A question about path directions

[John Childs]

Don’t think so Liam.

Path direction is not something I’ve ever worried about.

[Chris Wool]

last time i looked good ttf fonts should cut in a clockwise direction.
it comes from years ago when the software did not understand inside loops so they were digitized anticlockwise so that any outline off set could be correctly applied.

if you can reverse it it may help as far as i have noticed poor loop connections are normally the vinyl not staying dead flat on the cutting strip.

chris

[Graeme Harrold]

Path direction is something I do take a little care with, especially with long lines running with the vinyl as it can minimise the back and forth movements of the vinyl if all the lines run in alternate directions. This is something I now just do without thinking.

First started doing this when engraving, and also joined up suitable paths to minimise tool up/down movements and non-cutting tool movements. More noticeable with an engraver as I could half the time I could engrave a logo by almost planning the tool route through the graphic.

As to generic direction…..why………..For example lettering (as a font not curves) is cut in both directions due to the font, as centers are always cut the opposite direction to outlines.

[James Martin]

Recently cut a small job for a back window with a couple of the letters overlapping and hadn’t expanded so all the overlaped parts were cut as well.

As I was weeding and thinking ‘should I cut again’ I made a blunder so did have to cut again.

This time I expanded thinking it would be quicker but the the order of cut was jumping all over the place, back and forth from one end to the other.

Anyway; using illustrator, dont know if this adds any value to the thread.

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks all for your advice, this is probably something i’m going to have to play around with and see what works best for me. That makes sense about the stripes though Graeme. I had made another thread about the problem i was having with cutting and i just made this one to check if path direction was the cause.

Cheers

Liam

[Graeme Harrold]

quote James Martin:

Recently cut a small job for a back window with a couple of the letters overlapping and hadn’t expanded so all the overlaped parts were cut as well.

As I was weeding and thinking ‘should I cut again’ I made a blunder so did have to cut again.

This time I expanded thinking it would be quicker but the the order of cut was jumping all over the place, back and forth from one end to the other.

Anyway; using illustrator, dont know if this adds any value to the thread.

From a Corel perspective, if you open the "Object manager" the order of plot is from the bottom of the list to the top (back to the front). All I do to control the cut is to drag and drop bojects up and down the list. Also grouping can speed this up by grouping a number of random listed objects, then order the sub group as required.

I most cases this is just extra work, but I always flick through the list and watch where the plotter has to go. If I see it jumping between objects too much I will re-order………….