I have this image with art work I want to engrave on acrylic.
The issue I’m having is that the sheet music engraves behind the building artwork. I’m trying to get the image and the artwork to not engrave over each other. I thought I might have some luck using the “crop image” feature but it is grayed out. I tried ungrouping everything and then selecting the image and artwork separately but “crop image” is still grayed out.
Here is the project file. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Acrylic Version.lbrn2 (228.1 KB)
Not sure if this is what you’re asking for, but here’s how I did it. First off, you really need a better quality scan from your hymnal. Anyhow, I tried several things, none of which worked. Then I traced your image as best I could and deleted the original. I put the tracing on the blue layer set to fill. Then I selected the black layer and used the offset tool and created a .1mm offset. You can make the offset larger if you want more separation. I selected the offset, then shift click the blue layer and used the boolean assistant to cut out the black shape.
Thanks Tim. The original sheet music is a pdf that I converted to an image. I try to trace the original pdf and go from there. Thanks for figuring that out for me.
Tim, I followed your instructions with the image and it worked just as you said it would. I would give the engraving a C+ or a B. Thanks again. I noted what you said about the quality of the sheet music image and so I converted the music pdf to an SVG and now the boolean trick doesn’t work. The SVG looks great by the way. I think my original file is always going to start as a PDF. Boolean tools require exactly two shapes or two groups of shapes and I have grouped the sheet music and grouped the artwork and the boolean options are not available.The lines of the music staff show as open shapes. I tried using “Auto Join Selected Shapes” but it did not work. What would be my next move?
They have to be closed shapes for the boolean tools to work. Must be something with how the svg was created. It would be easier if I had your graphic but you could try close selected paths with tolerance. I don’t think that will work if the design is as I think it is though. If you’re seeing single lines, ungroup it then select the lines that are open and offset both (inward and outward) a small amount and delete original. that will give thickness to the lines. Another thing to keep in mind is you cannot join multiple lines. In other words no T or Y joints are allowed only single lines connected at end points.
Here’s what I ended up with. I ungrouped, select all, offset - both by .05 and deleted original then regrouped. No more open shapes. You could make the lines thicker by increasing the offset amount.
Thanks for your efforts Tim. I know you did what you could with what I gave you. I’m going to play around some more tomorrow and see if I can improve the image a bit more and try to go that route.
