Combining shapes so that an SVG file only has one single line of intersection

[Grahamec]

I'm fairly new at this type of work so forgive me if the answer seems obvious. I'm working with some complicated designs to be cut using a Cricut Maker 3. The cutting blade can be quite rough on the material (magnetic sheet) particularly with multiple cuts. I want to reduce the number of cuts by only having a single cut between two shapes. For a simple example, take the two squares; I want a single cut down the centre, not two cuts (one for each square.  In the lower example, if I place four squares I'll only get a single cut for each of the interior lines, but if I add a fifth square in the middle I'll get four extra cuts. This has been my experience using the Merge Curves function. Is there a way to simplify the SVG file to eliminate extraneous cuts? TIA

 

 

[Hangman]

Hi @Grahamec and welcome to the forums,

With regards to the two squares, if you convert the two rectangles to Curve Layers, Layer > Convert to Curves and then with the Node tool selected, Ctrl-Click the overlapping line where the two squares meet it will remove the stroke from the uppermost square. If you then position this square below the other square that should give you what you need.

With regards to the five squares, what is the logic of adding the fifth square in the middle, do the four squares on their own not give you what you need from a cut point of view?

[Grahamec]

That worked fine. Thank you, Hangman.

Actually my shapes are much more complex than squares, and there are situations - like in the "five squares" example - where I could remove the centre one and still have the same  (empty) shape.