How to cut out black silhouette

[HGTM22 (Helen)]

Hello!

Just wonder if someone could please show me to do a black silhouette in Lightburn? Please see the attached. I want to cut out the outside shape but only darken the inside to make the final product look exactly like the picture. I hope this makes sense.

Thank you!

[patricr (Patrick Rose)]

If you trace the image to vectors, then you could do the following…

You could select the outer edge/line of the heart + the limb sticking out the sides and do an “Offset Shape” outward a distance you think OK.

Here is what I did with the image:

[HGTM22 (Helen)]

Hi Patrick,

Thank you for your reply!

I did what you suggested but the shape isn’t filled. What did I do wrong?

Thank you.

[patricr (Patrick Rose)]

After you select the outside line and do the offset shape, you should have 3 lines around the heart area. Maybe you offset is so very close, you can’t see it. You need to be able to select the inside heart shape and the rest of the inside to group and fill.
See this:

EDIT: I just noticed you have the outer line set to offset fill, it should be line- you want to cut the outer line, right? You also need to move the outer line layer on the bottom so it cuts after the engraving is done.

[Texaswoodcnc (CK)]

https://rumble.com/v2ww64d-lightburn-trace-image-and-cut-out.html

Just made a quick video for this. I haven’t added sound, one of these days I’ll narrate them but it shows the basics.

[HGTM22 (Helen)]

Thank you CK for the video and Patrick for the additional info!

I forgot to mention that the file is actually in SVG format, so I couldn’t do the image trace. I will convert to PNG and try again.

Have a great evening!

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

@HGTM22

that the file is actually in SVG format

If the file you have is SVG, it may already be vectors, and thus no need to trace. Post that file here for folks to review.

@HGTM22

but the shape isn’t filled.

How are you determining this? If you are expecting shapes on-screen to fill, vs the default ‘Wireframe’ rendering, you may need to adjust the setting for that.

[HGTM22 (Helen)]

Thanks Rick.

I selected Filled/Smooth but it filled out the wrong area! I don’t know how to separate the girl, dog and bench from the background. Ungroup is greyed out…

Thanks!

[everydayXERO (Xero)]

Hi Helen, looks like you’re almost there. This is definitely a grouping issue causing the wierd fill for you. If you click around on some of the lines you should notice that some are still selecting other grouped objects. (The hearts are grouped separately) For the trace i did, - I just ungrouped everything and made sure all the lines were on the same layer and grouped those. When you do the offset it will change your fill appearance, just send the offset to the cut layer and your fill will look right again.
1688084216915_HGTM22.lbrn2 (94.7 KB)

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

Please post your lbrn / lbrn2 file, so I can review. Hard to tell from the images posted exactly which lines are on which layer, or if there might be duplicates in the views shared. You are very close to what you want to produce.

[nolte1972 (Joe Nolte)]

I do not think i understand what you are looking to do, something like this?

[HGTM22 (Helen)]

I got it working and now I understand all the steps!!!

Thank you again everyone for the help!

[BitSmith (AL Burg)]

Hit PREVIEW to see what will be created. The main window doesn’t always show, as it’s for design, not output.