Illustrator Double Cut Path

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MSimmers
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Illustrator Double Cut Path

Post by MSimmers »

Hi There! Seeing if anyone has encountered this issue. I have Torchmate CAD lite, and I have been using that software to design anything I want to cut. Recently I saw an article on using Adobe illustrator to live trace a black-and-white image, expand, and export to DXF. When I do this, I get two cut paths. One on the top of the line, and one on the bottom of whatever image I am trying to use. Does anyone have any ideas or solutions around this? Thank you in advance!
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Gamelord
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Re: Illustrator Double Cut Path

Post by Gamelord »

When you trace black and white, you are tracing TWO colors, One of them is black, the other one is white. Because the image is on a white background, you only see the black pieces, you don't see the white ones. What you need to do is to break the image apart, select all the white pieces and delete them. The white pieces will be the insides and borders of the black pieces. When you export, it creates a cut path around the black ones and then another around the white ones, thus giving two cut paths that appear to be just going around the same piece twice. Delete the white ones and then export ONLY the black pieces and you should be good to go.
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MSimmers
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Re: Illustrator Double Cut Path

Post by MSimmers »

Thank you Gamelord!
So I can open Photoshop, pull the black outline to a transparent layer, delete all other layers, and import into illustrator. This should be the same. Correct?
TTS
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Re: Illustrator Double Cut Path

Post by TTS »

When you do an image trace, expand the advanced tab and select Ignore white. This will make it not outline around the white as well as the black. You will still have to change the internal color of the image if you don't want to have to delete it after exporting.
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