.com please message me
Hi Patrick, thank you for offering, but I couldnât take your money. Did you sign up for the Passthrough Beta software? Because itâs a whole lot easier than this, and itâs being tested now.
They might still be signing up new testers, so it doesnât hurt to get your name out there. Itâs a lot easier than doing it this way.
In the meantime, Iâll ask if anyone more familiar with Inkscape has time to give you some tips privately.
Thank you so much for responding Jules . Patrick is my husband. Iâm liz and the one seeking help. We just got the glowforge about a month ago and Iâm loosing so much business for not being able to create bigger signs . So is the pass though beta a new software ? Truly I appreciate any help you can give me . Iâve watched so many YouTube videos but these people seem to really know how to
Use all these different softwares for design .
Many thanks
Liz
Yes, the Passthrough software is the software that Glowforge is creating for you to use with the passthrough, and it is being beta tested right now.
Click on that link that I gave you, read the instructions carefully in the first post, and the tutorial that they give, and sign up for it. It does all of the file splitting for you. Automatically. All you have to do is create your design.
But because it is in limited beta, you have to volunteer to test it. And it can take some time for them to see your request, or they might not need more testers, but eventually you are going to be able to use it when they release it. So it just makes sense to learn to use it as soon as possible.
It is so much easier than doing it the way that I have shown here. 
Thank you so much just signed up for it ! I donât understand why they wouldnât make a 7k machine just feed right through the passthrough or at least more than 19.5 . Thank you again Jules.
Liz
Because then it would be a 12K machine. 
Haha!! True that. Have a good night thank you again. I signed up letâs see what happens.
Liz
This is where they should have put this into the GFUI. I mean breaking up a file into tiles like vcarve does (or easel) is a useful feature (pro or not). That would be a useful premium feature so even without a pro you could tile a job.