Creating an array of shapes with common lines

[jfikar]

I want to create an array of shapes but want them to union them to utilize common lines for cutting. See attached picture. I have a 6  columns and 3 rows of rounded squares. These are shapes. How do I save space by overlapping the common lines without duplicating the cut line? Is there a way to use a Boolean function to do this in Affinity Designer (Windows)?

[David in Яuislip]

I know nothing about cutters but wouldn't this work without the need for any Boolean trickery?
Modify the base shape so that the overlaps won't exist
Make copies and butt shapes together
Finally repair the shapes on the bottom and right edges

[GarryP]

I’m fairly sure that this sort of question has been asked before (try searching the forums for “Cricut” and “engraving”) and, to my knowledge, it can’t be done without a lot of manual work removing the coincident lines.

It’s easy enough to get the shapes to touch (Distribution functions), and to get them into a single shape (menu “Layer → Geometry → Merge Curves”), but getting the coincident lines to reduce to only one (in any single coincidence) can’t, as far as I know, be done automatically in this software.

I’d be happy to be proved wrong on this though.

[Old Bruce]

I would be concerned about the material moving slightly while doing the operations. With +/- 0 (zero) units of measurement for the tolerance I know I would wind up wasting a lot of material.

Also a consideration you need to take into consideration is the number of "Move then Cut" operations, with 18 shapes you have 18 operations. With @David in Яuislip's suggestion I see more than double that number of operations. Again each would be having +/- 0 for tolerance.

[firstdefence]

Which cutter software are you using?