I am trying to sell designs that people will cut out in cricut or silhouette, but I'm stuck.
In Inkscape, I use Inkscape svg files of designs and save them as dxf files.
When I open my dxf files in cricut, they have overlapping lines. I'm a beginner, but from what I read, there aren't supposed to be any overlapping lines in dxf files that are going to be cut out in programs like cricut or silhouette.
Am I correct about this? How should dxf files look? What can I do to the svg files before saving them as dxf to ensure they will come out correctly in cricut?
Also, if I have text in other designs, how should they look and what settings should I apply when I save the svg files to dxf?
Alone the file size of the Apple drawing is telling me there´s something wrong. At one place there are 44 nodes in the same spot aside other issues like a path effect on the leave. I cleaned it up via "Clean up Document" and have reduced the size from 157KB to 8KB. I saved as R12dxf and it showed up in a CAD application. I attache all the files for you to check:
Thank you for looking into this. When creating svg files (with or without text) in Inkscape and before saving them as dxf files, as long as I apply the, "Clean up document" setting, it will fix any node or path issues? Also, when you apply this setting, do the designs lose anything? For example does this setting alter the quality negatively or have a noticeable difference to the designs themselves?
I have no clue where all the issues came from in your file - I guess you´ve played a lot with settings etc. I´m not even sure why Clean-up reduces the file size so dramatically as I can´t find any irregularities in the XML view. For organic shapes like these cmd+L will reduce node count noticeable without altering the shape so much - which don´t work for text in most cases as it should be already optimised for converting into paths - which will end as group to keep in mind. I can´t even let inkscape its own saved dxf file - you?
Thank you both again for the help! I have used difference which has helped, however, I am still stuck in a couple other areas.
I have moved the leaf in the design above so that it is touching the stem now. In normal display mode, you can see this, even if you zoom in closely. In outline mode, it shows the leaf is not touching the stem at all and that the stem is not touching the apple. Why does this happen and what does it mean?
Also, when I am making just text designs or mixing text with my designs, which settings should I apply so that the nodes/paths are smooth and functional for the dxf files?
In addition, whenever I use text in my designs, when I save Inkscape svg files as eps files, should I click on the embed fonts setting on or the convert text to paths setting? (this is regarding the pop up window).
I have experienced quite some issues when creating dxf files and opening these in Silhouette Studio (I insist on sticking to the basic version of Silhouette Studio where svg cannot be loaded, only dxf - just have this idea to prove that it can be done). You can read about these issues and how deal with them here. I have not solved all issues yet and if you are selling your files I highly recommend that you open your files to inspect them in Silhouette Studio and/or Design Space to verify the output.
The differences on the normal display versus outline mode is caused by the fact that you have a stroke with at width of more than zero. Then the exact position will look different when you look at the paths only in outline mode vs the paths with a stroke width in normal mode.
And the issues in Silhouette Studio might differ from those in Design Space. I have not tested Design Space yet, but there you can always import as svg? I would at least always sell as both svg and dxf so that those who can use svg have that option.
Using Inkscape with Cutters/Plotters Need help with DXF files - Cricut
Inkscape.org
Hello,
I am trying to sell designs that people will cut out in cricut or silhouette, but I'm stuck.
In Inkscape, I use Inkscape svg files of designs and save them as dxf files.
When I open my dxf files in cricut, they have overlapping lines. I'm a beginner, but from what I read, there aren't supposed to be any overlapping lines in dxf files that are going to be cut out in programs like cricut or silhouette.
Am I correct about this? How should dxf files look? What can I do to the svg files before saving them as dxf to ensure they will come out correctly in cricut?
Also, if I have text in other designs, how should they look and what settings should I apply when I save the svg files to dxf?
Thank you
The version of my Inkscape is 1.0.2-2 (e86c870879, 2021-01-15)
Here is one Inkscape svg file I'm referring to that has overlapping lines after I save it as a dxf file and open it on cricut.
Alone the file size of the Apple drawing is telling me there´s something wrong. At one place there are 44 nodes in the same spot aside other issues like a path effect on the leave. I cleaned it up via "Clean up Document" and have reduced the size from 157KB to 8KB. I saved as R12dxf and it showed up in a CAD application. I attache all the files for you to check:
Hello Polygon,
Thank you for looking into this. When creating svg files (with or without text) in Inkscape and before saving them as dxf files, as long as I apply the, "Clean up document" setting, it will fix any node or path issues? Also, when you apply this setting, do the designs lose anything? For example does this setting alter the quality negatively or have a noticeable difference to the designs themselves?
Thank you
I will also check out this setting myself too.
I have no clue where all the issues came from in your file - I guess you´ve played a lot with settings etc. I´m not even sure why Clean-up reduces the file size so dramatically as I can´t find any irregularities in the XML view. For organic shapes like these cmd+L will reduce node count noticeable without altering the shape so much - which don´t work for text in most cases as it should be already optimised for converting into paths - which will end as group to keep in mind. I can´t even let inkscape its own saved dxf file - you?
Cleaning reduces the filesize dramatically because there is an image file in the defs.
To remove overlapping lines, path operatins like "Difference" can be used.
Thank you both again for the help! I have used difference which has helped, however, I am still stuck in a couple other areas.
I have moved the leaf in the design above so that it is touching the stem now. In normal display mode, you can see this, even if you zoom in closely. In outline mode, it shows the leaf is not touching the stem at all and that the stem is not touching the apple. Why does this happen and what does it mean?
Also, when I am making just text designs or mixing text with my designs, which settings should I apply so that the nodes/paths are smooth and functional for the dxf files?
In addition, whenever I use text in my designs, when I save Inkscape svg files as eps files, should I click on the embed fonts setting on or the convert text to paths setting? (this is regarding the pop up window).
Thank you
I have experienced quite some issues when creating dxf files and opening these in Silhouette Studio (I insist on sticking to the basic version of Silhouette Studio where svg cannot be loaded, only dxf - just have this idea to prove that it can be done). You can read about these issues and how deal with them here. I have not solved all issues yet and if you are selling your files I highly recommend that you open your files to inspect them in Silhouette Studio and/or Design Space to verify the output.
The differences on the normal display versus outline mode is caused by the fact that you have a stroke with at width of more than zero. Then the exact position will look different when you look at the paths only in outline mode vs the paths with a stroke width in normal mode.
And the issues in Silhouette Studio might differ from those in Design Space. I have not tested Design Space yet, but there you can always import as svg? I would at least always sell as both svg and dxf so that those who can use svg have that option.