Outline Entire Graphic

[tooler82 182]

I can't figure this out for some reason. I'm using FlexiSign Pro Cloud. Say I have my graphic, is there any way to outline for cutting? What I did was I traced the whole outline shape that I want cut, then tell it to contour cut that. I'm attaching a file to see what I'm talking about. This castle is pretty much just red boxes and background in between the boxes. How can I attach it all to trace it? If I select it and tell it to contour cut, it cuts out every box. I want the whole outline. You can see in the graphic my outline I drew by node editting.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

I don't know my way around flexi but can't you just select it all and do a path offset then perhaps unite/weld the results together so get rid of any weirdness if it offsets all the inner paths. 

[tooler82 182]

I guess I could do the outline function then tell it to cut that, but it'll be bigger and have a white border when I cut.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

Ah I see what you are saying. You want an outline that is the same size as the actual. You will have to make a new path and just connect the spaces where the open spots are. Just paste a copy in place and lock out the original or even hide it temporarily so it's not in the way and do some chopping and joining maybe? Or add some boxes in the open spaces and weld them together then remove all the inner open holes. Contour cutting with a Summa you have a specified line color to tell the cutter what's up but yours may be different.

[mfatty500 454]

I'm a little confused, you are not wanting to see thru the windows of the castle, you want that solid? If so after you outline, convert to outlines, right click and use select within, put that little crosshairs on your pate and delete. I'm guessing that is what you are saying. Hope this makes sense.

[tooler82 182]

I have a printer cutter machine. I want it to cut the outline with the windows still being white.

[mark-s 1,126]

Contour cut

 

mark-s

[tooler82 182]

When I contour cut it cuts around every red box. I want it to cut the outline and leave the white in there.

[knucklehead 530]

Bezier tool, make a hairline, all the way around

[mfatty500 454]

Does design central open when you chose contour cut,you should be able to do everything from there, should you not? Choose with holes, etc.

[tooler82 182]

Yeah but considering the red boxes are all individual boxes, it doesn't matter if I check with or without holes. Knucklehead, that's what I did. If you look at the graphic you'll see a black line drawn all the way around it. I just didn't know if there was a better way to do graphics like this than tracing the whole outline.

[KYSIGN 233]

I don't use flexi for design but in corel draw x7 I would copy the design and add a outer contour large enough to fill the gaps and then break everything apart and weld into a solid piece. I would then create an inside contour that fit my design and remove the color fill and then center around my original design.

I hope that makes sense.

[knucklehead 530]

Yeah but considering the red boxes are all individual boxes, it doesn't matter if I check with or without holes. Knucklehead, that's what I did. If you look at the graphic you'll see a black line drawn all the way around it. I just didn't know if there was a better way to do graphics like this than tracing the whole outline.

 

 Didn't notice the hairline, that should do it. It's just the way that graphic is made, with the separate sections, little different than one whole piece.

[tooler82 182]

I don't use flexi for design but in corel draw x7 I would copy the design and add a outer contour large enough to fill the gaps and then break everything apart and weld into a solid piece. I would then create an inside contour that fit my design and remove the color fill and then center around my original design.

I hope that makes sense.

 

I tried to decipher it. I ended up making a copy, contour cut to outline the whole thing, welded that, put that over the original, and did a -0.060 contour cut on that. I worked, but it just has 2 cuts. Regardless, it can cut 2 outlines that's fine with me. Thanks for your help.

[RickS 39]

In Flexi I would select the whole project, then Arrange, then Group, then select Effects, then Outline, select the width of the outline and that should work for you.

[mark-s 1,126]

Capture the whole graphic and do contour cut like I said before.

 

mark-s

[tooler82 182]

Yeah but they don't want the white border Mark.

[jaybyrd 3,770]

You can't just adjust the offset for the contour in flexi? I don't use it so I'm just curious.

[jaybyrd 3,770]

Like this? 

[mark-s 1,126]

Then size it down to 0.

Contour cut is adjustable.

 

mark-s

[tooler82 182]

I'm not trying to be a dick, but I don't think you're understanding what I'm talking about. Here's the .eps of it.

DPW Castle.eps

[Wildgoose 4,200]

This is one of those things that would have been better done at the time of the original build but in AI I took the whole castle (copy-pasted a working copy) made it a compound path and then did a path offset of 4 which filled the gaps. Then I got rig of any unwanted inner windows that were still there and offset the path back the same 4 to the original size and deleted everything but that one. It needed some minor fixing a a couple of the angled corners that were evidently not symmetrical but otherwise no biggie. Not sure how to do that in Flexi but it was 5 minutes in AI. Saved as svg due to upload file size. AI always makes big eps files. Your contour cut line is unfilled with black stroke. 

DPW Castlerevised.svg