chrisr Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 This is my first time opening Designer so I don't know what I'm doing. I imported a mandala design that was supposedly an SVG but it had a white background when I tried importing it into Cricut Design Space. I knew that I could use the eraser tool in Affinity Designer so I imported it and started erasing away. I worked on it for several hours over a two-day period and saved the file as an SVG. Just tried importing it again into Cricut's Design Space and got a blank screen with the message that it doesn't support clipping paths. I'm at a standstill now. I searched the forum and found another person who had the same problem and I tried the suggestion of unticking the Set View box in the Export window, but that didn't help. I'm attaching a screen shot of my file if that helps any with giving me some pointers. I don't even know how to resize the image--that's how little I know about AD right now. I just knew how to erase the white background! Go easy on me. I will learn it eventually but I want to get this done. Quote
JimmyJack Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Hi @chrisr. So the SVG is raster? Is that what you want? Would you mind posting the original SVG? If it truly is raster and it's only the white you want to get rid of you don't need to spend hours erasing. In Designer you just need to change the blend ranges to look something like the image below.... You can try different ramp configurations. The important part is have the right most node at the bottom. (this is just one option among several to get this done.) If you actually want/need vectors that also should not be a labor intensive task either.... (you get to this window by clicking the little cog icon next to the padlock at the top of the Layers panel) Quote
chrisr Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 I didn't want to get rid of the white inside the shell. Wouldn't that make the inside of the shell transparent as well? I already spent the time erasing the white background, which is no big deal. My problem now is that the Cricut Design Space is telling me that it doesn't support clipping paths. I don't know what to do to work around that. Is there a way to flatten my image (not that I even know what that is; I've just heard that term before.)? The image needs to be an SVG file for the Cricut. In the end, I will be cutting this design out of vinyl to give you an idea of what I need it for. The white part inside the shell will be weeded away, leaving only the black parts. Duh, yes I do want to get rid of the white inside the shell. Quote
firstdefence Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Chrisr can you upload the file so we can take a look? JimmyJack 1 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions
JimmyJack Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Just now, firstdefence said: Chrisr can you upload the file so we can take a look? Yes please. It's sounding more and more like you need vectors instead of what you have now. Quote
firstdefence Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 This will likely be a png file by the look of the screenshot Quote iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions
chrisr Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 I'm having trouble uploading the file. It's a jpeg. 2.8MB. I'll try my file that I saved as an SVG. designer shell 3rd try.afdesign Quote
JimmyJack Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 My money is on an SVG that got rasterized somewhere along the line. chrisr seems to have a mask. A likely explanation is that he/she was using the erase tool on vectors. Quote
chrisr Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 I did click Rasterize on one step because I didn't know what else to try! But I undid that when it didn't help. I have a lot of iterations saved in my folder. Quote
firstdefence Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Do you have the original file the one that you used or imported into Affinity Designer? Quote iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions
chrisr Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 Just now, firstdefence said: Do you have the original file the one that you used or imported into Affinity Designer? I do, but it won't upload here. I get an error message. It's a JPEG file. Quote
firstdefence Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Ah, its not an SVG and yes its quite large Quote iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions
JimmyJack Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Ah the plot thickens! A jpg AND and an error . Quote
firstdefence Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 What are you trying to do with this? Quote iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions
chrisr Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 I am going to load it on my Cricut and cut it on vinyl and make a decal out of it. The hard part will be weeding all the dead space out of this! I don't know what I'm getting myself into. I have lots more of these files where this came from that I want to try if this works. Here is the page where the file came from if this helps any. https://www.dreamstime.com/search.php?srh_field=mandala shell&s_all=y&s_ph=y&s_il=y&s_video=y&s_audio=y&s_ad=n&s_sl0=y&s_sl1=y&s_sl2=y&s_sl3=y&s_sl4=y&s_sl5=y&s_orp=y&s_orl=y&s_ors=y&s_orw=y&s_clc=y&s_clm=y&s_rsf=0&s_rst=7&s_st=new&s_sm=all&s_mrg=1&s_mrc1=y&s_mrc2=y&s_mrc3=y&s_mrc4=y&s_mrc5=y&s_exc=&pg=3 Quote
firstdefence Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Try downloading the EPS file, I'll do the same and take a look. Ok you would have to pay to get the EPS file Quote iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions
chrisr Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 4 minutes ago, firstdefence said: Try downloading the EPS file, I'll do the same and take a look. Ok you would have to pay to get the EPS file I have used up my 5 downloads and cancelled my free subscription, so I can't download anymore from them. Quote
firstdefence Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 Ok, for future reference EPS, PDF AI and SVG are the ones to download, these are or can contain vector graphics, I'd start with SVG if available, then EPS, you'll probably find that EPS is the vector file offered most. JPG and PNG are raster images and not vectors so ignore those. Quote iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions
chrisr Posted February 26, 2019 Author Posted February 26, 2019 I'm going to be logging off for a while to fix dinner and I have a friend stopping by this evening. Don't want you to think I'm abandoning you. I appreciate everyone pitching in to try to solve my problem. I'll pick up again a little later tonight when you all will probably be sleeping, as you are 5 hours ahead of my in Florida, USA. 1 minute ago, firstdefence said: Ok, for future reference EPS, PDF AI and SVG are the ones to download, these are or can contain vector graphics, I'd start with SVG if available, then EPS, you'll probably find that EPS is the vector file offered most. JPG and PNG are raster images and not vectors so ignore those. Will this image be no good? UGH! I took the largest file thinking it was the best. There was no SVG choice here. Oh well. Quote
firstdefence Posted February 26, 2019 Posted February 26, 2019 The image is probably unusable for your purposes, short of tracing over it you don't have many options here. I'll run it through a tracing app I have to see if I can get something workable. I'll be going to sleep soon so I'll have to catch up tomorrow. Enjoy your meal. Quote iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions
chrisr Posted February 27, 2019 Author Posted February 27, 2019 I just wanted to let everyone know that I was able to upload the image into Cricut Design Space and I clicked on each individual space in the design to make it transparent and it worked out. It's not the best solution because it was a tedious job clicking on each of those spaces and I would love to know how to do it the right way. But I didn't want anyone to go to the trouble of working through a solution for me when I got the job done for the time being. I need to sit down one day and learn the program for sure. Here's the final graphic in Design Space, nice and clean. Thanks again for your offer of assistance. I hope this project works out after all of this. If not, I'll just print the image. I really like it. Quote
chrisr Posted February 27, 2019 Author Posted February 27, 2019 Update: I posted in the Cricut Facebook group and they suggested I upload the image in a free SVG converter (I used picsvg). It worked great and I was able to upload the image into Cricut Design Space. For a test, I took that SVG into AD and tried erasing the halo around the shell and re-saving it as an SVG. At that point Cricut Design Space rejected it saying it doesn't support clipping. Very strange. The only thing I did was erase the halo and resave it. So there must be some setting I need to change in AF on export is all. I will fiddle with it more but I'm happy with the SVG converter in the meantime. But, on the other hand, I also tried weeding a small portion of my image and oh my, what a nightmare. Image attached (ashamed at how horrible it looks!). I may have to enlarge the image twice the size to be able to weed this baby. It will take a whole lot of patience. If all else fails, I will be printing this instead of my original plan. Again, thanks everyone for your assistance. If you can think of what I need to change in my export settings, let me know. I've kept them default. Quote
ZenMasta Posted February 27, 2019 Posted February 27, 2019 Having dabbled with a cricut a couple of times back in the day (prior to them supporting eps/svg and when surecutsalot wasnt sued), I know what you're trying to do. But as firstdefence said, you need the EPS. In this case EPS can be scaled to any size you want while maintaining perfect quality. As you see, this is a complicated cut because you're cutting thin lines that might break easily once you peel it off. And also you have those circles with the dots that muck things up too. Looks like you forgot to delete the white space of the "donut" and that's why it only cut out the larger shape (unless you just haven't removed that section when you took the photo. Quote
chrisr Posted February 27, 2019 Author Posted February 27, 2019 Yeah, I probably missed a few spots! Thanks for your insight. I’ll know now to look for EPS files. Although I now now from trying to weed this that it’s way beyond my skill level. Quote
LittleZDesigns Posted September 19, 2019 Posted September 19, 2019 Chrisr! I'm super new to Affinity Designer, and I've been going through everything I can think of to make an SVG and I was curious how you got it to work on Affinity to upload it to Cricut Design. Was your original work on Affinity? Or did you import a jpeg/png and work from there? Quote
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