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I have created a sillouette illustration comprised of some bears and trees that I want to send to my laser and cut out the sillouette on a sheet of aluminum. I always end up with excess or non-existing lines in the artwork and the laser software will not accept the file.
The path I have taken is to create the sillouette, save as a tiff (hoping to remove any extra lines and points), re-open in Illustrator, Image Trace as a B & W Logo and export as an Autocad DWG file where engineering cleans it up a bit. However, the laser software sees the image as incomplete, missing lines and details.
I have tries various options with varying results...none accptable.
It seems to me that this is a relatively simple line drawing and should not be this much trouble to achieve.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
JE
As @Doug A Roberts said, you see that it is a simple artwork, but if you select it or press Ctrl+Y you can see more unnecessary lines and shapes. Youcan select all and from Window>Pathfinder Press on Unite icon to merge it in one shape.
If
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Is this what you want to end up with?
Bear sign
It is a relatively simple drawing, but it seems to have been created in a confusing way. There are unnecessary compound shapes, hidden layers etc. that need to be removed.
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Thanx Doug...
First of all...let me start by saying I'm no graphic artist. I manage a computer mfg. company and I use Illustrator to create PDF's for our silkscreening operation, so my knowledge of Illustrator is limited at best.
The PDF I end up with looks just like yours. If there are hidden layers and artifacts in the file I am not aware of them nor would I know how to eliminate them in a timely fashion. I figured that if I converted to an image, such as a TIFF or JPG, it would eliminated any hidden items and by using Image Trace would give a single line or path around the entire silouette. Not so?
JE
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In Illustrator, with the hidden layers shown and everything selected, your file looks like this:
The text is a compound shape; this should be released and converted to a compound path. The log has a no stroke/fill path around it which should be deleted; the hidden layers can simply be removed. There is no need to export a TIFF and use image trace -- fix these problems and then combine shapes with Pathfinder and you have a single silhouette shape.
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I certainly SEE what you mean.
I deleted the hidden layers.
Cntrl Y showed my issues.
Removed the boundry box around log, but now unclear as to releasing and converting text.
Release to layers sequence or build?
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In the Pathfinder panel menu > Release Compound Shape
Then, create a compound path.
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OK...so far so good.
Looks like everything is good.
Exported to Autocad DWG...no lines at all at laser.
Do I need to fill with black? Tried to do that...nothing works.
These lines ARE paths...do I need to stroke them?
I hate to have my hand held, but I'm in an area of Illustrator that's new to me.
Thanx for all input!
JE
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I'm afraid this might be a question of the requirements of your laser device. It may require a stroked path, it may require a particular swatch colour, stroke weight, or something else.
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As @Doug A Roberts said, you see that it is a simple artwork, but if you select it or press Ctrl+Y you can see more unnecessary lines and shapes. Youcan select all and from Window>Pathfinder Press on Unite icon to merge it in one shape.
If