Remove double/tripple lines

[Glenn.Lawrence]

Hi. During laser cutting I noticed many lines that were 'cut' several times over, perhaps my drawing on Designer has several lines one over the other. Does anyone know of a simple method/filter to remove double lines from a drawing file?  I'm using a desktop Mac OS (sorry this option was greyed out in the help selection drop-down menu).  I am laser cutting acrylic greenhouse kits for my school.

Thanks. Glenn.

[Paul Mudditt]

On 12/18/2024 at 8:47 PM, Glenn.Lawrence said:

Hi. During laser cutting I noticed many lines that were 'cut' several times over, perhaps my drawing on Designer has several lines one over the other. Does anyone know of a simple method/filter to remove double lines from a drawing file?  I'm using a desktop Mac OS (sorry this option was greyed out in the help selection drop-down menu).  I am laser cutting acrylic greenhouse kits for my school.

Thanks. Glenn.

It would be helpful if you could upload one of your designs to test.

You do not say what laser cutting machine you use or what format you export your design in but I have learnt that for other cutting machines you need to supply a single SVG which is constructed from shapes and never lines. Therefore there are several steps you have to take to expand strokes and use geometry to remove all lines. These are my notes for Cricut, which may or may not be relevant for your cutting machine.

DESIGNER -> CRICUT NOTES

So overall workflow to create an SVG suitable for CRICUT is:-

1. Draw it
2. Select all then convert to curves
3. Select ‘Objects -> Closed Curves’ then lock them and hide them temporarily
4. For each unclosed curve, select it then use node tool ‘join’ then node tool ‘close’: goto step 3.
5. Select ‘objects-> Closed Curves’ then Expand Stroke because all lines must eventually be shapes.

Now there are 2 methods of proceeding, if the first method does not work try the second.

Method 1
6. Select everything then use Geometry ADD
7. Export as SVG to CRICUT or whatever.

Method 2
6. Select everything then Fill Holes
7. Select everything then XOR.
8. Export as SVG to CRICUT or whatever.

Closing Curves Workaround

If Closed curve results in new lines across the page, use ADD instead.