Why can't I do a Boolean Union to Join the snowflake ornament with the text?

[berainlb (PY)]

Would be nice if we could identify a simple scenario that reproduced the oddity but I’ve never been able to do this predictably. I did see in searches that paths and joining have been discussed at length and there are some known problem cases.

I usually only see this in imported objects and I think mostly with DXF. I think grouping can also come into play. I don’t think I’ve seen this in objects created within LightBurn although I don’t use LightBurn to create anything complex directly.

@LightBurn mentions a long-term plan to rewrite some of this to potentially avoid some of these scenarios that make joining hard.

Can't close a path?

It’s possible because of the way LightBurn stores paths internally to have data stored in a form that makes it hard for the existing code to join it. Break Apart followed by Join basically rebuilds the shape to follow the ‘proper rules’, which is why it works. One of our longer term plans is to rewrite the under-the-hood way we store stuff so this can’t happen, but that’s a huge undertaking that will touch a lot of existing code and break a lot of stuff.