First time poster who's done a lot of googling but is still lost...

Can anyone tell me how to (automagically) create a path around the outside of a drawing that is X distance from the edge of any item and where no angle is tighter than Y?

I have our logo in with many parts and many layers which I'm going to send off to the printers. Normally the logo is part of a bigger design that is usually a regular shape but this time we have having our logo printed for the wall of our new office. The logo is an odd shape so I need to add a cut path to the design for the printers to cut it out. I am at a loss on how to do this.

If somone could even just hint at the best tool to use as I'm not even sure which tool to use which isn't helping my googling. The closest I have gotten so far is copying the logo, flattening the copy and increasing the size by a percentage but then I have a lod of internal lines to delete and have to manually clean up any sharp corners.

Please tell me there is a nice tool for this?

Thank you in advance

Hi

Work on a copy of your original.

Zoom in/out so you can see all the items you want to outline.
Use mouse and drag a selection box to include all objects.

Duplicate the items,CTRL D
Perform a Path Union,CTRL +
Perform a Path Outset,CTRL )

Depending on the Path Outset setting in your preferences you might have
to repeat the last step several times.

Good Luck
RGDS
Ragnar

Welcome aboard!

And also oh my goodness.
Logos tend to have a clean, consistent look, legible in all sizes.
Having it made with layers and such?
You probably could have a better use with it in the future
if you make it on one layer, with no filter effects, no gradients, no more than 3 colours, and,
with the least grouping going on.

I would suggest to check the links provided here:
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17427#p63980


On the actual problem you may also use dynamic offsetting too instead of repeated outsetting as Ragnar described.