I wish to cut out the letter “B”. How can I select only the inside of the letter as I only need to cut it part way? Thanks if you can put me on the right path. I am using CC.
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I assume you created text inside CC, so the text comes as a single vector and you cannot select individual parts of the letter (which is your problem)
I know of two (hackish) ways to do it:
- export your design to SVG (File => Export SVG) then just re-import it (in the Design tab, “Import External File”). This will have broken up the letters into individual selectable parts, and you can then choose to not select the inside parts of the “B” to not include them in the toolpath. The drawback is that the export function will export everything in your design, so when you import it back, you may need to delete things that were imported but that you didn’t need broken into selectable vectors.
- select the letter/text and use the Offset Path tool, using a very small diameter of say 0.001: this will happen to create a copy of the “B” that is essentially the same size (plus or minus 0.001), but is now composed of three individual parts. The tricky part is then to select the original “B” shape and delete it to clean things up, and that can turn out to be difficult because the shapes now overlap. Told you it was hackish… but it works, and may be simpler to do when you have a small part/letter where you need to do this, without having to export/import the whole design.
There may be a simpler way, and if there is @WillAdams will know.
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Solution 1 is actually pretty brilliant. If you create the text on its own design, create the SVG and then import it into your actual design, you can avoid the downside Julien is highlighting.
If you’re going to try to select the original lines in solution 2, zoom WAY in. Line selection can seem pretty funky in CC, but if you zoom in enough, it generally becomes easy to select what you want.
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I’ve read Will explain this technique…
After you have your text designed, you draw an arbitrary circle that doesn’t actually intersect/or overlap the original text and you perform a Boolean Union then delete the circle. This will allow you to select the insides of the letters; however, the “B” or other text will no longer be editable as text.
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While everyone suggested excellent solutions, there is a third option which we’ll mention for compleatness’ sake — draw the letter yourself:
Thanks for all your suggestions. Never realised there were so many ways to skin a cat. i am trying to get it right but as as newbie I am finding it quite difficult. Cheers
sorry but cant make that work ??
Thanks for your reply
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