Hi folks,

I'm hoping y'all can help a newb with perhaps a simple fix. I have the attached file I'm trying to get ready for the laser cutter (which I've used only a few times). I want the images in the rectangle frame to be cut of a piece with it, not cut away from it. For example, where Wilbur touches the inside large rectangle, the laser will cut between his legs and the rectangle, instead of coming to Wilbur and going around him (what I want); same for other pieces that touch this frame. I've tried all the union/difference/paint bucket etc. combos I know to, but may have missed "the one." And I can't seem to add nodes to the inner rectangle and manually break it then join it to the nearest node in his leg, for example. I'm stumped. (And fearing I've gone about creating this piece in a bad way.)

I hope this makes sense. Thank you all for any help you can give me!

Jill

In this case, your best bet might be:

make all elements you wish to keep the same color
export a bitmap of all
make a new document an import the bitmap
execute a trace to make one path of all the elements
delete the nodes of the outer rectangle
delete the background filled rectangle
ensure that even-odd fill is active in the fill/stroke panel
save the path of all the elements that will be cut out

Here's a simplified version of the drawing after the above, all the green elements will be cut.