Why do rotated things hop around the page when exported as SVG?

[JudithW]

Still learning with AD. Ex Illustrator user (just for drawing vectors)

I produce things in AD and export them as SVGs for people who use cutting machines. The problem is, when I take the SVGs into Design Space (they work just fine in the other cutter software apps, it's just Design Space that's the problem), things which have been rotated and look fine in AD move elsewhere on the canvas. Whilst the project will still transfer to their cutting mats and cut OK, it looks ridiculous on the DS canvas, looks like I don't know how to make a file for Cricut users.

I get around this, sometimes, with basic shapes like, say, octagons, by slicing the rotated octagon out of a bigger shape and then splitting the result and using the octagon shape left behind which now has the little anchor thing at the top.

I would  like to not have to keep doing that, especially with  more complex things like text converted to curves, and wondered if there's anything in AD which I can do to make them export as they look on screen? I've attached a pic which I hope will help to explain what I mean. Any advice much appreciated. 

[GarryP]

If you are only having the problem with Design Space, have you considered that the problem (or at least part of it) might be at that end rather than with Designer?

Having said that, if you can share the AFDESIGN document and give us a screenshot of your Export Dialog settings then we can look at it to see if we can find out what’s happening.

In the meantime, have you tried setting “Flatten transforms” to ON when you export to SVG?

[Mike Nosal]

I use Designer with Cricut DS. You need to select "Flatten Transforms". Use 72dpi to keep the size correct when importing into Design Space. 

When you go to Make your design, Cricut Design Space will still try to ungroup and relayout your objects in a way that conserves paper, moving and fitting them closer together. If you need to keep objects in exact alignment and position, then you should select them and select "Layer > Geometry > Merge Curves" before exporting. You can do this even with objects that are not touching or overlapping and Cricut DS will cut them in that exact position and orientation. You can still easily select "Layer > Geometry > Separate Curves" in Designer if you need to make adjustments and then do Merge Curves again before exporting.

Also note that for text like this, you want to Add the curves together, so Cricut doesn't try cutting overlapping letters individually. (Look at the overlap of the L and M)

Hope this helps.

 

[JudithW]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

If you are only having the problem with Design Space, have you considered that the problem (or at least part of it) might be at that end rather than with Designer?

Having said that, if you can share the AFDESIGN document and give us a screenshot of your Export Dialog settings then we can look at it to see if we can find out what’s happening.

In the meantime, have you tried setting “Flatten transforms” to ON when you export to SVG?

Thanks, GarryP. Yes, you are right, the quirks are with DS - the files are perfect in Silhouette Studio and Canvas Workspace (other cutting machine apps). But I need to get it right for everybody as users of diffrent machines buy my stuff. I've tried checking the Flatten Transforms box and that did improve things a bit, but some pieces are still jumping around in Design Space - very weird. 

I don't want to put the AD file up here but I've attached a screen shot of the AD layout and the SVG as it lands in Design Space. I've also attached a screen shot of my Export window. My AD docs are always set to 72dpi for vectors.

I will just get around this by doing what I do with simply shapes (slicing them out of a big box and using the slice) but it'd be great if there IS a fix or if you could point out anything I'm doing which is causing it. 

Thanks for your time.

[GarryP]

Thanks for the extra information.

Without knowing how the document is constructed it might be difficult for us to know exactly what’s going on.

For example, we have no way of knowing what the types of layers are, or how the layers are related to each other, or if any warping (or other ‘special things’) are involved.

Would it be possible for you to remove everything from a copy of the document except for the two things that move/jump and then share that document if the problem with exporting still happens?

[JudithW]

24 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Thanks for the extra information.

Without knowing how the document is constructed it might be difficult for us to know exactly what’s going on.

For example, we have no way of knowing what the types of layers are, or how the layers are related to each other, or if any warping (or other ‘special things’) are involved.

Would it be possible for you to remove everything from a copy of the document except for the two things that move/jump and then share that document if the problem with exporting still happens?

With you asking to see the document, I realised that you must be wondering if I'd got anything grouped or things like that. If customers come back to me with problems, I always ask to see their Layers panel in Design Space because that's usually where the issue is 🙂 So I had a good look at my layers panel and I saw that the text that jumped was grouped - not together, but grouped as a word. I don't know if this is someting I'm doing when I convert the text to paths... I guess it must be but I wasn't aware of it. Anyway, I ungrouped those two little bits of text that jumped (the bigger "Lovely" word wasn't grouped, don't know why) and, instead, merged them. That didn't fix it on the next export without Flatten Transforms BUT a combination of that and the Flatten Transforms things DID solve it. So, I think it was my ineptitude, all along. 😬 I didn't know at all about the Flatten Transforms but I'll always use that from now on, so I'm grateful to you for telling me about that. And I'll scrutinise the Layers panel next time. I am learning... just not fast enough.

I really appreciate your time - and this isn't the first time you've helped me with an issue, so thank you very much.

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.

6 minutes ago, JudithW said:

So I had a good look at my layers panel and I saw that the text that jumped was grouped - not together, but grouped as a word. I don't know if this is someting I'm doing when I convert the text to paths... I guess it must be but I wasn't aware of it.

When you convert any text layer (Artistic or Frame Text) the software converts each glyph into its own Curve (or Curves) layer and groups them, so that’s all normal.

6 minutes ago, JudithW said:

I didn't know at all about the Flatten Transforms but I'll always use that from now on

I only knew about that option because I’d heard about using it while reading these forums and I don’t think it’s a well-known thing.