One More Question

[pastda3]

Can you pause a project? I'm cutting this intricate pattern and it's taking forever! I need to pick up my daugher. Help!

[wreed06]

I don't think you can pause, but why can't you let it cut while you're out?

[pastda3]

Hi again. I did let it continue to cut. I'm just not very comfortable letting some electrical things continue to run when I leave the house. It was still cutting when I got back. It took about 50 minutes to cut! I don't think I'll be cutting that pattern out again. It was a test and it just wasn't worth the time and effort. Live and learn. However; maybe I'll put a pause feature on the wish list.

[AnointedHands]

Did you have the cutting speed set at High or Maximum?

[pastda3]

I think it was high; definitely not maximum. The cuts were so intricate and it was a full page, so I wasn't sure what speed to put it on. It was a lightweight cardstock.

[wreed06]

I don't like having the speed too high when cutting light-weight papers, especially with intricate designs. I prefer medium in fact.

A trick to tell whether it'll be lengthy someone mentioned awhile back is to look at the nodes in Inkscape. Just open the SVG in Inkscape. Click on the arrow button shown below, then on the object. That will show little gray squares on the design. Those gray squares are the nodes. The more nodes you have the longer it will take to cut. People have shared how to remove nodes (I don't know how), and that can help speed the cut. I do know that you have to be careful removing too many or the design may not look right. You can't determine how long it'll take to cut this way, but you can see whether there are a lot of nodes.

[pastda3]

wreed -

I actually went through the design and removed some nodes and cleaned up a lot of areas. If you zoom in and then click on the nodes selection, you can really see how sometimes the design is somewhat jaggedy. I like to smooth out those lines. You have to be careful when removing nodes because it can change the shape entirely!

If you look up on the up on the left hand side of your screenshot, you'll see a + and - with a square right underneath that has a line through them. Those are the add and remove node buttons. I spend too much time trying to clean up a design just to give up in the end because it's just not worth the trouble. I tend to get a little obsessive.

I'm sure my settings were way off and I definitely bit off more than I can chew. I wish I can post a pic of what I was cutting, but I don't want to get into trouble. What I did was take a picture of a 12x12 lacy cardstock and imported the jpeg over to inkscape. When I say lacy, I mean LACY!!! What I need to do is learn how to make my own designs.

[wreed06]

Thanks for the info, but I'm still timid about working with nodes! Your cut sounds beautiful! Since it is obviously a copywrited design, you probably shouldn't post the file, but I think showing a picture of the result would be ok. I'm very detail oriented too, and that's not always a good thing!

[pastda3]

I looked at the FAQ's, but I still don't know how to post a pic. DUH. I uploaded to Photobucket. Can someone help with this one. Thanks.

[wreed06]

I cheat - I have a progrem (Snag It) that lets me capture a screen or object. Uploading is easy (though Jancy taught me how!). To to reply to a message same as you did before. Below the text area and below the Submit button, there's a blue bar that says Upload attachment. In that section, you can enter the file name (full path), or click on Browse to find the file. If you want to make any comments about the file, you can, I don't usually. Then click Add the file. Afterwards click on Submit to submit your message and file either in the attachment area, or back in the message area like you normally do. You can add up to 3 files in a single message - the system will give you another filename box to enter more. HTH